Floyd “Pop” Dreyer was the leading sidecar racer from the 1910s to the early 1920s. Dreyer won numerous national sidecar racing championships sanctioned by the Motorcycle & Allied Trades Association (M&ATA), the predecessor to the AMA. Pop is now in the Motorcycle Hall of Fame.
On Saturday, April 21 Dreyer will be honored with the installation of a historical marker placed in front of his shop on the old National Road (called W. Washington St. in Indianapolis). Pop is the 33rd recipient of this recognition of Indiana’s motor sports racing legends and heritage.
Former road racing and local motorcycle activist Greg Sickmeier writes about Pop:
He was a very colorful individual who was part of the foundation of Indiana racing history. Pop Dreyer rode for the original Indian race team in the 1920s, designed and built race cars for Duesenberg, dirt track cars for many others, opened the first BMW motorcycle dealership in Indianapolis in the 1950s, eventually adding Jawa, CZ and BSA.
He also was a founding member of the BMW Motorcycle Club of Indianapolis and rode to many rally’s across America well into his golden years.
In 1959, Floyd signed a dealership agreement with Honda, becoming the first Honda dealer east of the Mississippi and only the ninth in America.
His legacy today is four generations of descendants who carry on his motorcycle businesses in the Indianapolis area, inducted into the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1998, the first inductee in 1990 to the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame and many other honors throughout his legacy.
If you’re in the area come out and enjoy spring and honoring Pop along with a host of other motorcyclists.
Rider Files 