Rollie Free working on the Vincent Black Shadow at Bonneville in 1948 ‘Flat Out!’ is stuffed with fascinating photos from a well-documented life. He was the perfect nut-job, just the sort of guy who would strip down to his swimming trunks to squeeze an extra mile per hour on his speed attempt, regardless of the highly abrasive salt bed just below his wheels. Rollie Free engendered loyalty among his friends, and an incredulous admiration from his enemies. Rollie Free had several unique qualities a fiercely competitive nature (considered ‘borderline insane’), a burning desire for vengeance against Harley-Davidson (which reneged on a promise of factory support), and his dogged persistence, especially in the years he spent developing his engine tuning skills. Jerry Hatfield delves into the heart of Rollie Free in his biography ‘Flat Out! The Rollie Free Story’, filling in the history and character of Free, and the buildup of life events that led to that black streak on the Bonneville salt. That’s the poetry of the epic ‘bathing suit’ photo, but there was a man aboard that Vincent, who had a very long relationship with motorcycles, speed, and even that fully prone riding position.

He claimed stripping to his trunks gave him 2.3mph, enough to reach the magic 150. The infamous ‘bathing suit’ photo of Rollie Free doing 150mph on a Vincent Black Shadow in 1948. Today, it’s the ‘suits’ who control the game the lawyers, insurance adjusters, and bureaucrats, who seek to deny the darkness in our hearts, the crazy erotism of speed, and the invigorating vitality of a little chaos now and then. It was also not long after WW2, when hundreds of thousands died horribly the antics of a veteran speedman giving 110% to reach his goal probably seemed sensible, when the notion of personal sacrifice in the name of a cause still hung in the air. It was a time when a man might struggle with the forces of Nature and Time utterly naked, and achieve eternal glory. The situation pictured is outrageous, incredibly dangerous, and impossible to repeat today. It might be the most famous motorcycle photograph ever Rollie Free stretched out over his factory-tuned Vincent Black Shadow at on the Bonneville Salt Flats, clad only in a bathing suit and tennis shoes, squeezing an extra 1mph out of his machine to record 150mph.

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