1931 Doc Morton Track Racing Tandem

You should know the name William “Doc” Morton. In the early 1900s, he won many Canadian races and championships. He was part of a team pursuit squad that took bronze in the 1908 London Olympics. Later, he coached Canadian cyclists at the 1926 and 1928 Games.

Doc Morton was not only an accomplished athlete and coach, but he was a terrific wrench. One tale holds that he repaired 2,000 flat tires during a six-day race. Morton built this track racing tandem bike for the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles. Canada, however, didn’t qualify for the tandem event, so the bike didn’t make it to those Games. Today, tandem bikes aren’t seen on the velodrome in the able-body Olympics; their last appearance was in Munich in 1972. In the Paralympics, tandem bikes are for B class riders, those with visual impairments. A sighted pilot and a visually impared stoker compete in the individual pursuit or the 1,000-m time trial.

The Doc Morton tandem was raced eventually. Much later, it made its way into the collection of Mike Barry Sr., the founder of Mariposa Bicycles. The tandem’s fork, cranks and pedals are all from ccm, a company that Morton had a long association with. (Also, Barry Sr. made his first Mariposa bike in 1969 with tubing that came from the defunct race division of ccm.) The front hub, with its large flanges, is a Morton construction. Barry identified the first stem on the tandem as “Major Taylor steel,” named after the pioneering Black star of cycling, Marshall “Major” Taylor. Morton and Taylor had met at a race in Ottawa in 1902. Taylor actually won his event on Morton’s bike, which the U.S. rider had borrowed.

This tandem carries so much Canadian cycling history.— Matthewpioro