MovieChat Forums > Silver Dream Racer (1983) Discussion > Do you guys know the Real history behind...

Do you guys know the Real history behind the Bike !

posted 16 years ago by ralphthe3rd
4 replies | jump to latest

FYI- the "Barton" bike, although designed and (first) built in England, was a dismal failure on the GP circuit as the engine kept blowing up and it handled very poorly. Back in america in 1983, an enterprising young Motorcycle Racer and engineer for Harley Davidson- named Erik Buell, bought the rights, parts, and all the related equipment associated with production, and brought the whole deal to america. Erik then rebuilt and redesigned the bike top to bottom to make it reliable and FAST ! The Bike model was Renamed the RW750, the RW standing for Road Warrior as Erik Buell was a huge Mad Max fan, and Erik was going to race and sell these RW750's in america. But unfortunately as fate would have it, the 750cc Formula 1 class was dissolved just after Erik was putting the bike into production, and only TWO of the RW750's were ever produced. But the good news was, 1983 was the year that Erik founded the "Buell Motorcycle Co." and the rest as they say is history ! This year (2008), marks the 25th anniversary of Buell motorcycles.

~Ralph

"You mean my 15 minutes are over- Already!?"

[–] jnarimbaud 15 years ago

The bike wasn't tried on the GP circuit, the funding couldn't be raised.

[–] shannyh 14 years ago

I know the History behind the particular bike within the film.
My Dad made the bike...he was involved in making motorbikes for the races he had his own factory in North Wales called Sparton Motors and renamed it calling it Barton Motors.
Apparently British motorcycles at the time were not well made and they did attempt to create a good motorbike but the Japanese were way ahead in the game.
His bike was called the Sparton 350 but the Japanese were producing bikes like the Suzuki and Yamaha which was obviously stiff competition....it was hard getting skilled staff in and getting the financial backing...so he eventually gave up and now he owns a company renovating porsches.
After the film The Silver Dream Racer.
The bike that you see in the film was in our back room for a number of years..eventually the bike was sold else where..can't say for personal reasons.

[–] michaeldecker 14 years ago

Wow that's amazing - was it a British 350cc engine, or is the '350' just the model name?

Would be great to hear more about the background to his involvement in the film, and what happened afterwards - unfortunately there's an American company also called Spartan Motors, so it's difficult to google anything that might be on the web about your father's business.

[–] shannyh 13 years ago

I am not sure, I will ask him about wether it was the engine or just the name of the model.
I have a newspaper cutting that he sent to me if you are interested.
if you want to give me your email I can send it to you.

S. Hart