Out of the Past: Bob Perry

out of the past: Bob Perry

He was Excelsior's Pride, A Racer, Test Rider And Engineer.

J. L. BEARDSLEY

NONE OF THE old-time racing stars was more dedicated to the two-wheel sport than Bob Perry, Excelsior's young track wizard and engineer.

The early greats gambled their lives in advancing the sport they loved — and sometimes they lost — but Perry's goals were higher.

And even though the grandstand cheers were a thrill he enjoyed, he knew one day they would no longer be for him, and this far-sighted youngster wanted to be ready. So he took up engineering in order to help design the motorcycles of tomorrow.

But things didn’t break too well for young Bob after he was first bitten by the speed bug in his home of Joliet, Illinois. His first public appearance was at a local meet in 1911. He had talked the owner of a singlecylinder Armac into letting him try a few laps. By the third circuit, the crowd was going wild — and so was the owner, who called him in before impending disaster struck. Yet young Bob Perry didn’t mind; he knew from that day on that he had the skill.

The Excelsior, built in Chicago, was gaining wide popularity at that time, and eventually Perry scraped enough money together to buy a belt-drive Single.

Things happened soon after. In practice with his new machine he hugged an inside rail too close and broke his foot; he came back gamely to start in a race on July 30, 1911, at Joliet, but finished out of the money.

Pride, persistence, and the will to succeed were Perry’s assets, and they carried him to his first competition successes at Joliet less than a month later. He scored two wins, two 2nds, and a 3rd, and one of the victories was over the highly-rated “Shorty” Mathews, riding an open-port race job.

In 1912, he had acquired a new chaindrive Excelsior Single that was much faster, and this carried him to a 4th spot in a 100mile race at his home town track.

But Lady Luck dealt him a setback on June 12. While practicing at Minooka, 111., he spilled and dislocated his wrist. After recovering from this, reports say he followed the half-mile track circuit “successfully” for the remainder of the season.

Bob launched his career into high in 1913 by trading his machine in on an Excelsior Twin. But this proved a little too heavy for track work, so the Joliet dealer that he worked for convinced the company that Bob deserved a light, stripped, stock model and he got it. After a series of good races and wins on this. Perry was given a fast openport race job by Excelsior. It was a good investment, for young Bob promptly cleaned up in a sprint meet at Rockford, 111., on June 13.

A little later. Perry met two future greats of motorcycle speed. Carl Goudy and his brother Bill, and the three teamed up for a midwest tour.

A little more of Perry’s kind of luck caught up with him at Terre Haute, Ind., where he unloaded and severely cut his chin; but it was forgotten when he came up with a double win at Columbus, Ohio.

Elgin, 111., site of the big auto races, scheduled its first 250-mile motorcycle road race on July 4, 1913, and this would be Perry’s first road race, too. He looked very good when he jumped into a lead for the first eight circuits of the course, but a loosened cam put him out.

The big time was beckoning now, and Bob Perry rose to the challenge. Being accepted on the Excelsior race team was a great incentive as he entered the championship meet at Denver, Colo., in August of 1913. Here he tangled with the hot man of the Indian team, Charley “Fearless” Balke. and ran 2nd to him in a five-mile event. But then he turned on the juice in a 10-mile FAM championship with Balke hot on his heels. It took the fastest 10 miles ever seen on a flat mile track for Bob to win, and he came home with a world’s record and the 10-mile National title in his pocket.

Perry and Balke tangled again at the Hawthorne mile, in Chicago a month later, and “Little Bob” did some riding that left the fans goggled-eyed and defeated some very tough men. The 5-mile Pro Open, 61cu. in. class, was his over Indian star Johnny Seymour and Joe Wolters (Excelsior). This was followed by a 30.50-cu. in. Single win over Balke at five miles. Then, Perry and Balke traded victories in sensational 5and 10-mile sprints that had the fans storming the ticket windows for seats for the second day’s card of events.

The final day of racing saw Perry beat his rival, Balke, for the third time in the final 10-mile Pro Open event. And he took the 15-mile Open over Ray Creviston (Excelsior) for a fourth triumph.

His next start was far from roaring motors and race track excitement, but fully as important. In the fall of 1913 he enrolled in the Engineering Department of the University of Illinois. His tuition was partly supplied by President Schwinn of Excelsior, in an arrangement which guaranteed him a future with the company. Obviously his ability was highly regarded by the management.

Yet “Little Bob” was far from ending his racing career. He used his Christmas vacation to tune up a stripped but stock Model SC machine for the big 300-mile Grand Prize Race, at Savannah, Georgia. Thirtysix of the nation’s best men and machines faced the starter on December 27, 1913, with Indians the most numerous. Excelsior next, and a scattering of Thor, Flying Merkel. and Yale entries.

A Motorcycle Illustrated reporter told the story graphically when he wrote: “Game in every fiber, and 100 percent confident, this stocky ‘find’ of the Excelsior camp rode a superb race throughout and earned his laurels.”

Despite a 22-minute pit stop and a loose handlebar. Perry set a new record for the race of 62 mph. To boot, he crossed the finish line two laps ahead of the rest of the field.

One of his worst experiences was in the 100-mile national FAM championship race at the Columbus, Ohio, mile track in September, 1914, an important event in every way. He was running with the leaders but a series of tire failures plagued him and he lost the lead a number of times. Finally he had fought back into 1st place near the end of the race and entered the last lap with victory close at hand. Then came a sickening “pop” and the rear tire blew again, this time locking the rear wheel. Bob had been KO’d by Lady Luck in a heartbreaking loss.

Moving to Cleveland a week later, he salvaged the National 10-mile track title by beating Lee Taylor (Merkel) and “Shorty Mathews on a Thor.

“Little Bob” always went all-out to win; he rode a clean, hard race, and physical damage never deterred him if he was able to stay in the saddle. The huge throng at the 300-mile International Grand Prize Road Race at Venice, Calif., April 4, 1915, had a demonstration of the Perry brand of raw courage. He started with a blinding rush that lapped five riders in the first five laps, but then he threw a tire. Back in the race, trying to gain the lead, he suddenly found his brakes were slipping but kept going. This eventually caused him to misjudge a curve and brush a guard rail. As a result, the sprocket was stripped and his foot badly bruised. After repairs were made, and his foot bandaged, he crawled back on his F'xcelsior and tore out after the leaders. By I.ap 41 he had climbed all the way to the top. The crowd was in hysterics, but a battered machine and a rider with only one good foot couldn't hold off the late charges of the formidable Otto Walker and his Harley “Gray Streak,” and Perry had to settle for 4th spot.

The faith of the Excelsior management in Perry was justified as he continued to bring them reams of good publicity; like the meet at the Bakersfield, Calif., fairgrounds track, April 13, which attracted many big names. There were Otto Walker and Roy Artley (Harley-Davidson), Ray Creviston, Morty Graves and F.A. Stoddard (Indian), Perry, Carl Goudy and Red Cogburn (Excelsior), and Maurice Tice (Thor).

In the red-hot competition Creviston scored in both the 5and 10-mile events, with his 5-mile time of 4:13.8 beating Perry’s world mark.

Perry’s reaction was something long remembered in Bakersfield. He went out and literally burned up one of the fastest dirt miles in the country to capture a 10-mile feature race, setting a new record of 7:59, and then battled Morty Graves for a close decision in the 15-mile free-for-all, with the other greats trailing.

Bob was at his best on the dirt ovals, and 1915 was one of his best seasons. He scored a 100-mile win at Madison. Wis., on July 1. And on August 30, at Columbus. Ohio, with Carl Goudy as partner, he won a 200-mile team relay race. Glen Stokes and Bob Montgomery of the Excelsior camp came in 2nd.

At the Hawthorne mile in Chicago, he reeled off 64.75 miles in 60 minutes to top Morty Graves (Indian), and Fxcelsior teammates Goudy and Montgomery in a onehour race.

November 20 found him in Phoenix, Ariz., where 22.000 packed the stands. They weren’t disappointed, for Perry’s mad pace in a 100-mile grind on October 3 was so terrific that some of the boys spilled trying to catch him, and Ray Creviston’s Indian burst into flame. Perry had the 100-mile national record to add to his collection.

Bob and his Fxcelsior posted one big win each month in the summer of 1916: a 100milc victory on the Detroit mile in June; the Northwestern Championship at Portland in July; then another sweep at Denver in August; and a 100-mile event at Grand Island, Neb., in September — all against the top riders in the country.

At the outbreak of World War I Perry passed all tests as a recruit for the United States military and was occupied with more serious affairs for the following 18 months.

He did not return to the racing game until the Illinois State Fair meet at Springfield in 1918. He won the 10-mile Professional event over a stellar field, but had an accident in his next start and went to the hospital. Two days later he rolled his bike out to the starting line while still wearing a few bandages. He won the Australian Pursuit Race and was 2nd in the 2-mile Novelty event. However, he wasn't quite up to taking the 10and 25-mile Open Championship races, which Ray Wcishaar ran away with on his eight-valve Harley.

After finishing his engineering course that year, Perry retired from dirt track competition and worked at the Excelsior plant. But the first big road race following the war was the 207-mile International at Marion, Ind., in 1919. so Fxcelsior rounded up their riders and tuned up their prewar race bikes, as did all the other manufacturers.

It was evident to Fxcelsior that their machines were not in a class with the new'

Harley eight-valves when Red Parkhurst, Ralph Hepburn and Otto Walker took the race 1-2-3. Wells Bennett was the first Fxcelsior rider to finish, placing 5th; Bob Perry, after spending 14.5 minutes in the pits, captured 6th, with Joe Wolters and Floyd Clymer 7th and 8th.

Immediately after the war, Schwinn, president of the Fxcelsior company, had launched a program to build five entirely new race machines, and Bob Perry, Carl Goudy, and J.A. McNeil, formerly with the Cyclone racing team, were in charge. These would be similar to the Cyclones with overhead cams and an all ball bearing design far more potent than any machine on the I AM circuit.

The new creations were ready for testing by the end of the year. At first, the two-mile board track at Sheepshcad Bay in Brooklyn was thought the only circuit fast enough to hold these bombs. But the big speedway could not be leased, and Bob Perry’s aversion to hoard tracks influenced a choice of the Ascot Mile flat track in Los Angeles.

McNeil, Perry and Wolters started testing at Ascot late in December 1919, and when the timing and oiling problems had been solved, they were ready to do some fast laps.

Weils Bennett, Excelsior’s famous crosscountry champ, was there to help out and relates the events that occurred at Ascot on January 2, 1920. as an eye--witness.

A strip of asphalt had been laid through the center of the wide Ascot course in order for the race cars to conserve their tires, and Bennett had learned from experience to stay off this slick surface at all costs.

“When I rode this track I hugged the rail inside where the tires would grip the dirt with less danger of a broadslide.” Bennett said. “If you took a curve on the asphalt at high speed and the rear wheel skidded, the machine would spin out from under a rider no matter how good he was.”

Bob Perry should have known this; on one of his first fast test laps he hit the paved strip and went down. The entire side of his heavy shoe was ground off with a bad bruise of his ankle, but otherwise no serious damage was done to him or the machine.

“The next day, January 2, 1920, he was going to try for the fastest possible lap,” Bennett recalled. “J.A. McNeil was holding a stopwatch, while Joe Wolters and I watched, along with some reporters.

“Bob came out of the upper turn and held up his hand for ‘Go.’ He streaked down the stretch like a bullet and hit the other curve a little too far out, I thought. Leaning hard into the curve, he drifted onto the asphalt, and I saw the machine start a slide and go down rather slowly, while it completely swapped ends. Bob had fallen off and was sliding on his back, with arms straight in the air towards the outer fence. We weren’t over 100 yards away, and I was judging the distance, hoping he might stop sliding before hitting the fence. But he struck a post head-on and bounced back. I jumped on a sidecar outfit and raced down there. He had been thrown fully 10 feet back on to the track by the impact, but was still alive.

“We loaded him into the sidecar and started for a hospital. At the main gate, we transferred him to the back seat of an automobile for the rest of the trip.

“Even though he wore a steel-lined aviators crash helmet, he suffered a basal skull fracture, a broken neck, and other serious injuries. He died without regaining consciousness.”

The loss of Bob Perry was mourned by the entire motorcycle industry, and his death brought cancellation of all the Excelsior factory track racing program, with outright scrapping of $10,000 worth of equipment.

So passed the little giant, a colorful pioneer who gave his life in the search for better motorcycles for all Americans.