Crash Dancing (source unknown)

Via:

Them bones. Via:

Some Observations on Roman Chariot-Racing. A fascinating study by Peter Donnelly

Quite, quite fantastic: Umbrella Jousting. Via: The Chap

Via: British Comic Art

Sidecar Polo. Via: Defunct Speedways

Via: Futuro Finale 2088

Via:

The sport of the century: Motoball. Via: Monet-Goyon.net

Via: Corbis

Motorcycle Polo circa 1919. Via: RV Bob's photostream

Patent Pending: Motorcycle Sidecar For Polo Playing.

US Patent_T223. Via: Patent Place USA

flickr: Motorcycle Polo c. 1919.

Via: RV Bob's photostream

The Camden Motorcycle Sporting Club.

Via: motorcycles in camden

"Motorcycles arrived in Camden, New Jersey about the same time automobiles did, and were quite popular. By 1919 there were dealerships in the city. In the 1910s William Heckenhorn operated a Harley-Davidson dealership at 1246 Haddon Avenue. One of his employees was Frank DeViney, who in 1923 opened a Harley dealership of his own, the successor to William Heckenhorn's operation. DeViney located his shop at 1124-1126 Kaighn Avenue, where he had a sales, parts, and service operation. He sold motorcycles to the general public and to local police departments.


One of DeViney's first acts upon opening his business was to found the Camden Motorcycle Sporting Club, which engaged in touring, racing, and hill-climbing events throughout South Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania. The club also fielded a team in the Eastern Motorpolo League, which competed in the sport of motorcycle polo, also known as motoball.

Considering the helmet technology of the late 1920s and early 1930s could not have been all that hot, it seems amazing that such a sport would be able to retain healthy riders, let alone become popular or attract a fan base, but it apparently did for a few years. Besides the Camden club, the league featured teams from Millville, Atlantic City, Trenton, Metuchen, Jamesburg, Philadelphia and Reading PA. There was another Camden team also, known as the Red Hearts.


Besides DeViney, the Camden Motorcycle Sporting Club's team included Bill Gommel, Walter Norris, William Raube, Bruce Saunders, Lou Ellis, Charley Ellis, Clayton Albertson, Freddy Gagliardi, Walt Norris, C. Wentzel, Freddie Gomba, and men only known by their last names: Altesleben, Falone, Lombardo, Garriardi, Sherttuck, Oilinger, L. Lewis, and Ostrow.

While motorcycle polo basically died out in these parts, the sport has remained popular in Europe, and is played to this day."

A Motoball player in action

What is Motoball? Motoball is, like the name says, playing football [soccer] on motorcycles. The bikes can have maximum 250cc and they need some assimilation like being closer to the ground etc. The ball is 45 cm across. The rules are fundamentally the same like in a soccer game. A team exists of 4 players on motorcycles and one pedestrian [dismounted] goalkeeper. This sport is quite popular in the East European countries like Belarus, Russia etc. Every summer we have a European Championship. The countries who take place are Germany, Holland, France, Belarus, Ukraine, Russia and Lithuania.

The motorcycle in cinema-Rollerball.

(You-tube link)

Wiki:

"In the film, the world of 2018 is a global corporate state, containing entities such as the Energy Corporation, a global energy monopoly based in Houston which deals with nominally-peer corporations controlling access to all Transport, Luxury, Housing and Food on a global basis.
The film's title is the name of a violent, internationally popular sport around which the events of the film take place. It is similar to Roller Derby in that two teams clad in body armor skate on roller skates around a banked, circular track. There, however, the similarity ends. The object of the game is to score points by the offensive team (the team in possession of the ball) throwing a softball-sized steel ball into the goal, which is a cone-shaped area inset into the wall of the arena. The team without possession of the ball is defensive and acts to prevent scoring. It is a full-contact sport in which players have considerable leeway to attack opposing players in order to take or maintain possession of the ball and to score points; in fact, in this overpopulated future, the object of the game in the original short story is to kill off the players. In addition, each team has three players who ride motorcycles to which teammates can latch on and be towed. The player in possession of the ball must hold it in plain view at all times.
Rollerball teams, named after the cities in which they are based, are owned by the various global corporations. Energy Corporation sponsors the Houston team. The game is a substitute for all current team sports and for war. While its ostensible purpose is entertainment, Mr. Bartholomew describes it as a sport designed to show the futility of individual effort."

Rollerball was re-made in 2001 and directed by John McTiernan and has a much greater concentration on action and more muted social and political overtones. Unlike the first film, it takes place in the present rather than a seemingly dystopian future.

The film sees World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) personality Paul Heyman starring as an announcer while Shane McMahon, son of WWE owner Vince McMahon, can be seen in one scene. Popular singer P!nk can be seen throughout the film on large video screens, as a singer playbacking to several songs. There is also a concert scene in which the Metal band Slipknot plays the song "I Am Hated" from their album Iowa.

Upon its release, the film met with harsh critical disdain and poor box-office returns. As a guest on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, LL Cool J admitted that the film "sucked,"