March 25, 2019
Kustom Kat |For over five decades the custom motorcycle scene has been dominated by one name Arlen Ness. He passed away over the weekend leaving a void in the genre. Taking the laid-back Californian attitude and rebuilding bikes into crazy vestiges of their former self he would use mostly Harley Davidson’s to create multitudes of choppers, bobbers, and, like this Triumph, diggers. This latter style was a needle thin profile with stretched out forks – highly impractical but look beautiful. Arlen Ness 1938-20019 RIP
Posted in 60's, 70's, Bobber, Chopper, Design, Motorcycle Art, Triumph Motorcycle |
Leave a Comment »
March 3, 2019
Rat Bike | a bag of odds ‘n’ ends combined into a particular taste in machinery. An oily rag special which just needs the long straight highways of the SW States to draw out its nuanced style.
“The river flows, it flows to the sea
Wherever that river goes that’s where I want to be
Flow river flow, let your waters wash down
Take me from this road to some other town”
Roger McGuinn (w/ Bob Dylan)
Posted in 60's, Chopper, Project, Triumph Motorcycle |
Leave a Comment »
January 21, 2019
Bill’s new project – forlorn in the corner of some prefab garage sits a worse for wear Triumph chopper. Plenty of mid seventies elbow grease to revive its mechanical working from storage decrepitude… Mr Ferry, ready for a money pit?
Posted in 60's, Chopper, Project, Restoration, Triumph Motorcycle |
5 Comments »
January 20, 2019
Chopper x 2 – Sunday musings with a couple of posters of Triumph pre-unit Choppers. These are the sort of images I’d have blu-tacked to my bedroom wall.
Posted in 60's, Chopper, Photography, Triumph Motorcycle |
7 Comments »
December 11, 2018
Attitude – a pair of British ‘ells angels give the photographer a surly glower in another image from the Café Royal Books publication.
Posted in 70's, Chopper, Photography, Triumph Motorcycle |
Leave a Comment »
December 10, 2018
Photo Zine – limited edition photography books are available from Cafe Royal Books. Amongst their offering are some excellent photojournalistic publications. This one is filled with evocative images from the seventies of bikers attending the iconic races on the Isle of Man. You can smell the drips of Castrol on the deck of the Douglas ferry.
Posted in 70's, BSA, cafe racer, Chopper, Photography, Triumph Motorcycle |
Leave a Comment »
November 1, 2018
Naive Art – this piece is called Rosie’s Chopper by artist Stuart Swartz. Image statement:
“Here’s another whimsical painting of “Rosie”, this time proudly posing with her Triumph chopper.
This image was painted in a neo ’70s style reminiscent of velvet art and model box illustration from that era.”
Posted in 70's, Chopper, Gals, Motorcycle Art, Triumph Motorcycle |
Leave a Comment »
August 9, 2018
Long Legs – we got ourselves a double-decker fork chopper here. Bouncing springer front end that crosses the State line half an hour before you get there. The cruciform tank; the German eagle badge on the owners leather vest; and the missing front teeth from a happy smile tell an intriguing story.
Posted in 70's, Chopper, Photography, Triumph Motorcycle |
1 Comment »
August 8, 2018
Chopper Wednesday – stretched and wrung out: these Brit iron have been chopped into next week. Including a rosy red hardtail Trident with double decker headlight and stepped king and queen seat, as well as a ape hangered Bonnie with taller than an elephants eye sissy bar seat with quilt buttoned saddlework. The Norton in the lower right frame could be restored to original fairly easily but you’d be brave to keep the flamed tank.
Easy Rider? Sure ask Captain America for directions!
Posted in 60's, Chopper, Design, Norton, Restoration, Triumph Motorcycle, Triumph Trident |
Leave a Comment »
June 5, 2018
June 5 1968 – Senator Robert ‘Bobby’ Kennedy was shot on the campaign trail for President of the United States. Just five years after his brother Jack, and two short months after Rights activist Martin Luther King. The event rang an ominous peal in the events of ’68 which saw the country turn on itself in political, social, civil, and military turmoil. He was a beacon of a bright future that the US so desperately needed.
Here someone had created chopper art with RFK gunning a double vee-twin drag bike named after his wife Ethel.
I have an idea for a novel: Jack & Bobby weren’t assassinated, the moon landings continued, Vietnam was a short military skirmish, John Jr is current a President and the Soviet Union is still in place… that’s the alternative historical context.. I just need a seed for a storyline…
Posted in 60's, Chopper, Harley Davidson, History, Writing |
Leave a Comment »
March 23, 2018
Black Bike – low seat, aped bars, hard tail, straight pipes… we’re talkin’ ATTITUDE! Don’t mess with this sister; she’ll chew ya up and spit you out so much as glower at you. Ebony chopper matches her black tank top and bandanna.
Posted in 60's, Chopper, Clothing, Gals, Triumph Motorcycle |
Leave a Comment »
March 10, 2018
Rusty Relic – keeping the chopped, stretched, hacked, hammered, sawed, bolted, welded and patina’d on the road. It probably rode straight from the Summer of Love into a musty shed for half a century.
Posted in 60's, Chopper, Project |
1 Comment »
March 9, 2018
Psychedelic ‘Cycle – Candy colored paint scheme; long legged springer front end; drag barred steering; sissy saddled; peanut tanked; and Triumph Twin hearted. A chopper of sixties style. Kool!
Posted in 60's, Chopper, Gals |
Leave a Comment »
March 3, 2018
Peanut – stretched out with a sleepy rake and hard triangulated tail that would necessitate long straight and smooth roads. Nicely built with good proportional chopper architecture. If Meriden had custom shop that mirrored the American scene of the day i believe it would prepare machines like this.
Posted in 60's, Chopper, Triumph Motorcycle |
1 Comment »
December 31, 2017
Happy New Year – as another year passes and the beckoning days of the year ahead loom large let’s consider the excitement of heaving a Triumph chopper into a wheelie and gunning it along the road…
Posted in 60's, Chopper, Photography, Triumph Motorcycle |
1 Comment »
