Armistice- on this day One Hundred years ago saw the end of hostilities of The Great War. A global conflict whose influence ripples to this day. Tragic in outcome; it saw the loss of a generation through industrialized warfare, epidemic disease, boundary reconfiguration, and political & societal upheaval.
Imagine – John Lennon would have been 78 today. “Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted.“
One Small Step – 49 years ago today saw the monumental combined effort of thousands who achieved the seemingly impossible task of landing men on the moon and returning them safely back to earth. Neil, Buzz and Mike were those men and Apollo was their craft.
Freak Power – another Coloradan piece of folk lore was the 1970 election for Sheriff in Aspen which included on the ballot Gonzo reporter extraordinaire Hunter S Thompson whose goal was to shake-up the incumbent conservative leaders. Though unsuccessful it did pave the way for liberal reformation later that decade.
D-Day June 6th 1944 saw the landing of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force along the Normandy coastline. The beachhead that saw the beginning of the invasion of mainland Europe to free its people from the clutches of Nazi occupation.
This Triumph mage shows some dispatch riders disembarking from a Landing Craft Tank LST with their Matchless G3/L’s onto one of the beaches. Everyone arrived with wet feet and many under a hail of bullets.
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…
Royalty – with the wedding of Harry & Meghan earlier today I thought I’d look at the Windsor’s and compare them with their corresponding Triumph. Queen Mother? Model H, old world classic, suitable for a day at the races. Prince Philip? A German TWN 2 Stroke – the European Triumph. QE2? Easy, a ’59 Bonnie; timeless classic. Princess Margaret? The racy Thruxton, Charles? The too-little-too-late Trophy 250.
William & Harry? The new Triumphs! 675 Daytona or T120 Bonneville. Next generation.
A Full Head of Steam – Fill the boiler, stoke the fires, crank the flywheel, spin the governor. The Age of Steam Power fed the Industrial Revolution the explosion of society that would eventually become modern times. Some inventive folk like to adorn Victorian garb and assume an air of a contemporary age still driven under James Watt’s engines. Steampunk! Here’s a custom Triumph Triple set up as as if it were a 19th Century era Motorcycle.
Red Square – center of the socialist world. May 1st celebrates the workers of the world and their stand for the rights of the laboring class. Started after the Haymarket Affair in Chicago which occurred after striking action for an 8 hour day turned into a riot. The Ural combinations ride in a formal line through Moscow in 1951. Soviet era banners fly from the GUM department store behind.
St George – patron saint of England. It seems fitting that a saddle cover emblazoned with his crusader inspired red on white cross is available for a Triumph Bonneville. His lance was called Ascalon, which apparently is the name Winston Churchill gave his private aeroplane during WW2. His horse is always depicted as white.
Che – standing in proud resolution as if photographed by Alberto Korda, who captured the famous Ernesto Guevara image, this Triumph Cub evokes its mid Century heritage. The black headlight nacelle is elegant engineering against the steel blue tank.
Royal Air Force – turns 100 today. From beginnings during The Great War, through protection of various Empirical Territories it revealed its true strength in the skies over England during The Battle of Britain where, in Churchill’s words “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few,”
Brighton 1964 – if you were there you were either a Mod or a Rocker. The scene to bee seen along the seafront of Kings Road. This smart chap has a leopardskin seat cover on his faired Triumph Cub whilst some other clean-cut youths gaze on. Horror films on show for period entertainment though the daily lifestyle of these two iconic subcultures were heady enough. Great photo though!
Tarzan – 1975 July 17th, here we see Shadow Minister for Industry Michael Heseltine peering at what looks like the meager leftovers of a once vibrant motorcycle industry. A two-stroke 125 Norton Villiers Triumph sitting all slick looking with nowhere to go… The setting is the Royal Automobile Club RAC headquarters in Pall Mall. NVT chairman Dennis Poole isn’t amused as he looks on. Heseltine cut a controversial swathe through British politics from the seventies to the millennium under Heath, Thatcher and Major. He could swing a mace too! He’s 85 today.
Skeletal Remains – like some machine archaeology the bare bones of a Trident frame and accessory components hint at a fully assembled and running motorcycle. Fossil remnants of a T-Rex giant lizard displayed through the interior spaces of a museum are only a cursory attempt at the frightening might they must have been. Likewise this assemblage of rolling chassis need fleshed-out to achieve brutal speed along a roadway.
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