David Lawrence Ekins (born May 20, 1932) is an American
off-road
Off-roading is the act of driving or riding in a vehicle on unpaved surfaces such as sand, dirt, gravel, riverbeds, mud, snow, rocks, or other natural terrain. Off-roading ranges from casual drives with regular vehicles to competitive events w ...
motorcycle racer who pioneered the sport of
desert racing
Desert racing is the act of racing through the desert in a two- or four-wheeled off-road vehicle. Races, which generally consist of two or more loops around a course covering up to , can take the form of Hare and Hound or Hare scramble style eve ...
in the 1950s.
He was inducted into the
AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 2001.
Motorcycle racing career
Born in
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
, Ekins followed his brother and fellow Motorcycle Hall of Fame member,
Bud Ekins, into motorcycle racing.
He and his brother honed their riding skills by riding the dirt trails in the hills above their
Hollywood, California
Hollywood, sometimes informally called Tinseltown, is a List of districts and neighborhoods in Los Angeles, neighborhood and district in the Central Los Angeles, central region of Los Angeles County, California, within the city of Los Angeles. ...
home.
Ekins' riding skill earned him sponsored racing motorcycles from factories such as;
Velocette
Velocette is a range of motorcycles made by Veloce Ltd, in Hall Green, Birmingham, England. One of several motorcycle manufacturers in Birmingham, Velocette was a small, family-owned firm, selling almost as many hand-built motorcycles during ...
,
Zundapp,
Honda
commonly known as just Honda, is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate automotive manufacturer headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan.
Founded in October 1946 by Soichiro Honda, Honda has bee ...
,
Harley-Davidson
Harley-Davidson, Inc. (H-D, or simply Harley) is an American motorcycle manufacturer headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Founded in 1903, it is one of two major American motorcycle manufacturers to survive the Great Depression along with i ...
and
Bultaco
Bultaco was a Spanish manufacturer of two-stroke motorcycles from 1958 to 1983.
In May 2014, a new Bultaco was announced.
Origins
The origin of the Bultaco motorcycle company dates from May 1958. Francesc Xavier Bultó, Francesc "Paco" Bultó ...
.
Ekins became one of the first American riders to use Honda motorcycles in desert races, helping usher in the era of lightweight, smaller-displacement off-road motorcycles.
In the late 1950s, most desert racers preferred heavy, ungainly, British
parallel twin cylinder motorcycles. He competed in many of the most prestigious West Coast off-road races aboard motorcycles as small as 100ccs in displacement, often finishing ahead of competitors on larger motorcycles, including an overall victory at the 1967 Greenhorn
Enduro
Enduro is a form of motorcycle sport run on extended cross-country, off-road courses. Enduro consists of many different obstacles and challenges. The main type of enduro event, and the format to which the World Enduro Championship is run, is ...
aboard a 100cc Zundapp.
In 1962 Ekins and Bill Robertson rode a
Honda CL72 motorcycle almost the entire length of
Mexico
Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...
's
Baja California Peninsula in less than 40 hours to set the
Tijuana
Tijuana is the most populous city of the Mexican state of Baja California, located on the northwestern Pacific Coast of Mexico. Tijuana is the municipal seat of the Tijuana Municipality, the hub of the Tijuana metropolitan area and the most popu ...
-to-
La Paz
La Paz, officially Nuestra Señora de La Paz (Aymara language, Aymara: Chuqi Yapu ), is the seat of government of the Bolivia, Plurinational State of Bolivia. With 755,732 residents as of 2024, La Paz is the List of Bolivian cities by populati ...
, Mexico record.
Their speed record provided a challenge for other off-road competitors with both, motorcycles and four wheeled vehicles.
One of these challengers to Ekins' record run was
Ed Pearlman
Ed Pearlman is a co-founder (together with Don Francisco) of the National Off-Road Racing Association (1966), the first exclusively off-road racing organization, and its first president. The inaugurating event of NORRA was "Mexican 1000 Rally", whi ...
, who decided to organize a yearly off-road race that became known as the
Baja 1000
The Baja 1000 is an annual Mexican off-road motorsport race held on the Baja California Peninsula, with a course of up to about 850 or more miles. It is one of the most prestigious off-road races in the world, having attracted competitors from ...
.
In 1964 Ekins along with his brother, Bud,
Steve McQueen
Terrence Stephen McQueen (March 24, 1930November 7, 1980) was an American actor. His antihero persona, emphasized during the height of counterculture of the 1960s, 1960s counterculture, made him a top box office draw for his films of the late ...
and Cliff Coleman were members of the first American team to compete in the
International Six Days Trial.
The International Six Day Trials, a form of off-road motorcycle Olympics, is the oldest annual competition sanctioned by the
FIM
FIM may refer to:
Organizations and companies
* Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme, the International Motorcycling Federation
* Flint Institute of Music, in Michigan, United States
* Fox Interactive Media, now News Corp. Digital Media
* ...
dating back to 1913.
Ekins competed in five ISDT events and earned two gold medals and a bronze medal in the prestigious motorcycle competition.
Ekins founded and launched the Sunline brand of motorcycle parts and accessories.
References
External links
Dave Ekins at the AMA Motorcycle Hall of FameBud and Dave Ekins web site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ekins, Dave
1932 births
Living people
People from Hollywood, Los Angeles
Motorcycle racers from Los Angeles
American motocross riders
Off-road motorcycle racers
Enduro riders
Motorcycle journalists