Ken Maely the Hot Shoe Man

KEN MAELY THE HOT SHOE MAN

INTERVIEW

CYCLE WORLD TALKS WITH THE INVENTOR OF THE SHOE WORTH FIVE SECONDS A LAP.

AMERICAN FLAT TRACK racing is such exciting sport that one tends to forget those lopsided gladiators are on the oval, not only to entertain, but to go fast. Behind the wire fence, underneath the floodlit layers of dust and almost visible emanations of popping and banging, there are the quiet bits and pieces of metal and rubber that make it all work. Such a bewildering assortment they are, these bits, that it is hard to determine whether they are there for a reason or only to put you on. If you attend flat track meets, you've undoubtedly been asked the inevitable question, in the sweet innocence that only a girlfriend or a kid brother can exude: "Hey, why's that man limping?"

" 'Cause he's got a metal shoe on one foot."

So you keep walking through the pits, because you're down there to soak up atmosphere, touch a bike or two, examine a stripe-suited, candy-colored rider close up, and your companion asks why the shoe, to which you answer, "Darned if I know. Why, it must all be part of the act, it couldn't be for real, maybe it's so they don't wear out their boots so fast, waddayouwannaknowforanyway?"

Your eye falls on the piercing whiteviolet of an acetylene torch, wielded in the half-darkness by an almost satanic figure dressed in a T-shirt with no sleeves. The sparks fly onto his front and his bare arms as he works on one of those funnyshoes. He jokes ribaldly with a few riders standing near, and punctuates his conversation with exaggerated winks and expansive, foxy smiles. The torch light plays dramatically in the laugh lines of his face and you know that he's got to be Beelzebub himself, or a sort of lecherous Mammon the maker-devil. It's eery. The Tshirted clown is too real for comfort and not at all part of the two-wheeled cotton candy you thought you saw in the stands. So you turn your back on Ken Maely and walk away, not knowing that you have turned your back on an understanding of flat track itself.

There were hotshoes before Ken Maely, just as there were mousetraps before the Real Thing came along. But Real Things pay off, and just like the man who invented the mousetrap, Ken Maely, at 41, is making out like a bandit. He is landed gentry now and probably makes more money per annum than you (or we) can in five. His idea of fun is to have a "few" (20 or 30) guys down to his Corona, California, ranch for a weekend of trail-racingriding in his 4,000-acre back yard, which he leases to provide grazing land for 300 head of cattle, the looking after of which gives him an excuse to "ride herd" — on his motorcycle. His guest list reads like an all-star line-up of past and present, pro and amateur riders and tuners: Schulz, Hammer, Hunter, Ludford, Bruce, Simmons, Macias, Manley, Kretz, Lee, and so on. Some are buddies from his flat track

days (in which he won a few championships, incidentally). Round and round they go, up the trails, over the "TT course" behind the barn, around the quarter-mile below the house. Fun in grand style, fitting for enthusiasts' enthusiasts.

In eight years, Maely realized an American dream. He designed and built his own sprawling ranch home. That big highway rig with 20 gears forward parked outside his workshop-garage was designed and built — all except for the engine — by Ken Maely. So he's a little nuts then, because he's done things that most people daydream about — a combination of Huck Finn and Ben Franklin.

His life in the country — like his wife, Judy, and his family — is wholesome, a sharp contrast to the wild, aggressive and slightly debauched milieu of America's most popular professional motorcycle sport. One discovers in this non-city side of Ken Maely, a shrewd man, a successful businessman with his finger in projects numbering just one short of being one too many, and an ex-racer from a racing family who was smart enough to quit before it did him in, like it did 18 of his friends, at last count. Maely is not ostentatious about his success. He didn't get rich to show off. While he does live the good life, he would prefer to remain just one of the "guys." That's why you see him at Ascot regularly and at many nationals - together with Judy, the shoe blanks, the welding set and a beat-up truck. He doesn't have to go. The real money is made through the mail. But he goes — to be there, to be close to his sport and his racing friends, to help them weld up a footpeg, repair a shoe, or even figure out what they're doing wrong in the south turn.

The real cobbler's bench is back home and now we'll find out what it is all about: CW: First of all, Ken, what is the purpose of the hotshoe?

MAELY : It helps you corner faster. Some new riders try to get along without one, but they soon change their minds if they really want to win. A shoe is like a third wheel. Everybody knows if you have a third wheel, it's easier to slide. As flattrackers have no brakes, the shoe is also a brake, used along with a slide to slow you down. You adjust the handling of a machine by the amount of weight you put on the shoe — the more weight on the shoe, the lighter the weight on the front wheel. You know how you slow down if you come into a turn too fast? You point the wheel in and turn the gas on and this puts the bike in a controlled slide, so you scrub off speed. A shoe helps make this possible. CW: But can't you do all this with just a hoot, too? Some sportsman TT riders slide well without a shoe.

MAELY: To a certain extent, you can. But the important thing about a metal shoe is that it slides over the ground without resisting where a boot sole may hang up,

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which, of course, makes you unsteady or may even throw you off the bike. On a sportsman track where the cushion is gritty and you don't have much traction, you can get away with a boot. But I wouldn't try it on a compacted surface at a professional track. Like at Ascot, the composition is hard and very tacky. A boot sole would just stop if you put any weight on it. Even on the sportsman TT tracks, guys are starting to use my shoe.

CW: For the sake of a number, then, what kind of gain are we talking about, say, on a half-mile?

MAELY : A proper shoe for the track may be worth four or five seconds a lap. CW: What do you mean by a proper shoe? MAELY: Well, you know that I make more than one type of metal shoe. Actually, I makethree basic shoes — one for half-mile, one for quarter-mile or short track, and one for the mile. The shape of the bottom is different for each one. The mile shoe is almost perfectly flat, with very little rounding off on the edges. The half-mile shoe has a rounder bottom and the quarter-mile is very rounded, on the bottom and the toe. Figure it out. A mile is very fast and there is usually a hard "groove" where the riders stay all the time. There is less weight on the foot, and you want a flatter surface, because a rounder one will dig in.

CW: So it works in reverse on shorter tracks, then?

MAELY: Right. The rider leans more in half-mile and the shoe takes more weight. In quarter-mile, he's really hanging it out and the machine is crossed-up much more. A flat shoe in these situations would be uncomfortable for the rider because of the bent ankle position, and it would catch on the track, which is usually more uneven in events like this.

CW: How does one account for changing surfaces? For example, even if you only ride half-mile, the tracks vary a great deal. MAELY: Ah! That's what keeps me in business. A lot of riders have more than just one shoe. They may buy the half-mile, mile and quarter-mile shoes and maybe even a half-mile-plus, which I've done on special order after the rider has told me what kind of surface he runs on most of the time. If the cushion on a half-mile is soft, the rider switches to a quarter-mile shoe. If it's hard and smooth, he might go to the mile shoe or the half-mile-plus, if he has it.

CW: Is there a prescribed way to use the shoe?

MAELY: Yes, and this is very important. When you corner, your toe should be pointed towards the inside of the track, not straight ahead. The bottom is designed so that the instep of your sole points in the direction of travel. Some guys ride like they're pigeon-toed or something and then they come in and tell me that the shoe doesn't work!

I wish you'd mention in your magazine

about the proper way to put on a shoe. A lot of these guys out East do it wrong. First of all, the buckle should be on the outside of the shoe, not inside where it, and the strap end, can get caught on the bike. You should start the long end on the inside and then up and around and down to the buckle on the outside. It supports the ankle this way. Tie it tight and don't forget to snug the strap end down so it doesn't wave around.

Also, the rider should check the tightness between races, especially these guys who play the racer part by walking around with their shoe on between heats. You've probably seen 'em. Clump, clump, and it's a big deal. Well, they're really asking for it, because the shoe is highly tempered and the only part of it that flexes is the strap. So out they go again for the final and they don't even think about that strap and pretty soon they're out of it because the shoe fell off.

Boy do we really get 'em sometimes! Like a guy comes up to my truck and I see he's got his frame all cheesecaked, so I know he's spent about 50 hours drilling to save three pounds. He brings me a sixpound high top desert boot and asks me — get this — asks me to make him a "lightweight" hotshoe. Isn't that rich! You can't tell 'em different, though. You have to play along until they ask you what you think.

CW : Do you go along with those superlight boxing boots some of the riders wear? MAELY : No, the sole's too thin. This may

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be all right for a trophy dash, but in a long race, the hotshoe does just what it's named for — it gets hot. The heat will go right through the sole of a boxing boot and the rider'll have to stop putting his foot down because he's burning up.

You want a thick sole to keep the heat out. I sell an approved thick sole boot that weighs one pound. The steel shoe weighs about one and one-half or two pounds, so the total weight is quite light.

CW : What happened before the Maely shoe came along?

MAELY : The riders made their own, some better and some worse. Many used car bumpers. But they wore out every few weeks. My father, who used to race for Indian way back, and I started out by trying to make a better shoe for my racing. Word got out that it was a good shoe. When I hung it up in 1951, other riders begged me to go into business making shoes. So I did.

CW: Do you get much competition? MAELY: Not really. I have a good product and it's protected by a patent. In fact, the product's almost too good. My shoe costs $25 and will last a rider for three seasons before it needs resurfacing — which costs $7.50. That's a bargain. Sometimes I wish they'd wear out faster, because you'd think my market would have dried up after 17 years. But the orders keep coming in. I think it's all these new riders; almost all my customers seem to be referrals.

CW: How did you create a shoe that lasts so long?

MAELY: I needed something that would withstand the heat and hold its temper. So I settled finally on a .060-inch high carbon steel used to make band saw blades. I shape the sole first and tack on the toe and the heel, which are produced with one die and then cut apart. The bottom is built up and shaped with hard face welding. I temper the shoe in a special sand mixture. The shoes are custom fitted before tempering. That's why I ask the rider to send his boot or at least a cardboard tracing of the sole and the height of the toe. CW: Do you find that your business is seasonal?

MAELY: Yes. Winter is manufacturing time. We stockpile the elements of the shoe. Then before summer, we start getting more and more orders and during the summer I go nuts with the flat track season and .the last minute orders, resurfacing and so on. I hardly have time to go riding. Winter's the best time. I get up, go riding every day before work. You wouldn't believe some of the trails back there! That's why I moved out here.

CW: Do you have any new projects in the offing?

MAELY : I'd like to have a flat track school down here on the ranch and have some of the shoes come down and help teach it. There isn't anything like that now and it's really needed. Nowadays, if a guy wants to go racing, he doesn't have a chance to learn the basics before he goes out to qualify. ■