Mert Lawwill




Mert Lawwill (Born September 25, 1940) is an American professional motorcycle racer, race team owner and mountain bike designer.[1] He won the 1969 AMA Grand National Championship and, was one of the top competitors on the AMA national racing circuit during 1960s and 1970s.[1] After his motorcycle racing career, Lawwill became one of the top motorcycle racing frame designers and builders.[1] Lawwill then used his experience as a motorcycle frame builder to become an innovative mountain bike designer, developing one of the first bicycle suspensions.[2] He also developed prosthetic limbs for amputees.[2] Lawwill was inducted in the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame in 1997 and the Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1998.[1][3]




Contents






  • 1 Motorcycle racing career


  • 2 Design career


  • 3 References


  • 4 External links





Motorcycle racing career


Lawwill was born in Boise, Idaho.[1] He started his racing career as an amateur racer on the local TT track in Boise and, later, scramble races (later known as motocross) across the United States Northwest.[1] In 1961, he moved to Los Angeles, California so that he could race at the Ascot Park race track which, at the time was the epicenter of dirt track racing.[2] He gained sponsorship from Dudley Perkins, a Harley-Davidson dealer in San Francisco.[1] It was during this time that Lawwill began to learn about modifying motorcycle frames for racing competitions.[2] By 1963, he had become a professional rider and in 1964 he signed a contract to compete for the Harley-Davidson factory racing team with whom he would remain for the rest of his racing career.[1]


Lawwill won his first AMA national race at the Sacramento Mile on September 19, 1965.[1] In 1969, Lawwill won the AMA Grand National Championship and, was voted AMA's Most Popular Rider of the Year.[1][4] His defense of his Grand National Championship during the 1970 season became the subject of Bruce Brown's 1971 motorcycle documentary film, On Any Sunday co-starring actor Steve McQueen and off-road racer Malcolm Smith.[5] He continued to compete for the AMA Grand National Championship until 1977 when, he retired at the age of 37 due to an inner-ear disorder that affected his balance.[1][6] He accumulated 161 career AMA Grand National finishes and won 15 Grand National races during his 15-year racing career.[1]



Design career


In the late 1970s, Lawwill became involved in designing bicycle frames for the burgeoning sport of mountain biking.[2] He was one of the early pioneers in the off-road bicycling world, having introduced the first production mountain bike.[3] He also developed the first commercially produced four-bar linkage suspension for mountain bikes and patented the design.[7] During this period, he continued his involvement in motorcycle racing as a race team owner in the AMA Grand National Championship until 1990 when, he grew frustrated with the way the AMA ran the championship.[2] He then ran the Yeti Cycles racing team competing in downhill mountain bike racing and, developed the successful Lawwill DH-9 full-suspension downhill bike.[2][8] Lawwill's custom racing bicycles became highly prized by top racers around the world and his designs won numerous national and world titles.[1][3][8]


Lawwill is currently involved in constructing and marketing street-legal versions of the Harley-Davidson XR-750 bike that he raced in the Grand National Championship.[2][9] He also runs a non-profit company supplying prosthetic hands so that amputees can ride bicycles or motorcycles.[2] Approximately a third of all the prosthetic hands that he manufactures go to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, for use by military veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.[2]



References





  1. ^ abcdefghijklm "Mert Lawwill at the AMA Hall of Fame". motorcyclemuseum.org. Retrieved 2 January 2016..mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"""""""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Lock-green.svg/9px-Lock-green.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration{color:#555}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration span{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg/12px-Wikisource-logo.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output code.cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#33aa33;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-right{padding-right:0.2em}


  2. ^ abcdefghij "Backmarker: Mert Lawwill". motorcycle-usa.com. Retrieved 2 January 2016.


  3. ^ abc "Mert Lawwill". mmbhof.org. Retrieved 2 January 2016.


  4. ^ "AMA Grand National Champions Past And Present". Google Books. Retrieved 2 January 2016.


  5. ^ "On Any Sunday: A Picture surreal, Larger And More Detailed Than Life". Google Books. Retrieved 2 January 2016.


  6. ^ "Mert Lawwill. Old? Maybe. Fast? Definitely". Google Books. Retrieved 2 January 2016.


  7. ^ Hadland, Tony (2014). Bicycle Design: An Illustrated History. Books.Google.com. Retrieved 2 January 2016.


  8. ^ ab Heller, Peter (2002). Outside Magazine's Urban Adventure, Denver/Boulder. Books.Google.com. Retrieved 2 January 2016.


  9. ^ Girdler, Allan (2005). Sunday Rider. Cycle World. Books.Google.com. Retrieved 2 January 2016.




External links



  • Mert Lawwill's official Web site

  • Mert Lawwill at the AMA Hall of Fame

  • Mert Lawwill at the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame

  • Mert Lawwill's prosthetic system









-

Popular posts from this blog

Lambaréné

Image
Place in Moyen-Ogooué, Gabon Lambaréné Street in Lambaréné Lambaréné Location in Gabon Coordinates: 0°41′18″S 10°13′55″E  /  0.68833°S 10.23194°E  / -0.68833; 10.23194 Coordinates: 0°41′18″S 10°13′55″E  /  0.68833°S 10.23194°E  / -0.68833; 10.23194 Country   Gabon Province Moyen-Ogooué Population (2013 census)  • Total 38,775 Lambaréné is a town and the capital of Moyen-Ogooué in Gabon. With a population of 38,775 as of 2013, it is located 75 kilometres south of the equator. Lambaréné is based in the Central African Rainforest at the river Ogooué. This river divides the city into 3 districts: Rive Gauche, Ile Lambaréné and Rive Droite. The Albert Schweitzer Hospital and the districts Adouma and Abongo are located on Rive Droite. The districts Atongowanga, Sahoty, Dakar, Grand Village, Château, Lalala and Bordamur build the Ile Lambaréné. The majority of the people in Lambaréné live in the district Isaac located on Rive Gauche. This distr
Read more

維納斯堡 (華盛頓州)

Image
body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output table.infobox caption{text-align:center} 維納斯堡 Venersborg （英文） CDP Venersborg, Washington 維納斯堡位置圖 坐标： 45°46′58″N 122°27′43″W  /  45.7828°N 122.462°W  / 45.7828; -122.462 國家   美國 州 華盛頓州 郡 克拉克县 面积  •  总计 27.8 平方公里（10.7 平方英里）  • 陸地 27.8 平方公里（10.7 平方英里）  • 水域 0.0 平方公里（0.0 平方英里） 海拔 155 米（509 英尺） 人口 （2000年）  • 總計 3,274  • 密度 118.0/平方公里（305.6/平方英里） 时区 PST （UTC-8）  • 夏时制 PDT（UTC-7） FIPS碼 53-74585 [1] GNIS編號 1527695 [2] 維納斯堡 （ 英语： Venersborg ）是美国华盛顿州克拉克县的一個普查规定居民点（CDP），2000年美國人口普查時人口為2,085人。 最初為瑞典人聚居地。 參見 維納什堡 参考資料 ^ American FactFinder. United States Census Bureau. [ 2008-01-31 ] .   ^ US Board on Geographic Names. United States Geological Survey. 2007-10-25 [ 2008-01-31 ] .   查 论 编 克拉克县 行政區劃 郡治 ： 溫哥華 市 巴特爾格朗德 | 卡默斯 | 拉申特 | 里奇菲尔德 | 溫哥華 | 瓦休戈 | 林地市‡ 鎮 亞科爾特 CDP 安波伊 | 巴伯頓 | 布拉什普雷里 | 櫻桃樹叢區 |
Read more

Mononymous person

Image
Plato, the Greek philosopher, is universally known by a single name. A mononymous person is an individual who is known and addressed by a single name, or mononym. [a] [b] In some cases, that name has been selected by the individual, who may have originally been given a polynym ("multiple name"). In other cases, it has been determined by the custom of the country [c] or by some interested segment. In the case of historical figures, it may be the only one of the individual's names that has survived and is still known today. Contents 1 Antiquity 2 Medieval uses 2.1 Europe 2.2 The Americas 3 Post-medieval uses 3.1 France 3.2 Other Europe 3.3 North America 4 Royalty 5 Modern times 5.1 Mononym-normal 5.2 Asia 5.3 The West 6 Gallery 7 See also 8 Notes 9 References 10 Bibliography 11 External links Antiquity Narmer The structure of persons' names has varied across ti
Read more