Floyd Clymer was born in Indianapolis in 1895, about the same time as motorcycling itself. He grew up in Berthoud, Colorado and was to become a pioneer in the sport of motorcycling, a racer, a motorcycle dealer and distributor, a magazine publisher, a racing promoter, an author and a motorcycle manufacturer. (Not all at the same time.)
Clymer became famous in the 1910s as the youngest Ford dealer in the USA at age 14, in Greeley, Colorado.
He made a name for himself in racing circles in 1916 when he led a large portion of the famous Dodge City 300 on a factory Harley-Davidson. He was the fastest rider all day at Dodge City, but his bike broke 110 laps in to the 150-lap race.
He won the National Sidecar Championship in 1920, the Pikes Peak Hillclimb on an Excelsior, and several other hill climb championships. He remained involved in motorcycle racing throughout his life, including race promotion and organisation, promoting dozens of AMA national motorcycle races.
Clymer is best known, at least in the US, for his publishing business, His first publication, Motorcycle Topics, was published in the late 1910s, and he resumed publishing magazines and books in earnest after World War II. He published the popular Clymer repair manuals for cars, motorcycles and powersports vehicles in a standardised format with step-by-step disassembly and reassembly instructions for the complete vehicle, illustrated with photographs.
Floyd also published dozens of books on cars and motorcycles, and was among the first to assemble historical surveys of the car and motorcycle industries with A Treasury of Motorcycles of the World, among others, from the 1950s. He also published collections of British car and motorcycle magazine road tests.
When Indian’s fortunes took a turn for the worse in the early 1950s, it was Clymer, along with a few other Indian loyalists, who stepped up and offered financial assistance to keep the company going. Even though the company ceased production in 1953, Clymer continued for years to try to revive Indian. He purchased the rights to the name and attempted to market several foreign-made motorcycles under the Indian name without success.
Clymer purchased Cycle magazine in July/ August 1953. It was said that “he never met a motorcycle he didn’t like” and some criticised Cycle for failing to prompt improvements in motorcycle design through journalistic feedback. He sold the magazine in 1966.
Immediately after selling Cycle, Clymer tried to generate interest in the German-made MĂĽnch Mammoth that featured a 1300cc engine developed for a car, without much success as they cost $4000 each.
In his later yearz, Floyd kept trying to revive the Indian. At first he fitted Indian nameplates to 500cc single-cylinder Velocette-based machines.
He later spent a quarter-of-a-million dollars to have a prototype Indian built based closely on the original V-Twin design. That machine never made it to market.
Floyd Clymer died in 1970.