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Hillclimbs are about as spectacular as motorcycle racing gets. Held on a steep, sealed track with countless hairpins, or straight up the side of a snotty steep hillside, hillclimb racing has attracted large and whooping crowds for well over a century.

In America during the 1910s and 1920s, it wasn’t uncommon for these events to attract tens of thousands of delighted spectators, all drunk on the delights of witnessing the savage cocktail of brute engine power, unforgivably steep angles and the acrobatics required to keep the whole thing in check as riders keep the throttle pinned in a bid to get to the top the quickest.

In 1900, entrepreneurs George Hendee and Carl Oscar Hedstrom decided to build a motorised bicycle and introduce it to the world by launching it up the side of a steep hill that was, until that point, impossible to conquer with a motorised vehicle. The pair campaigned well ahead of the stunt, making sure plenty of press were present and in 1901, with the brand name ‘Indian’ emblazoned proudly