More arty stuff; this time a sketched image of my Bonneville engine… Well this passes the winter!
I like the way it looks like a quick scribble with a 2B pencil including construction lines, which adds a revealed signature of the artists hand. But it’s just an app on my ‘phone!
My new Google phone has some neat photo editing apps available; here’s a few examples:
When men were men and roads were barely tarmacadam’d from the cobbled and dirt roads of yestercentury; there was a need to give some shock absorption to the steering proceedings. Otherwise anything above a running pace and the ‘bars would be whipped out of your gauntletted hands. Not Good. Unless you enjoy testing your Tweeds and cloth cap! Here’s the Coventry Company’s early efforts of a girder fork. Simple action, serviceable and met the needs of the expanding moto-denizens. Indeed Phil Vincent used this system on the classically sublime Vincent over its lifetime of much sought after models.
A century ago many small-time bicycle manufacturers tried their hand at motorizing their contraptions. One such ‘shop was Pope from Westfield MA who ran with the best of ’em: Indian, Flying Merkel, Cyclone. Here’s a smashing looking board racer ready for a rider with plenty of derring do to hare around one of the infamous wood tracks of the day; come a cropper on that circuit and you’ll be pulling splinters for weeks…. If at all you make it! Harris Tweed isn’t too great a protective clothing for speed work.
A cardinal name on the tank too…
… And at speeds approaching The Ton on steeply banked tracks a higher power was needed if the competitors ‘came a cropper’. Ouch!
Sometimes you need to dream about the open road: flat cloth capp’d, gal sidesaddled on pillion and the hint of a breezy rural view around. Onward! Fresh air beckons and adventure awaits the travelers.
The sea wafts a briny perfume across coastal meadows; a lone sentinel winks a beacon to lost ships and harks the country revellers alike. The turquoise horizon drops into the infinite sky. The road ahead, a day to fill and a gal by your side.
Blazer, tie and a canny smile: that must be wor Baz, here seen aboard a stunning Matchless at the Goodwood classic meet; his last visit there. Now there is a Barry Sheene Memorial Trophy race held there every year where fast paced Matchlesses go head to head with Nortons, AJS’s, Triumph and Beezers.
2002 was his last race, where, aboard a beautiful Manx Norton bedecked with his crossed seven he saw a victory amidst peers and fans alike: truly a great in the world of motorcycling.
Barry Sheene 11 September 1950 – 10 March 2003
Another law enforcing rider; this time an antipodean one… Here’s a slouch hatted cobber ready for pulling over some tinnie slurpin’ Bruce driving home in his ute from a barbie.
Stops anything in no time: or so goes the acronym for the trusty TR6 Triumphs used as speedy urban transport by the Metropolitan Police. Here are some such heavenly outriders giving Heavy police and security escort for America’s President Richard Nixon who drove from Claridges Hotel to No 10 Downing Street, London for his talks with the Prime Minister, Harold Wilson. The year is 1969.
Of course this was before the downward spiral of the Meriden shenanigans over the next decade; the police would then take to rotary Nortons and big faired Beemers. However these ‘post-war’ Triumphs gave a very traditional quality to the bobby-on-the-bike!
Here’s another couple of photos from these times showing a perfect line up of Speed Twins and Thunderbirds that the boys in blue loved to speed up and down the country on – when freshly laid motorways were quiet and getaway cars were slow…
Of course the moto’s were used around the world in far flung commonwealth colonies law enforcement units too.
Ah, imagine being the local officer toting around Kingston Jamaica in khaki shorts atop a sweet 500 Triumph; pop over to coral cove for a spot of fishing later on!
When perfection comes together the outcome is truly sublime. Norton’s decades long experience with two-wheeled racing reaches a zenith with their 500cc Manx. That big piston thumping out power with a rorting boom as it hares around the lanes and circuits of the racing realm.
Need to catch the ferry to Douglas?
A few loose end from the demise of the UK MC industry. Remember that Matchless from a couple of entries ago? Well there was a little epilogue to that story: in the 80’s one certain Les Harris took a 500cc Rotax single, slotted it into an oil carrying frame, added a few select European components and tried to ply it against the Asian offerings. However the price point couldn’t match the Yamaha SRX single. So out come the Tories extolling British Industry at its best: and who none other than Maggie and Dennis…
Give ‘er a lump of coal and Dennis a stiff drink!
Well move on a decade and the tables turn; in more ways than one: New Labour arrives and our pal Tony get ‘is leg over the smart new Daytona. Smarmy git! Glenda Jackson glowers in the background…
the Mufflers
In Baltimore MD there’s a bunch of gals who promote two wheeled FUN! They’re called The Mufflers, a double entendre is in there somewhere! Blokeyness is forbidden and lady laughs are in; and a few Triumphs are evident in their rides, old and new.
Neat logo with road paint lines used.
The late actor Francesco Quinn (1963-2011) was the son of Anthony Quinn, he was also a very keen motorcyclist. You know him as one of the members of Oliver Stones Platoon: Rhah.
Good film. Back to the subject at hand: he like bikes and from these images seems to have had a propensity to the Triumph marque. Good choice.
I’m going to have to search out this film; looks like a travel documentary; a la Motorcycle Diaries, or Long Way Round.
Matchless! Instead of the usual Triumph Moto to be seen on here’s our actor-fella Guy Pearce with a classic G80.
He’s been a soap actor, amnesiac, time traveller, an abdicated king and a drag queen. Versatile; like the single 500cc. It was raced, scrambled, toured, combined, and hacked… All good two wheeled malarkey! It’s a shame the 60 odd year old company went under.
Dave Grohl: screaming frontman to Foo Fighters and once drummer to grunge band Nirvana as well as latter day percussionist to Them Crooked Vultures. He enjoys two-wheels too; though I must make a departure from Brit Iron for a post, he love the potato-potato drumming beat of a Harley.
Seeing as we’re on a music rock ‘n’ roll let’s delve into the two-wheeled antics of a pair of the fathers of rock: Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Well Keith has always been a skinny malinty so the diminutive Triumph Cub seems like the best choice for him.
The right-wing brother of the great Christopher Hitchens said of Keith: “a capering streak of living gristle who ought to be exhibited as a warning to the young of what drugs can do to you even if you’re lucky enough not to choke on your own vomit”. His long endured reputation stretches ahead of him. But he sure can write a guitar riff or two!
Whilst he’s toting around some manorial grounds such as Stargroves. I can’t see him riding the public roads, Sir Mick take the controls of a Honda. Well ‘you meet the nicest people’. Hope he gets some satisfaction.
geordiebiker.com 