Vard Risers & Langlitz Leather

Ross Langlitz was born in 1918 and remains one of the greatest men to ever hold a set of handlebars, already being a famous motorcycle racer at the age of 17, he dreadfully lost his right leg in a motorcycle accident, an accident all doctors predicted would end his riding career forever. But they didn’t quite know who they were dealing with here, so much to their surprise, the first thing Ross did when he returned home from the hospital was to hop on his bike and defiantly ride it all the way back to the hospital. That was the true nature of Ross...

Ross Langlitz then went on to win 47 cycling trophies in the span from 1938 to 1954, with one leg. When he finally gave up competition for trail riding and began to think about designing protective garments for motorcycling he started Langlitz Learthers "The World's Finest Motorcycle Leathers"

The risers Earl Flanders did for the Vard fork sure are some heavy pieces of history too, here you can see the extra threaded piece that bolts up to the bottom stem part, so far I have seen two versions of these risers (even though the versions are almost the exact same).

These Vard Flanders has a 4" rise and a 1.53/64" thick stem.

Here’s Ross Langlitz on his race ready Knucklehead complete with a Vard frontend and Vard risers by Flanders, and even though I don't believe he is around today his leather draped legacy will live on for all time.