Big Daddy Don Garlits with His Bicycle

[Kevin B]

I posted this here from a link 9 years ago but the link is dead. Thought I would update. This is none other than Don Garlits as a boy. His biography says he made money working on bicycles. My dad was a neighbor of his then. Don is a couple years older than dad.

 

[MattiThundrrr]

That's pretty cool. They stopped making people like Don years ago. Betcha he could wheelie that thing for a quarter mile!

Here he is on a folder.

Whoops, that's a car he folded!

 

[Kevin B]

He lost part of a foot in the accident above. It led him to perfect the rear engine rail.

Somewhere I read he made the can container on the bike. I think it housed a battery. It also looks like there is a siren, dual headlights, dual reflectors (all on the handlebars), looks like a front hub shiner too. If I am not mistaken there is a front mud flap adorned with at least three reflectors.

 

[Kevin B]

Make that 3 headlights, I missed the one on the front fender.

 

[Wildcat]

I was trying to ID the bike. If he is about 14 years old in the pic, going by the amount of merit badges, then that would be around 1946. And the bike is probable 6-10 years old in that pic, so that would make it a 1938 or so bike. Going by the straight downtube, that would be about right. Roadmaster chainwheel maybe or Huffman, I'm leaning toward CWC.

Big Daddy is still with us, he's 88 years old. I looked for his birthdate and found this:
"Garlits was forced to retire from racing in 1992 – at the age of 60 – due to a detached retina in his eye. He made two brief comebacks in 1998 and again in 2003, attaining a personal best of 323 mph in 4.7 seconds (on a quarter-mile, before NHRA scaled back Top Fuel dragsters and Funny Cars to 1,000-foot lanes)."

 

[MattiThundrrr]

They claim his retina detached due to too many 300 mph parachute stops. The G force ripped it out!

 

[Rat Pilot]

Big Daddy is currently racing electric dragsters now, and to my knowledge he is still the world record holder. They are trying to achieve 200 MPH this year.

https://www.greencarreports.com/new...cer-don-garlits-sets-electric-dragster-record