Great weather for attending the motorcycle show at MCC in Villa Park. Plenty on display and many others of the riders who came to look. I sketched this 40’s wartime BSA. The same my grandfather George possibly could have ridden in Egypt. George Lawrie was born 114 years ago yesterday, and passed away 59 years ago.
Donald Sutherland plays a nazi agent in this 1981 film The Eye of the Needle. Knowing plans about D-Day he needs to report back to Berlin with a U-Boat meet-up off Scotland. Ending up on a remote “Storm Island” he takes up with a woman who is emotionally estranged from her husband who lost his legs in an automobile accident on their wedding day just as he was about to head off as a Spitfire pilot. As our protagonist is being pursued by Scotland Yard he commandeers a Velocette motorcycle to hare through the glens of Scotland. He ditches it in the sea after just crossing the Connel Bridge which crosses Loch Etive. The film was directed by Richard Marquand who went on to direct Return of the Jedi for George Lucas.
Enough air? No nails embedded in the rubber tread? Make sure the wheels are running smoothly for the weekend lest the route takes on a bit more of a rugged track. These army couriers are certainly making sure!
We’re binging the latest short series on Netflix this evening. All the light we cannot see. It stars Hugh Laurie as a French resistance radio operator. His pillion is the protagonist helping efforts against the Germans. 1930’s New Map motorcycle is period correct and had a couple of good scenes.
This happy couple have had a lark ploughing through the mud. Hacky dorty!
Two Harbors – where the iron ore gets loaded onto the behemoth carriers. Also there, is this extraordinarily large locomotive. Used to haul the ore from the ranges inland to these ports. It could pull a mile of ore laden trucks with its 6,000 HP coal fed steam driven engines.
So said Chuck Yeager in his Bell X-1 jet ‘Glamorous Glennis’ over Muroc Field in 1947 when bustin’ through the sound barrier. Mach 1. Here’s a ‘47 T100 Triumph stretched and geared to climb steep hills.
So said Chuck Yeager in his Bell X-1 jet ‘Glamorous Glennis’ over Muroc Field in 1947 when bustin’ through the sound barrier. Mach 1. Here’s a ‘47 T100 Triumph stretched and geared to climb steep hills.
Honor Blackman in military garb as a courier rider during the war.
1943. RAF Wing Commander James “Johnnie” Johnson puts his Supermarine Spitfire Mk IX into a vertical climb above the clouds.
Some photos of Harleys and DKW’s taken by my riding buddy Dean during his recent visit to the National WW2 Museum in New Orleans. Based where the Higgins Boat, or LCVP, we’re built. These were the landing craft that brought US soldiers to shore in every major amphibious assault of World War II.
– on our road trip through Iowa we stopped in at this impressive collection of motorcycles. Here is a selection of engines spanning 7 decades. More to follow this week!
– a lovely photo from someone’s family album. The lass on the right was someone’s grandmother who served as a nurse on Hawaii during the Second World War. The white socks and head scarves are pure period cuteness.
June 6th 1944
– a pivotal moment of the Twentieth Century when the Free World decided to take back what had been overthrown by the Nazis. Here’s a fresh faced army courier strapped into a Horsa glider, with his Matchless ride, bound for Normandy.
– “If you don’t like the road you’re walking start paving another one!” Dolly Parton
She’s celebrating her 75th birthday today.
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