Rollie Free Hall of Fame in 1998. Rollie Free Roland "Rollie" Free (November 18, 1900 – October 11, 1984) was a motorcycle racer best known for breaking the American motorcycle land speed record in 1948 on the Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah. The picture of Free, prone and wearing a bathing suit, has been described as the most famous picture in motorcycling. After an early career in motorcycle retail, Free became a regional racer of the 1920s and 30’s on Indian motorcycles. In 1923, Free tried out for his first national motorcycle race, the 100-Mile National Championships on the board track in Kansas
Triumph Speed Twin features such as the transmission and clutch were straight from the Triumph single. Originally with girder forks, the sprung saddle was the only rear suspension as the Speed Twin had a rigid frame - also from the single cylinder production line. On the night of 14 November 1940 the majority of the city-centre of Coventry was destroyed by German bombs and the Triumph factory (which was working on an order of thousands of military specification 5T's) was completely wiped out, and all of Triumph's technical records, drawings and designs were destroyed. After the war the recovery of Triumph at Meriden