FLOYD CLYMER
The American mover and shaker who invented the Indian Velo
Fifty years ago, American publishing magnate Floyd Clymer passed away after suffering a heart attack while working in his office at home. He was 74 years old. Mention Clymer now and it’s likely classic bike enthusiasts will recall his name for one of two reasons: an extensive range of motorcycle workshop manuals bearing his surname, or his long-term bid to relaunch the Indian motorcycle brand which reached its zenith with the beautiful, Leopold Tartarini-styled, Velocette-powered Indian Velo.
Impressive though those achievements were, Clymer achieved so much more in his busy life. Born in Indianapolis in October 1895, his family soon moved to Colorado where Floyd Clymer didn’t exactly have a regular childhood. His father was a doctor and young Clymer learned to drive the family single-cylinder Oldsmobile car at the age of seven. He and his brother drove a Flanders Model 20 car in the 1904 Reliability Run from Denver to Spokane, then at just 11 years of age he formed the Berthoud Auto Company in an old dentist’s office and called himself ‘The Kid Agent’. Two years later he became the youngest Ford dealer in the United States!
Clymer was a motorcycle enthusiast, too. He started racing at the age of 15 and soon opened his first bike dealership, selling Indian, Excelsior and Harley-davidson machines in Denver, Colorado.
He was one of the pioneers of the Dodge City races, riding a Harley-Davidson on the two-mile dirt oval. In 1916, he was also the first-ever
winner of the famed Pikes Peak Hillclimb – the 12.42-mile course which ascends 4958 feet in 156 turns on paved and dirt roads. His performances earned him a Harley works ride. And, by the end of the decade, Clymer was publishing his own Motorcycle Topics magazine – a venture that would stand him in good stead later in life.
Clymer moved to California in the 1930s, taking over an Indian dealership from Al Crocker, who was selling up to focus on making his own bikes, including a singlecylinder speedway machine to capitalise on a upsurge of the sport in the state.
To promote his own business, Clymer used to lend Indian motorcycles to Hollywood celebrities in exchange for using pictures of them with the bikes for publicity purposes.
Always busy, Clymer established a mail-order business, re-established the Trailblazers Motorcycle Club, convinced Indian to sign his workshop guy Eddie Kretz (who later won the very first Daytona 200-mile race in 1937 – riding an Indian) and, in 1944, embarked on a publishing venture. His first book, called Floyd Clymer’s Historical Motor Scrapbook, was a collection of reprinted adverts and articles and earned great reviews, which prompted him to expand his publishing activities.
After the war, he also published Hot Rod Pictorial, by Bob and Veda Orr, chronicling the pioneering days of American hot-rod culture.
By 1965, Clymer had become the largest motoring publisher in the States, having printed more than 400 titles, including a motorcycle version of the Historical Scrapbook. He also published many books licenced from European publishers, reprints of old books, and launched many new titles, including the Indianapolis 500 Yearbook which he first published in 1946.
One of his licensed titles in 1946 was Tom Stenner’s Thrilling the Million, an acclaimed book covering the early days of speedway motorcycle racing, which Clymer
‘AT JUST 11 YEARS OF AGE HE FORMED THE BERTHOUD AUTO COMPANY IN AN OLD DENTIST’S OFFICE’
renamed Speedway Motorcycle
Racing. A quick look at the Clymer advertisements in this book reveals the extent of his portfolio with his respective ‘Popular Motor Books’,
‘Auto Racing Books’ and the ‘Motorcyclists’ Library’. In 1965, he wrote A Treasury Of Motorcycles which was partly his own memoirs but also a snapshot of motorcycling in the mid-’60s.
Clymer had bought Cycle magazine from Petersen Publishing in 1951. He liked to write a lot of the road test material himself and an anniversary issue of the magazine reflected:
‘Clymer never met a motorcycle he didn’t like’. He also published a car journal called Auto Topics.
Following the sale of Cycle in 1966 to Ziff-davis Publications, Clymer bought the rights to the Indian name in 1967, his dream being to relaunch the famous brand.
Initially, he tried to help refloat the ailing Münch Mammoth project with a view to importing it into the States and rebranding it as an Indian (see page 40). But he also had a prototype built using an Indian V-twin motor in a Münch chassis, and a 600cc Horex Imperator-engined twin with a chassis designed by Leopoldo Tartarini of Italjet fame.
Though the projects faltered, Clymer finally began to realise his dream by sourcing both Venom and Thruxton engines from Velocette and combining them with Tartarini-designed frames built by Italjet using Italian-sourced cycle parts. The result was the Indian Velo, of which approximately 120 examples were produced.
The all-welded Tartarini frame alone saved 20lb (9kg) in weight compared to a standard Velocette and the total weight saving against the Hall Green originals was an
‘FLOYD CLYMER BOUGHT THE RIGHTS TO THE INDIAN NAME IN 1967, HIS DREAM BEING TO RE-LAUNCH THE FAMOUS BRAND’
impressive 45lb (20kg). The rest of the cycle parts were top notch, too, with
Grimeca tls front brakes, Ceriani forks and 18in wheels front and rear.
There were two versions of the bike, one with a 41bhp Thruxton engine, while the other was Venom-powered
– both being 86mm x 86mm, 496cc ohv singles (9:1 compression ratio for the Thruxton and 8.6:1 for the Venom)
– with a 30mm Amal Concentric carb, four-speed ’box and wet mutiplate clutch.
Cycle Guide magazine in the States recorded an Indian Velo at just over
100mph, while power figures claim
41bhp from the Thruxton version and
37bhp from the Venom at 6200rpm.
It should have been a success, but sales were poor and London Velo dealer
Geoff Dodkin ended up buying a batch of 50 unsold bikes in early 1971, selling the Venom-engined models for £525 and Thruxton-powered examples for £550.
Clymer always wanted a flagship superbike model to further his ambitions for the marque. As a former Royal Enfield agent himself, he approached P Mitchell and Company in Birmingham – Royal Enfield’s export agents – about the possibility of buying Interceptor engines for his proposed new model. Cash-strapped Royal Enfield agreed to provide 200 engines for Clymer’s fresh project.
The plan was to ship the engines to Italy, where they would be installed in the Tartarini frames and equipped with Grimeca tls brakes, 18in Borrani rims and Marzocchi forks and shocks, before being forwarded on to Clymer in the United States.
The bikes bore the same good looks as the stylish Indian Velo, but sadly only around 15 machines had been completed when Clymer died suddenly in January 1970, bringing the Indian project to an abrupt end.