The first motorbikes in Antarctica
Charles Swithinbank was a British glaciologist with the 1949–52 Norwegian-British-Swedish Expedition to Dronning Maud Land in Antarctica.
The Swedish Husqvarna company had donated two 120 cc machines to the expedition and these were the first motorbikes on the Antarctic continent.
Charles removed the two bikes from their crates and rode one which had factory-fitted skis on both sides, while adapting the other as a back-up generator for tracked vehicles on field trips.
Although air temperatures varied between -1 and -46 C, Charles stated that ‘Once the technique had been mastered the engine could be started at the first kick in temperatures as low as -46 C. By all accounts the motorbike worked extremely well.
The easy starting may have been an advantage of two-stroke motorcycles because 4-strokes with oil-filled stumps would normally have to have the oil removed, heated on a stove and then returned to the sump before starting.
Between 1960 and 1980 more than 30 motorbikes were ‘unofficially’ transported to the Australian Antarctic bases and then there were additional ones at some to the British bases and probably others.
There were BSA Bantams, German DKW RT125’s, Velocette’s, Indian’s, and a Matchless.
Despite being lots of fun there were some close scrapes on the sea-ice and eventually, after 1980, motorbike usage declined due to a combination of increasing quad bike use and tighter safety restrictions.
Some of this post is excerpted from Aurora magazine and from a piece about motorcycles in Antarctica that you can read here: