The motorcycle land-speed record is the fastest speed achieved by a motorcycle on land. It is standardized as the speed over a course of fixed length, averaged over two runs in opposite directions. AMA National Land Speed Records requires two passes the same calendar day in opposite directions over a timed mile/kilometre while FIM Land Speed World Records require two passes in opposite directions to be over a timed mile/kilometre completed within two hours. These are special or modified motorcycles, distinct from the fastest production motorcycles. The first official FIM record was set in 1920, when Gene Walker rode an Indian on Daytona Beach at . Since late 2010, the Ack Attack team has held the motorcycle land speed record at .

History

The first generally recognized motorcycle speed records were set unofficially by Glenn Curtiss, using engines of his own manufacture, first in 1903, when he achieved at Yonkers, New York using a V-twin, and then on January 24, 1907, on Ormond Beach, Florida, when he achieved using a V8 housed in a spindly tube chassis with direct shaft drive to the rear wheel. p. 253 An attempted return run was foiled when his drive shaft came loose at speed, yet he was able to wrestle the machine to a stop without injury. The Curtiss V-8 motorcycle is currently in the Transportation collection of the Smithsonian Institution; a replica was presented in 2025.

Curtiss's 1907 record was for a few years the fastest speed any person had ever travelled under power: the rail record stood at , achieved in Germany when in 1903 electric powered Experimental three-phase railcars of AEG and Siemens competed. First motor car records had been set in the 1890s by battery electric cars, then bettered by ICE-powered automobiles to 109 mph in 1905, beating steam locomotives. At the time, Europeans used roads in France or beaches in Belgium that soon were too short. The opening of the Brooklands banked oval did not help much regarding overall speed records, as the Blitzen Benz cars were limited by the track in 1909. On long beaches in Florida, a steam car made to win the record did so in 1906, at , but both the steamer and Curtiss were beaten when the Benz cars arrived there in 1911.

In the air, airships were to big to be fast, and airplanes barely did fly in public before 1906. The Wright Brothers claimed to have achieved in 1905, and resumed flying only in 1908, after air speed records officially recognized by FAI had been set in France. Airplanes gained speed in the early 1910, catching up to land vehicles, then the war broke out. Afterwards, airplanes always were faster, aided by lower drag in altitude, and some vehicles used aircraft powerplants.

The first officially sanctioned Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM) record was set in 1920, when Gene Walker rode an Indian on Daytona Beach at . Curtiss in 1907 had used a large 4-liter V8 aircraft engine not practical for riding on public roads, and it failed on the return run. The first FIM-sanctioned record to exceed his speed did not occur until 1930, at Arpajon in France, when an OEC special with a 1,000cc supercharged JAP V-twin engine averaged over the required two-way runs. The 1930s saw an international battle between the BMWs ridden by Ernst Henne and various JAP-powered British motorcycles, with the penultimate pre-World War II record being taken in 1937 by Italy's Gilera, shortly before BMW set a final pre-war record of that stood for 14 years.

After World War II, the German NSU factory battled Britain's Vincent HRD and Triumph for top speed honors during the 1950s. The Germans, both customers and manufacturers, soon moved over to the automobile market, and British-engined machines dominated the 1960s records. New Zealand's Burt Munro (of the film The World's Fastest Indian), set a speed record at Bonneville in 1967 of for a motorcycle with an engine under 1000cc.

A Japanese-engined streamliner motorcycle first took the record in 1970, and alternated with Harley-Davidson-engined machines as record-holders until 1990, when Dave Campos's streamliner powered by twin Harley-Davidson engines averaged . That record stood for 16 years before being surpassed in 2006 by the Ack Attack team's twin Suzuki engined machine at an average of . The BUB team, using a custom-built V4 engine, then alternated as record holders with Ack Attack over the next four years. As of April 2026, the Ack Attack team has held the motorcycle land speed record at since late 2010.

Jet-engine trike The fastest record certified by the FIM is that set in 1964 by the jet-propelled tricycle, Spirit of America. It set three absolute land speed records, the last at . While such records are usually validated by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, the FIA only certifies vehicles with at least four wheels, while the FIM certifies two- and three-wheelers. Breedlove never intended Spirit of America to be classified as a motorcycle, despite its tricycle layout, and only approached the FIM after being rejected for record status by the FIA. Spirit of Americas FIM-ratified record prompted the FIA to add the new category of thrust-powered vehicles to its world record listings. Furthermore, most people think of the tricycle Spirit of America, now part of the permanent collection of Chicago's Griffin Museum of Science and Industry, as a car and not a motorcycle."LandSpeed" Louise Ann Noeth, Bonneville Salt Flats, MBI Publishing

List of AMA National and FIM World Land Speed records Link to Bonneville Motorcycle Speed Trials AMA National and FIM World Records

List of "absolute" and Streamliner records DateLocationRiderMakeEngine displacement cc (cu in)SpeedCommentsmphkm/h 1903 Yonkers, New York, USGlenn CurtissCurtiss V-264103 over the mile, first (unofficial) World Speed Record, Hercules V-twin p. 31-321905Blackpool, UK - Average Speed over 1,000m on 27 July 1905.Henri CissacPeugeot 1,489cc V twin1,489cc87140Blackpool Speed Trials24 January 1907Ormond Beach, Florida, USGlenn CurtissCurtiss V-8136.27219.31Unofficial record stood over 20 years p. 41 p. 11614 April 1920Daytona Beach, Florida, USGene WalkerIndian103.56166.66, p.27. p. 2386 November 1923Brooklands, UKClaude TempleAnzani 108.48174.588 June 1924Arpajon, France Tommy TurnerAJS Special-AJ Stevens110.66178.086 July 1924Arpajon, France Bert le VackBrough Superior-JAP]118.99191.505 September 1926 Arpajon, France Claude F. Temple OEC-Temple121.44195.4425 August 1928 Arpajon, France Owen M. BaldwinZenith-JAP124.27199.9925 August 1929 Arpajon, France Bert Le Vack Brough-Superior 129.00207.619 September 1929Ingolstadt, Germany Ernst Jakob HenneBMW WR 750134.67216.75 The first successful use of a supercharger for a World Record.31 August 1930Arpajon, France Joseph S. Wright OEC-Temple JAP137.23220.99 First official record to exceed Curtiss' pioneering effort.21 September 1930Ingolstadt, Germany Ernst Jakob HenneBMW WR 750137.74221.676 November 1930Cork, Ireland Joseph S. Wright Zenith JAP 150.74 242.592 November 1932Tát, Hungary Ernst Jakob Henne BMW p. 16 p. 238 lists this as 735 cc, not 736 cc.151.86 244.4030 October 1934Gyon, HungaryErnst Jakob Henne BMW 153.00 246.2327 September 1935A3 autobahn (Frankfurt-München route), Germany Ernst Jakob Henne BMW 159.10 256.04 p. 188. "Then in 1936, BMW technicians decided to decrease the engine's displacement from 736 to 493. This might have seemed a backwards move, but there was a sound basis for this technical change. [...] The engine was a 493 cc double-overhead-cam with a bore and stroke of 66 x 72 mm, a Zoller supercharger mounted on the front of the crankshaft [...] This supercharging technology had been under development since 1929, when a production R63 model had been fitted with a positive displacement blower..."Tragatsch, caption p. 304, credits this run as 256.06 with a supercharged 746 cc, while contradicting this on the same page in a table listing the displacement for the '32-'35 BMWs as 735 cc, and as 495 cc in 1936, rather than 493 cc. First record over 12 October 1936 A3, Germany Ernst Jakob HenneBMW Type 255Setright (1979) p. 238 has this as 495 cc.169.08 272.1119 April 1937 Gyon, HungaryEric Fernihough Brough Superior-JAP 169.72 273.14 JAP supercharged p. 304Fernihough was killed in a 1938 attempt21 October 1937Autostrada A4 (Italy) (Brescia-Bergamo route) Piero TaruffiGilera170.37 274.18 Supercharged four-cylinder. Taruffi famous as Grand Prix driver.28 November 1937 A3, Germany Ernst Jakob Henne BMW 173.68 279.50 Last pre-World War II record1951A9 autobahn (Ingolstadt-München route), Germany Wilhelm HerzNSU Delphin I streamliner 180.29 290.322 First post-World War II record1955Swannanoa, New Zealand Russell Wright Vincent-HRD184.83 297.64025 September 1955Bonneville, US John AllenTriumph192.719 310.151 Unratified by FIM, p.40.2 August 1956 Bonneville, US Wilhelm Herz NSU Delphin III streamliner 189.5 304.974 August 1956 Bonneville, US Wilhelm Herz NSU Delphin III streamliner 210.64 338.992First record over 200 mph (320 km/h)6 September 1956 Bonneville, US Johnny Allen Triumph Tiger T110214.4 345.188 Unratified by FIM, p.305.5 September 1962 Bonneville, US William A. Johnson Triumph 224.57 361.411966 Bonneville, US Robert Leppan Triumph Special Gyronaut X-1 streamliner245.667 395.36 Triumph Special twin-engined1970 Bonneville, US Don VescoYamaha "Big Red" streamliner 251.66 405.25 Two-stroke twin-enginedClayton, Graham, The Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum. p. 46. Motorcycle Mojo Magazine First record over 1970 Bonneville, US Cal RaybornHarley-Davidson streamliner 265.492 410.37 single nitro-fueled Sportster engine nicknamed 'Godzilla' built by Warner Riley.28 September 1975 Bonneville, US Don Vesco Yamaha "Silver Bird" streamliner 302.92 487.515 First record over 28 August 1978 Bonneville, US Don Vesco Lightning Bolt streamliner318.598 509.757Turbocharged twin Kawasaki Kz1000 engines. First record over , p.64.14 July 1990 Bonneville, US Dave Campos Easyriders streamliner 322.150 518.450 Twin Harley-Davidson engines. Longest held official record, 16 years (see Curtiss' 20 year unofficial record), p.98.3 September 2006 Bonneville, US Rocky Robinson TOP 1 Oil-Ack Attack streamliner342.797 551.678 Twin Suzuki engines5 September 2006 Bonneville, US Chris CarrBUB Seven Streamliner350.884 564.693 BUB/Sierra Design V426 September 2008 Bonneville, US Rocky Robinson TOP 1 Oil-Ack Attack streamliner360.913 580.833 Twin Suzuki engines24 September 2009 Bonneville, US Chris Carr BUB Seven Streamliner 367.382 591.244 BUB/Sierra Design V425 September 2010 Bonneville, US Rocky Robinson TOP 1 Oil-Ack Attack streamliner 376.363 605.697 Twin Suzuki engines First record over

Notes

a. At the time, it had been the accepted practice that the FIM would require the American Automobile Association to carry out official timing for any run in the USA. However shortly before the record attempt the A.A.A. had withdrawn from controlling motor sport, leaving no official body representing the FIM. Although every effort had been made to show the impartiality of the officials and the accuracy of the equipment, after several months the claimed record was not accepted by the FIA as the timing was "not carried out by an official certified by the FIM.".