Ted Gansberger
Inducted 2010
Long before Ted got involved in trials he raced flat track, motocross, cross country, road and land speed racing. He also raced sprint cars, midgets, tunnel hull boats (like an F16 on water), hydroplanes and runabouts. Though he never raced airplanes, he certainly flew them going on his first solo flight at age 14. Oftentimes he was juggling disciplines and was known to build the PITS club trials calendar around his boat racing schedule.
As early as age 7 Ted knew he wanted to be a racer when he grew up and from that early commitment he achieved the highest levels of success in motorcycle land speed racing and tunnel hull boat racing.
In 1977 Ted came into the trials world when he innocently thought he would start riding trials to improve his technical riding only to become addicted to the sport. He was soon actively involved with the Northern California SACRAMENTO PITS club, an involvement that continues to this day.
On the trials side he was rider, dealer, organizer, promoter, TDN minder, manager and FIM international representative are just a few of the roles that this renaissance man of motorcycling has held since he first got involved with motorcycles in the late 1960’s (in the era before helmets were a thing)
While he quickly became an accomplished trials rider the need for speed still boiled within so we have to talk about that first.
From 2 mph to 200 mph : Ted likes going fast - like really fast - like 200+ mph fast. His record breaking pursuits started in the 70's back in the days when bike setup was more akin to a mad scientist’s experimental lab versus the information ages’ computer modeled build-a-bike programs.
In 1984, on the hallowed grounds of Bonneville Salt Flats, he set the #1 motorcycle speed of the week at 183.879 mph. That year the salt was very wet and traction was hard to come by. Ted attributes his success to the technical skills gained through riding trials where he was able to maximize and fine tune his inputs to the motorcycle in order to find and maintain traction where others could not.
In 1985 the surface conditions were much better, the bikes were better and Ted joined an elite group of riders in the Bonneville 200 mile club by breaking the 200 mph barrier. Breaking that barrier is very very difficult to do. Consider that at the time only 3 un-faired motorcycle riders had broken 200 mph while there had been 12 men on the moon. Yep it was a club more exclusive than landing on the moon. Rare air indeed. Being in the 200-club entitles the rider to wear a red Bonneville 200 mph Lifetime Member ball cap.
In ‘85 he set three speed records in three different classes and at the time it was reported that likely no one had ever passed the 200 mile-per-hour mark on a motorcycle as many times as he did that week.
| Class | Old Record | New Record |
|---|---|---|
| A-ABF-750cc (Unfaired) |
183.879 | 200.624 |
| APS-ABF-750cc (Faired) |
176.277 | 201.752 |
| A-ABF-1300cc (Unfaired) |
184.701 | 199.293 |
Ted also smashed the 200 mph barrier at California’s El Mirage Dry Lake bed in the so-called ‘dirty mile’ - going 218.446 mph. If you look at the all-time list of motorcycles racers that have gone over 200 mph and their speeds Ted sits in the top 25 but many consider his ride to be the most impressive since he was on a Honda 750 while others rode 1300cc Hayabusa's. Still it took 25 years for someone to break that El Mirage 218 mark and his 218.446 remains the 750 class record as of this writing almost 40 years later.
Fast on Land and Fast on Water : not content with just going fast on land Ted goes really fast on the water too - he twice won championships in tunnel hull boat racing.
From 200 mph to 2 mph : Within the NATC council few members appreciated or understood the significance of Ted’s red 2-club hat which he wore to the meetings. But Ted and NATC founder Wiltz Wagner have a shared passion for going fast on salt with Wiltz involved in setting speed records in the small displacement engine categories. In talking with each of them for this article it was obvious they have the highest level of mutual respect and admiration for each other that has only grown over time.
Off the track Ted was a tireless organizer and promoter of the sport of trials. The SactoPITS club put on the 1994 Donner Ski Ranch World Round event and Ted volunteered to be the organizer despite only having experience with local events and no experience at all putting on a National let alone a World Round.
By this time Ted had been working in the motorcycle industry for 10 years as a Honda dealer and he also made and imported motorcycle parts and accessories so he had a lot of contacts within the NorCal motorcycle dealership network. Way before YouTube was a thing, motorcycle dealers had VCRs (that's videocassette recorders for anyone under age 30) on their countertops used for playing ATV safety videos. Ted made some loop tapes of the top trials riders of the day and his brother-in-law (and fellow HOF member) Howard Galbreath produced first class handouts to sit next to the tapes and dealers played the tapes all day long leading up to the event.
The end result of that tireless promotional effort were some of the largest crowds to ever see a trials event in the USA with over 8,000 spectators for the two days. People were having to park 2 miles away ala Woodstock. The event was a huge success and the SactoPITS club made enough money from the event to purchase their prime trials riding area in the Sierra Nevada mountains.
Following the success of the World Round, Ted organized or co-organized four more outdoor Nationals. Also, in 2002 Ted stepped up and organized the El Trial de España at Donner Ski Ranch, the only time the event has been held outside of Southern California.
From Outdoors to Indoors : Always willing to try something new to bring mototrials to the masses, Ted spearheaded the US’s first ever indoor trials championship in 2003 at the famous Cow Palace in San Francisco. It was a huge undertaking with 45 volunteers, most working non-stop for 36 hours straight, to pull it off. Renting the Cow Palace isn’t cheap and everything has to run on a very tight schedule. Many months were spent pre-building the seven man-made sections in his shop. At ‘game time’ the sections were torn down and transported on multiple trucks and trailers to the venue. Reassembly started at 8 am on Saturday and everything was torn down and cleaned up by 6 am on Sunday.
The event itself was a thriller with Geoff Aaron and Canadian Ryon Bell tied at the end of regulation so they had to go to a 3-section tie-breaker ride-off. Still tied on points after the three rides, the Championship was decided by time in the last section with Geoff finishing just a few seconds ahead of Ryon. It was an action-packed and suspense filled event that thrilled the over 3,000 fans in attendance who gave the riders a standing ovation at the end.
The event itself was a thriller with Geoff Aaron and Canadian Ryon Bell tied at the end of regulation so they had to go to a 3-section tie-breaker ride-off. Still tied on points after the three rides, the Championship was decided by time in the last section with Geoff finishing just a few seconds ahead of Ryon. It was an action-packed and suspense filled event that thrilled the over 3,000 fans in attendance who gave the riders a standing ovation at the end.
From USA to Europe: From 2000 to 2011 Ted was involved with Team USA for the Trial des Nations. During that time he was a minder, a team manager and AMA representative to the FIM with the men's team bringing home the 1st place trophy in the International class in 2000 and 2005.
From On the Water to In the Water : Ted is also a dedicated and accomplished swimmer and participates in Open Water Swimming events - as in swimming a mile and a half across the San Francisco Bay from Alcatraz back to the mainland as part of the Sharkfest Swim event for example. To celebrate each birthday he swims 100 yards for each year of age and is currently up to 4.2 miles (you can do the math :-)
From the Past to the Future : Always looking forward to the next adventure Ted thrives on the pressure of being at the tip of the spear and living life to its fullest. From the Salt Flats of Bonneville to the salty water of San Francisco bay Ted may actually be the most interesting man in the world and the stories of his adventures could easily fill the Internet. As of 2022 he is riding and camping off of dual sport motorcycles, swimming of course and still competing in trials. While the blinding speed of the go-fast days are in the rear view mirror, Ted always comes back to trials because it feels the most like family to him.
Donner Ski Ranch
Original mototrials.com page
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Dancing With Rocks
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Modern Bike Hillclimb
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Geoff Aaron at Cow Palace Indoor
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Footnotes
Click each section header for more details related to Ted's Adventures:
So what exactly is a Renaissance Man?
Simply put "an outstandingly versatile, well-rounded person. The expression alludes to such Renaissance figures as Leonardo da Vinci, who performed brilliantly in many different fields." Dictionary.com
A longer version from Britannica :
"Renaissance man, also called Universal Man, Italian Uomo Universale, an ideal that developed in Renaissance Italy from the notion expressed by one of its most-accomplished representatives, Leon Battista Alberti (1404–72), that “a man can do all things if he will.” The ideal embodied the basic tenets of Renaissance humanism, which considered man the center of the universe, limitless in his capacities for development, and led to the notion that men should try to embrace all knowledge and develop their own capacities as fully as possible."
"Renaissance man, also called Universal Man, Italian Uomo Universale, an ideal that developed in Renaissance Italy from the notion expressed by one of its most-accomplished representatives, Leon Battista Alberti (1404–72), that “a man can do all things if he will.” The ideal embodied the basic tenets of Renaissance humanism, which considered man the center of the universe, limitless in his capacities for development, and led to the notion that men should try to embrace all knowledge and develop their own capacities as fully as possible."
1994 World Round
- Results : 1st Jordi Tarres, 2nd Joan Pons, 3rd Tommi Ahavala - full results are here
- Full Story : click here for the Cycle News Archive Article on the event, note that it is behind the Cycle News paywall ($5/year)
- Permits : someone forgot to get the necessary permits for the event and the Forest Service showed up on Saturday morning wanting to talk to the organizer. Ted was called over the radio to come back to the pit area to discuss. Along the way he was thinking of all kinds of fancy maneuvers to work through the issue including taking them on a long walk in the woods and getting 'lost'. Once they started talking he realized the agents were fully on-board and just wanted to know more about how the event was going to work. Crises averted!
- Parking : a good friend that Ted had known since before kindergarten was in charge of parking. Overwhelmed by the number of spectators that showed up his buddy radioed in from about 2 miles out that he surrendered and walked off the job.
- Printing : Howard Galbreath is also Ted's brother-in-law and in the printing business. Howard has been producing the NATC course markers, flyers, handouts, programs, podium banners etc since the mid-90's.
More Indoor Trials
Jan 11, 2003 - The 1st US Indoor Trials Event
Dec 6, 2003 - The 2nd Indoor event also at the Cow Palace
Mototrials.com
Tennessee Indoor Events:
- Cycle News Archive Story is here (no paywall)
- To prepare for the indoor trials, Ted attended the 2002 Sheffield, England indoor event staying with and learning from Martin Lampkin what was involved in putting on an event of that size and scale. From that experience he was confident he could make it happen.
Dec 6, 2003 - The 2nd Indoor event also at the Cow Palace
- Cycle News Archive Story is here (no paywall)
- The event is captured on Youtube here. The sections were largely the same as the previous event including a waterfall section.
- Ryon turned the tables on Geoff winning on points with 8 while Geoff had 15.
- A couple of things blew up the financials here 1) There were no pre-event ticket sales to avoid paying Ticketron their big cut and 2) Heavy rains the day of the event flooded the highway underpasses near the Cow Palace so attendance was minimal as you can see in the video.
Mototrials.com
- As part of the promotion for the indoor rounds, Ted obtained the original mototrials.com internet domain name and later on he sold it to the NATC in exchange for a ball cap. You can see the original web site on the Internet Wayback Machine here.
Tennessee Indoor Events:
- In 2007 Dan Brown of Trials Training Center fame put on a couple of indoor events in Tennessee in conjunction with the annual Youth Summer Camp. Ted was hired to design and construct the sections. Once those events were over it was time to move on to other things - no more involvement with indoor trials.
More Speed Stories
This quote seems appropriate here - Ted's record setting 750 on the salt.
"You live more in five minutes on a bike like this going flat out than some people live in a lifetime" Burt Munroe - "World's Fastest Indian"
"You live more in five minutes on a bike like this going flat out than some people live in a lifetime" Burt Munroe - "World's Fastest Indian"
Speed Records:
There are many sanctioning bodies and methods for determining a speed record holder. For our purposes here we have Bonneville Salt Flats which are, obviously, run on salt which is slipperier surface and run under these rules : "All records set at Bonneville are by a qualifying run (over existing record), and the next morning making a return run, these two speeds are averaged for the record." The AMA recognizes the Bonneville results for their official records.
Then we have Southern California Timing Association (SCTA) : "SCTA El Mirage records are one way speed records. These are set on a dirt surface at El Mirage Dry Lake in California. The track is 1.3 miles long." In short, the SCTA speed records are going to be higher than Bonneville because of the one-way and better surface conditions.
All that rambling is to point out that as of 2022 Ted still holds the AMA speed record for 500cc, set in 1978 at 142.602 mph. You can lookup all the current AMA speed record holders on the AMA website here. For fun search on "Wagner" - Wagner B. is Wiltz' daughter.
There are many sanctioning bodies and methods for determining a speed record holder. For our purposes here we have Bonneville Salt Flats which are, obviously, run on salt which is slipperier surface and run under these rules : "All records set at Bonneville are by a qualifying run (over existing record), and the next morning making a return run, these two speeds are averaged for the record." The AMA recognizes the Bonneville results for their official records.
Then we have Southern California Timing Association (SCTA) : "SCTA El Mirage records are one way speed records. These are set on a dirt surface at El Mirage Dry Lake in California. The track is 1.3 miles long." In short, the SCTA speed records are going to be higher than Bonneville because of the one-way and better surface conditions.
All that rambling is to point out that as of 2022 Ted still holds the AMA speed record for 500cc, set in 1978 at 142.602 mph. You can lookup all the current AMA speed record holders on the AMA website here. For fun search on "Wagner" - Wagner B. is Wiltz' daughter.
For a list of motorcycles that have broken 200 mph click here - we found this list on the internet compiled by a speed enthusiast. What it does show is Ted's 218 mph mark at El Mirage set in 1984 held for 25 years and that 218 mark is still the 750cc class record as of this writing.
Excerpts from Scott Guthrie's "50 Years at Bonneville - Remembering 1984 - Chapter #41":
Turbo exhaust heats the left foot, intake trying to swallow the right leg, footpegs with no rubber for traction.
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Ted’s bike – which a few months before, had run almost 220mph at El Mirage without a fairing, was pressed to set a record over 190mph WITH a fairing on this wet salt. With the full length of Bonneville available, a supercharger to make it’s own internal weather, one could have expected 230mph to 240 mph. So track conditions cost this racer maybe 40-50mph.
In the fall of 2020, Ted Gansberger shared his strong memories of those long ago adventures with me. He wrote about bike #31: "Yes that’s it. We had three different frames; that’s the third one that worked. The first one was a modified stock frame. The second one was a perimeter type frame that tried to kill me at El Mirage. The third one the one you have a picture of worked really well. They kept using it after I quit going and were able to run the 1100 in it just fine. I set the first two 200 mph records with the 750 including the 218 run at El Mirage. After that we switched to the 1100 and I had a one-way of 229 and it blew up on the return run. The next year they started getting 1100 to work a lot better. I believe the 229.8mph ( I really would have liked the other 2 tenths) was the year we carried #1. That was a one way at Bonneville so it was not a record. But it gave me bragging rights over Les Ranger. It was with the 1100. We struggled all week doing one ways at 220 to 225.Could not get a return run due to blistered tire, cross wind or some other Bonneville gremlin. Finally it lost a rod and put oil all over me. Les set a record with the 1100 the next year around 217 I think. |
Our first record was an unblown fuel 500 Honda at 142. We ran about 95% nitro. We water-cooled the cylinders to run that percentage. Had a very crude 4 Amal carb setup that was more of an irrigation system than a carb setup. When the fuel was turned on they poured fuel all over me, so we bolted a screen door handle to the rear corner of my van. I would hang onto that until the van wouldn't go any faster let go turn on the fuel and quickly dump the clutch.”
Next was a turbo 750 with a carb set up very similar. Jim and Les changed in the neighborhood of 16 valves and 7 or 8 pistons that week. Yes Jim did pack that many spare parts. No complete runs. Next year we machined Hillborn type injectors, and started completing runs. The two main records were 200 unfaired 750 and 201 faired 750. If I am remembering correctly we were not satisfied with that since we had set a 218 record at El Mirage.
The 750 was very hard to ride due to improper match of engine and turbo.so when I quit riding they just used the 1100. The #1 plate was definitely an honor. It did not come easy. We were setting records each meet at 190 and above. At that time no other open bikes were doing that. The 218 was the fastest motorcycle of any type or size. Vesco was the only one over 200 at 209 with his twin engine streamliner. I believe we had the top time for 20 or 25 years. The 750 class record is still there in 2021.
We only got two try's each meet because the course would be so torn up we couldn’t run. On the last meet of that year we needed one last record. I blew both runs. We thought we were done but Jim Ludicer came over and told us there was a narrow strip right by the cones. I had seen a lakester that hit a cone and it ripped off the header, so I was nervous, but we made it and got a record."
Cycle News Links (behind Cycle News Paywall):
- 1978 Salt Flats Report (Ted's 500cc record)
- 1984 Salt Flats Report (Ted's top bike speed for the week)
- 1985 Salt Flats Report (Ted joins 200-mph club (3rd un-faired \ non-streamlined motorcycle). Ted was on a 750 while the others were on 2000 or 3000cc motorcycles)