Goggl’d, leather’d and astride a BSA. Here’s a lass with every intention of getting down the road with confidence. It’s great that there are a lot more riders of the fairer sex than pillions. Motorcycles are for everyone! Vendredi is Venus’s Day.
November 2, 2013
The Gift
In honor of Lou Reed here’s an image evoking one of his monologue songs from the Velvet Undergrounds pre-punk White Light\White Heat album. It is read in a stirring welsh lilt by John Cale and tells the story of one Waldo Jeffers whose long distance infatuation with a college girl from Wisconsin, Marsha Bronson, drives him to box himself up and get mailed from Locust PA to her doorstep as a surprise… Needless to say it doesn’t end well when Marsha’s friend Sheila attempts to pry the nailed box open with some sharp metal shears… The rhythmic bass heavy backing track is called Booker T.
The crates contents here is a BSA Spitfire. The 2 gallon two-tone tank denotes a US destined model of this GP carbureted 650 a ton and a quarter capable speed demon.
…. grasped the cutter by both handles, took a deep breath, and plunged the long blade through the middle of the package, through the masking tape, through the cardboard, through the cushioning and (thud) right through the center of Waldo Jeffers head, which split slightly and caused little rhythmic arcs of red to pulsate gently in the morning sun….
October 17, 2013
Thor’s Day
The leeward side of hump-day: given great prominence in Norse mythology to the God of Thunder – Thor. Comic book giants Stan Lee & Jack Kirby saw him and his Hammer Mjolnir, as a superb character created in 1962 to illustrate in their Marvel publications. Blonde locks, bulging biceps, strength beyond ken. You didn’t stand in his way!
So why would to take him on in a feat of strength? This biker thinks he can try this on – it’ll end in tears – on what looks like an early BSA Lightning unit twin itself the sportiest ride of the day.
Side note: the recent Movies Thor as well as The Avengers is played by Chris Hemsworth (recently seen as James Hunt in Rush)
He also knows what a cool moto is: Triumph. Here looking moody on a 60’s bobb’d bike.
August 14, 2013
You’re in the Bloomin’ army now lad!”
Orlando, is quite the moto aficionado… Here he is taking great enjoyment from a WWII BSA M20. The half litre 13 pony do I all ride of couriers, scouts and dispatchers alike.
Of course half the fun of these pieces if military equipment is the hands-on needed to keep em rubber side down and destination bound. Twiddle carbs, sort timing, adjust valves, petrol on, tickle, retard and KICK. He just needs a blackout hood on the headlight for period correctness.
July 26, 2013
Half Liter Solo
Here’s what Triumph should be working on next: an entry level moto for the masses. A modular engine that can be used in a commuter, roadster, cafe, trailie, racer and light tourer. It’s a type that has been around forever and in recent guise was developed by the ‘too smart for his own good’ Erik Buell with the beginner Blast.
Honda has a tasty thumper in the GB ‘Tourist Trophy’
Kawasaki’s KX is sublime in green…
And of course there is the highly desirable BSA Goldie… Just look at it! Perfection on two wheels…
So Triumph! We dare you! There’s even an old single from the ex wartime parts bin….
Thump away!
June 23, 2013
Framed Oil
Back in the late sixties when the British motorcycle industry knew things were in hubris began an evolution of the globally successful Bonneville headed twin engined T series. The parent company BSA was waning and a merger with Norton Villiers was soon to be forced upon them. The wagons were circling…
..one if the remaining technical ‘wheezes’ they had was the creation of an oil filled frame or ‘Oil-in-Frame’ as they came to be known.
In ’71 Triumph introduced its new Bonneville & Trophy and BSA its Lightning and Thunderbolt. The photo shows their similarities such as the slab sided covers, and differences: notably the engine and gas tank. The Bonnie tries to keep a sense of its heritage whereas the Thunderbolt has new slim lines and the unit engine seems more in place. My ’72 should look like the farther model, but its developed into a 70’s hybrid.
Too little too late? The triples were a great bike, the twins were long in the tooth, worker political going on were afoot and the CB750 was running roughshod across the world. The death knell was run, BSA had a year and Triumph about ten of hobbling along.
However both good looking bikes…
May 26, 2013
Buzz Beezas
I took a drive out to pick up my Cub frame and wheels from the suburbs (more on that at a later date). The fella who’d brought the frame into the Chicagoland was Buzz Walneck; as soon as we got there he opened his garage to reveal an Aladdins Cave of two-wheeled wonder. A bevy of BSA’s sandwiching a X75 Hurricane sat at one end. The racing Clubman in the foreground was hard to take your eyes off, the orange and yeller Triumph triple included a Craig Vetter signature on the tank, and the far moto was a 500 single Catalina, the off-road version of the foreground item. All in fine condition. Beautiful machines! Well, we got the frame home… WD40 soaking some crusty bolts…
April 2, 2013
Tee Short (as a Geordie would say)
T-Shirt sketch. Nice fluid scribble of a Beeza twin pre-unit engine. The three lobed timing side cover is very distinctive. Hand written notes list the essential engine components: piston, sparkplugs, carbs, exhaust etc. This top is one of Red Torpedo’s offerings, they make garb for motorcyclists; also used by the likes of road racers & mechanics like Guy Martin.
March 17, 2013
Arrgh Gee Ess
Rocket Gold Star: just a few lines can evoke the classic lines of this great bike. Oh I wish I still had it! My few photos are all that give me the memories.
February 19, 2013
Skeleton Leathers
That means it’s Dave Aldana time! Racing with the best of ’em back in the seventies on the AMA Grand National Championship. An exuberant and daring style combined with a showy attire garnered him fame and success in a wide range of motorcycle races: flat track oval, speedway, motocross or road racing.
Starting out as a newcomer for the BSA team with the likes of Dick Mann, he cut his teeth on the big Rocket 3 triple; the British Superbike of its day.
Here’s a super line-up L-R: Jim Rice, Dave Aldana, Dick Mann then Mike Hailwood, and Don Emde all making up the ‘Wrecking Crew’. Then Mert Lawwill.
He went on to race smashing looking Norton’s both on dirt…
…or the road (track) the lovely John Player Norton. Truly sublime.
Here he is in good form on that Birmingham Twin. Classic Racing.
To be continued…
February 12, 2013
Clip-ons
Just add long and winding road ahead rushing towards you at a rapid pace: this is a sight for sore eyes in the depths of the winter Moto-hibernation. Pair of Smiths clocks with needles ready to spin clockwise; low bars ready to lean into (don’t worry the velocity created wind blast will support you!) and a throttle ready to be wrung-out.
Go on lad give ‘er some wellie!
February 8, 2013
Birmingham Big Arms
After the strong arm tats from a few days ago, here are some for the other Brit Iron marque: B.S.A. One a depiction of the stacked rifles logo, the other of a track racer.
A well illustrated photorealistic tattoo of a flat track beeza haring along at a good clip.
However I think graphically the Gold Star badge would make a tremendous piece of skin art. You’d better be careful, here in the ‘States, BSA also stands for the Boy Scouts of America; so you might end up with some quizzical faces looking at you…
February 3, 2013
The Original Geordie Biker
Some recent unearthed family photos included a couple of gems with my grandparents. George and Muriel, posed with George’s work bike. He was an AA man who plied the roads of North Northumberland. He ran about on a BSA combination, very similar to the Norton he rode in North Africa during WWII. George’s Uncle Cuthbert looks on.
They lived at an old stone terraced cottage called Whitsun View in the middle of the small rural market village Wooler; that’s where I grew up; nestled in the foothills of the Cheviot. I’d love to take to the lanes on an old single between the Coquet and the Royal Tweed.
Here are a couple of images of the yellow AA motorcycle outfit as well as a shot of two ‘officers’ in full regalia on their steeds.
“To our Members we’re the Fourth emergency service”
January 26, 2013
A Thumper…
Hare’s must rank as one of the wiliest of animals: the ears of a rabbit, whiskers of a cat, pace of a greyhound, attitude of a lion. They gave rise to the Brer Rabbit stories through the ‘Trickster’ tales brought from Africa; the christians took over Pagan symbolism of the goddess Ēostre who symbolised spring with the hare transformed into the easter bunny as well as the use of eggs then too (the crucifiction has nothing to do with easter, bunnies and eggs). Now where were we? A BSA single rushing along at a good clip with the English hedgerow whistling by at a blur can be seen to be ‘haring’ along: the verbisation of our Lepusian pal. So when I spotted this custom BSA single dressed up in a spare frame akin to our sinewy coursing friend, I knew we had the moto embodiment of our Mad March Haigha.
Well “Son of a Gun” is that bike. Built by Lamb Engineering under the watchmaker-like eye of Larry Houghton. Based on a half litre lung single it has been fashioned to present a lean line based on speed. Juicy rubber held by an ample front disc with low, low bars for a streamlined stance. The honey-gold colour radiates a warm spring afternoon. I’d love to be hunkered down on this machine, along some arrow-straight roman roads up Northumbria, an Anglo-Saxon history intertwined in the landscape around me. I wish they’d read Beowulf to us at school, not the Testaments…
Time for tea? Why it’s always time for tea!
December 30, 2012
Big Heart at Small Heath
The ‘other’ motorcycle manufacturer that spanned the globe was BSA, who indeed at one point exceeded Triumph in the output of bikes. Birmingham Small Arms of course started as rifle makers before expanding into bicycles and finally ending up as The Worlds Best Motorcycle. Here are some great historical images if their factory on Armoury Road at Small Heath near Birmingham.
BSA on the old brickwork.
A view down Armoury Road shows the proximity of the factory to the neighbouring terraced housing. The feathered B evident on the factory itself.
Factory workers line up for a bus, possibly just off shift or having just had a thirst quenching jar at the local pub.
Only a part of the factory remains, now used for the manufacture of air rifles, full circle for BSA it seems. Can this name see a fresh dawn of motorcycles? With able craftsmen like Larry Houghton of Lamb’s Engineering and his fantastic ‘Son of a Gun’ custom Beeza the future could look bright! A litre sized Lightning, a nimble 500cc Goldstar, a 750 dual use Hornet… Give the Hinckley crowd something to think about eh?
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