First RTW Motorcycle Adventurer

[Sun Chaser]

During the last leg (crossing North America) of the first motorcyclist’s attempt to circle the globe in 1913, the young adventurer (22 year-old Carl Stearns Clancy) was challenged to a hill climb contest by a local motorcycle dealer in Sacramento with a “well-known twin,” likely an Indian or Harley-Davidson motorcycle. Risky as it was to stop on an already dangerous ride around the world in the last days, the challenge was accepted. (Photo 1 below of Clancy and one gear, four cylinder Henderson on the road around the globe)


In the book MOTORCYCLE ADVENTURER https://amzn.to/46Zi43g all that was noted about the location of the hill was it being located “two miles beyond the city,” and “the pet test hill of the town.” It was described as being “35 per cent grade” with no running start allowed. The 934 cc, 7-horsepower Henderson topped the hill after the competitor failed twice on his “well known twin.”


In 2013 during The Clancy Centenary Ride I made a feeble attempt to climb a small hill in Sacramento, noting that most of the area around Sacramento was as flat as a pool table. Fellow rider Livermore was, as usual, most fearful of making any off-pavement ventures on his Honda twin, while fellow BMW riders were being careful with their loaner press bikes (also “twin” cylinder models), so they remained parked on the pavement. While I failed in my attempt, I was left with a hole in my research as to where and what hill Clancy had topped in 1913. (Photo 3 below - my failed attempt


Mike Blanchard of Sacramento and well known archivist has been researching the location of the hill and wrote:
“I have been looking for likely spots for the "test hill." Clancy writes it is on a railroad crossing about two miles out of town. I checked out some likely spots. I am absolutely sure he stopped in at William Langley's shop on 10th street as he was the Henderson Excelsior dealer and a very active motorcyclist in the community always up to something…. I think the most likely existing spot is the crossing of the tracks at 28th and B St. in East Sacramento. It is a very steep hill next to the old State Militia armory. It would be about two miles from downtown where Langley's shop was. It could also be across the river in Yolo County where the track runs west to Oakland though flood plain and is raised up but I like the 28th St crossing better.”

Blanchard reviewed MOTORCYCLE ADVENTURER here:
https://www.rustmag.com/new-blog-1/m...orld-1912-1913

He closed his review with:
“MOTORCYCLE ADVENTURER” is a fun read and an interesting, instructive and useful book. For the modern person, there are lessons to be learned: be open to the world, be persistent but prudent, ingenuity will get you way down the road, and don’t let your fears hold you back from seeing what is at the end of a road. This is a treasure that any motorcyclist would be happy to have in his or her library.”

While the book MOTORCYCLE ADVENTURER is a done deal (published 2010), research continues on the first motorcycle ride around the world. Our small global research team has been looking for the 1912 Henderson left in France when Walter Story abandoned Clancy and his Henderson was given or sold to the new Henderson dealership Clancy signed up in Paris. We are also sniffing around the United States to possibly find Clancy’s ‘RTW Henderson that may have been returned to the Henderson Company in 1913.

As Blanchard wrote in October of 2018, “Wouldn't it be a dream to find Storey's Henderson in an old garage in Paris? They are still out there."


Dr. Gregory W. Frazier
Chief of the World Adventure Affairs Desk, CITY BIKE
Sole Sensual Survivor: www.greataroundtheworldmotorcycleadventurerally.co m

[Sun Chaser]

In the closing paragraph of the book MOTORCYCLE ADVENTURER, Carl Stearns Clancy said in 1913:

"I do not know that I will ever make another 'round-the-world trip, but if I do it may be depended upon that I will travel by motorcycle and that my mount will be as nearly a duplicate of the Henderson I now have as possible. I do not see how any machine could have behaved more satisfactorily under the widely varying conditions to which it was subjected."


Dr. Gregory W. Frazier
Chief of the World Adventure Affairs Desk, CITY BIKE
Sole Sensual Survivor of: www.greataroundtheworldmotorcycleadventurerally.co m

[Sun Chaser]

[Posted October, 2023]

In October, 1912 Clancy left America on his ‘RTW motorcycle adventure – October, 2023 marks 111 years later. He wrote in 1912, before he started his ‘RTW motorcycle adventure:

“As we must pay part of our expenses by writing articles for American and foreign magazines and newspapers enroute, and by publishing a complete book upon return, we plan to lend a novel interest to the tour by taking along a complete camp equipment and by camping out whenever possible instead of following the example of everyone else and visiting hotels. To gain official recognition and co-operation for our efforts, besides also increasing our income, we have identified ourselves actively and permanently with the world wide good roads movement and the promotion of both international and interstate touring by charting the pioneer motor highway around the globe. We will encourage long distance touring at every opportunity.” [Page 10, MOTORCYCLE ADVENTURER publication – The Bicycling World and Motorcycle Review]

The “we” became “I” after Clancy parted ways with his planned riding pal. He did manage to type and handwrite a first draft manuscript for a book upon his return, which languished unpublished until 2013, 100 years after he completed his ‘RTW ride. Titled THE GASOLINE TRAMP, https://bit.ly/45RE7aY , the content provides the reader with a historical and academic look at the adventures of a twenty-one/two year-old boy/man adventure seeking motorcyclist who wrote after his ‘RTW record setting motorcycle ride:
“I had started a boy, I had come back a man. Incidentally, I had left New York with $270, worked my way around the world, and returned with $200.”* [Page 210, THE GASOLINE TRAMP]

*Footnote October, 2023: The $270 USD in 1912 equals $8,567 USD in 2023 given inflation, and the $200 USD he had upon his return in 1913 equals $6,218 USD in 2023.

Below is the new cover for THE GASOLINE TRAMP, designed by Paul H Smith (who also did a complete re-work of the layout/design), and a book-look at MOTORCYCLE ADVENTURER and THE GASOLINE TRAMP by Jack Robinson, founder of the Four Stroke Singles National Owners Club, published in April 2022.