Picked up this great reference book of Triumph motorcycles from the last eighty odd years. All models and variations discussed in depth from the legendary Meriden examples to the current Hinckley offerings. Lots of photos and masses of written information.
– as GeordieBiker nears its 10 years I’ve been looking into a way of memorializing the over 3,300 posts that have accumulated over its lifetime. I had a PDF document prepared which contains all 1,707 pages of blog posts (to date). It’s nice to skim through and reminisce on past rides, or musings, or image finds.
It means buying books and letting them pile up unread. The word dates back to the very beginning of modern Japan, the Meiji era (1868-1912) and has its origins in a pun. Tsundoku, which literally means reading pile, is written in Japanese as 積ん読.
– Library Classification was a much needed skill to understand until fairly recently. For university research; expanding reading interest; broadening hobby knowledge. Here’s part of my motorcycle section in our home library.
Mayhem | This is what can happen if you drive around with a cat on your head. It may startle, dug it’s claws into your scalp, causing you to careen across the road and the ongoing calamity spreads to all other roadway and path users. Remember: don’t drive around with a cat on your head, no matter how cool you might think it seems!
Book Week | one of the publications I managed to acquire from our vacation as proprietors of The Open Book was this glossy tome by legendary Moto-writer Mick Walker. Now added to my small library of all things two wheeled.
Bookish | A perfect week in Wigtown Scotland running a second hand bookshop. Some lads Triumph Tiger parking along the High Street reminded me that the hills and coast of Galloway would be stunning riding country.
‘Zines | Whatever your interest there is a magazine for it. And, in the specialist topic of motorcycling, there are sub genres covering everything from custom, classic/vintage, off road, on road, Day-to-day riding, travel & adventure. We have a great magazine store in Evanston with a great selection.
Oily hands and a 10mm socket – just read about the passing of the creator of the global mechanics phenomenon, known as the Haynes Workshop Manual, John Haynes (1938-2019) aged 80. The step-by-step photographic and illustrative descriptions of dismantling and reassembly was conceived whilst he was a public schoolboy recording the renovation of an Austin Seven into an Austin Seven ‘Special’. The first published book in ’66 was for an Austin Healey Sprite. Hundreds of manuals for cars and motorcycles later the library stretched from the Solo’s Millennium Falcon, Kirk’s Enterprise to NASA’s Space Shuttle, and Apollo.
D-I-Y Sometimes you need some ken to be familiar with your interest. A ubiquitous Haynes Service & Repair Manual is an essential reference tome for any self respecting biker.
Resolute – It is typical of the New Year for us to put on the mask of Janus and look back at what we achieved (or not) the previous year and thus look forward to the coming twelve months and make a determination of what we want to achieve. Usually in an effort to better ourselves; and, in a way, make this time we have count. Me? I’m not a big one for ‘resolutions’ but it’s fun to think of things that you would like to try and do. A list you ask? Well, here goes:
Write/Illustrate a children’s book.
Ride the Triumph Tiger more.
Sketch more.
Ride the Lake Michigan loop.
Fettle the Bonneville for occasional vintage runs.
Get the Cub out onto some off-road shenanigans.
There… all fairly straight forwards and all that can be incorporated into this blog…