Smashing ride this morning up into Wisconsin with quiet roads and nice breezes. Bonus was a classic car show in Winnetka on the return leg.
June 30, 2024
Coffee and Classics
Enjoyable morning in Winnetka wandering amongst some gorgeous motorcars. German, British, Italian, Swedish. The sumptuous curves and elegant lines covering midcentury engineering. The weather was perfect to match the machinery.
October 21, 2023
Plaything
Beautiful ride-on bike on display at the Porsche museum in Hamburg. Pillion seat include so two-for-one possible! The maker is Lenaerts in Belgium and these Indian lookalikes were manufactured in the fifties. Rather than a rocking motion of typical fairground kiddie rides this had rollers that sped the wheels around. “Sehr viel spaß” as they say in Germany.
September 24, 2023
Amsterdam Market find
– strolling along a rain drizzled Albert Cuypers Market I spied these ‘zines pinned up at a stall selling old publications. Michel Vallant stood out as something to post on the blog (sorry it’s taken so long!). The stories protagonist is a French racing car driver – however he looks to enjoy the adrenaline rush of two wheels too! It is still published (since 1950’s) and a distinguishing character trait of his is “dashing”.
May 24, 2023
We don’t need another hero
What a voice and charismatic presence the indefatigable Ms Turner had. Stretching from the 50’s into the 21st Century her impact in the music industry was colossal. She was also a motorcycle rider. A favorite bike being an Electra Glide HD. Though here is a younger gal with a sixties BSA.
Tina Turner RIP (1939-2023)
March 13, 2023
Farkles and Gewgaws
Accessorize the ride. A plethora of fixin’s to spruce up the bike. From a studded kidney belt, to Davy Crockett tail tassels. I’d rather just leave the Triumph we’ll enough alone.
February 22, 2023
Pen & Wash
Steam Driven Car – aka Das Kleine Wunder — “the little marvel”. Not my work but of an I’ll that I a drawn to (excuse the pun!)
February 10, 2023
Hope Springs Eternal
USO favorite Bob Hope looking smart on this well-travelled BSA with a lady friend- approximately 1950 so he’s well into the series of Road to… films with co-star Bing Crosby. Signs on the bike refer to riding 101 through the Redwood forested Mendocino County.
January 28, 2023
The Screaming End
Known as “an American rockabilly legend who defined the greasy-haired, leather-jacketed, hot rods ‘n’ babes spark of rock and roll.” His ‘56 hit “Be-bop-a-lula” was written whilst recuperating in a naval hospital following a motorcycle accident. The injury was whilst riding a new Triumph bought with a $612 re-enlistment pay. Here he sits astride a Triumph in the late sixties on what certainly looks like a suburban English street.
January 27, 2023
Miss January
A Thunderbird cover from seventy years ago. For a quarter you can have a ‘zine with articles regaling the qualities of British machinery. Bingo!
January 24, 2023
“Angels Forever, Forever Angels”
Gangs of the open road. One per centers wear their signature vests, oily blue jeans and mechanics boots. As well as the ubiquitous Harleys they also tore around on chopped Triumphs like the Pre-Unit shown here.
January 21, 2023
Muse
Most published illustrations are based on staged photographs. Norman Rockwell’s covers for The Saturday Evening Post we’re such examples. Here is a piece of work by one of his contemporaries Gil Elvgren, who was known for his pin-up girls as well as advertising illustrations for companies such as Brown & Bigelow. Many of his ladies ended up as nose art on WW2 bombers.
January 20, 2023
Ladies in the Mud
Silk Headscarf
Twenty-one year old motorcycle triallist June Adams on her bike, March 1951.
January 19, 2023
Takin’ on a bit of water George!
– the Automobile Association combination must have been through a ford on the way to a breakdown. Ready enough to tip it up and drain the cylinders. Fishtail muffler seems appropriate.
January 16, 2023
Bellezza Italiana
At 95 Gina Lollobrigita had a full and interesting life. As a sex symbol in post-war Europe she acted in several films opposite leading men such as Humphrey Bogart, Errol Flynn, Burt Lancaster, and , as seen on the lower right image, Rock Hudson. Later life saw her move to the other side of the camera, where, as a photojournalist, she managed to get an interview with Fidel Castro. (1927-2023)
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