The Star Spangled Banner: a strong symbol to many and flown proudly on this day.
I’m wearing my #278 ISDT tee which was Steve McQueens race number in the 1964 International Six Day Trials Where he bore the flag for the U.S. Team. In the parade through East Germany’s Erfurt he held Old Glory in what he considered one of his proudest moments. Bud & Dave Ekins, John Steen and Cliff Coleman marched with him.
Each year there is a celebratory gathering of Triumphs held in the middle of Europe. Under looming alpine peaks and cuckoo clock villages the rolling Austrian countryside sees Spaniards on Tigers, Italians on Speed Triples, Brits on Daytona’s and Germans on big touring Trophys. Triumph Motorcycles being the common denominator. Like a Tutonic Sturgis for British Iron…
If you just so happen to be at the old banked racetrack in Montlhery France this weekend you could do a lot worse that go and see vintage racers haring around the velodrome. This years promotional poster is aptly graphic for a period event. Three color screen is just perfect! (Well a couple of other colors too) Red haired checker waver is suitably elegant.
Memorial Day Weekend: when we remember those who died so the free can be. Countrywide events include motorcycle gatherings and ride-outs. It’s mostly the Hog crowds and their shiny tasseled Harley Davidsons. Leather vested with middle age tattoos and members of some group or other. Here’s the flyer for a Souther event “Not recommended for children”.
Got Air?
Goon, poet, artillery signaller, Irish. That’s Spike Milligan who would be 98 today. His off kilter buffoonery was fresh air in a world of stale comedy.
Say Bazonka every day
That’s what my grandma used to say
It keeps at bay the Asian Flu’
And both your elbows free from glue.
So say Bazonka every day
(That’s what my grandma used to say)
Don’t say it if your socks are dry!
Or when the sun is in your eye!
Never say it in the dark
(The word you see emits a spark)
Only say it in the day
(That’s what my grandma used to say)
Young Tiny Tim took her advice
He said it once, he said it twice
he said it till the day he died
And even after that he tried
To say Bazonka! every day
Just like my grandma used to say.
Now folks around declare it’s true
That every night at half past two
If you’ll stand upon your head
And shout Bazonka! from your bed
You’ll hear the word as clear as day
Just like my grandma used to say!
He sits on a Wooler motorcycle. Some publicity shot from the Veteran & Vintage magazine in 1968.
My Gran would have been one hundred today. Muriel Lawrie née Hartnupp. Here she is with my Grandad George on his AA combination motorbike and aunt Jean on his knee. Puts this photo about 1939 at 5 Whitsun View in Wooler Northumberland. Uncle Cuth looks on. Muriel died a week shy of her 90th.
Another birthday today: this time antipodean fast-man Burt Munro. He of the fastest Indian fame, whereby when others look to allotments and fishing into retirement he decided to see what his 1920’s Scout could do on The Salt. The story is told excellently in the Anthony Hopkins movie for a decade ago “The Worlds Fastest Indian” a cracker of a yarn. Born in 1899 he spent a lifetime racing motorcycles. Living his life out of Invercargill way down on the South Island of New Zealand.
A great photo of him fettling his beach-rod. A world travelers Triumph sits behind.
One of the most famous motorcycling photos was taken in 1948 of a speedo suited Rollie Free lay prone along the backbone of a Vincent Black Lightning and tore along the Bonneville Salt Flats at 150.313 mph.
The image goes down in history giving Vincent the title of fastest production motorcycle in the world. The “bathing suit bike” came into the possession of Herb Harris the Austin TX collector (whose ‘shop I visited yesterday) before being sold recently for $1.1 million. His trailer is still adorned with the iconic outline.
Now that is history.
…was when the Second motorcycle was built. Here’s a besmocked racer ready for a long scoot from one end (Land’s) to t’other (John o’Groats). The ride is a 3 1/2 Hp Triumph.
Buzz Aldrin turned 85 today. Fighter Pilot, Orbital maneuvering specialist, moonwalker, science advocate and Mars Mission promoter. Here he is in Apollo days arriving to work in his small Corvette Stingray coupe smallblock. Well he’s gotta go slow sometimes!
Gemini 12. Spacewalking selfie. A life lived rich in history.
Martin Luther King Jr. Would have been 86 today. He gave a heartbeat, voice, and power to the unqual citizens. Promoting human rights to a minority. He has a dream that lives on.
This cycling image shows the humility of the man.
Espied jaunting around the highways and byways of Mediterranean climes is what the motopress believe to be Triumphs next monster-killer. Basically the Thruxton on steroids and given a Gold’s Gym membership. The 900cc engine pumped up to an assumed 1200, 180 shod rear wheel, Popeye like front forks, forward leaned stance.
Big front stoppers, proud mufflers, wire-spoked wheels. Apparently it may come out in the 2016 model line up. Possible name is Street Tracker. I’d rather see it called the Speed Twin. Better start saving my pennies!
They should go bold too and offer it in both black and the historical Amaranth Red…
What better way to recognize the true end of the old year and beginning of the new one than a jaunt to the grandest of Ancient Monuments: Stonehenge. Sitting proudly on the Wiltshire plain as it has done for over five millennia it truly is a connection to our prehistory and its mystic ways.
Lately (well the last hundred years or so) it becomes a gathering spot for neo-druidism. Here’s a photo from the seventies with the winter sun peeking through a pair of standing stones. I found this photo of some travelers stopping off at the site in the mid sixties. A Triumph steed sits with baggage for a decent looking roadtrip.This was when everyone could stroll across the lawns to it. A Morris Mini sits parked nearby.
Kirk Douglas is 98 today. One of the greats of movies. He had heart in his roles; whether a slave gladiator Spartacus, a proud Viking or, as seen here, a war weary Colonel Dax with a terrible commanding order to execute in Kubrick’s Paths of Glory.
A brief opening scene has his appearance in a sidecar riding to the rear to be given orders to go over the top in an apparently no-win attack. It is one (of many) of Kubrick’s masterpiece’s.
Let’s keep on events and life of one hundred years ago. Horses needed fed and the noises of the whizz-bangs startled them. Pour petrol in the flat tank; set the oil lubrication, air in the balloon tires, leather drive belt tensioned and off you go.
It also became everyday transport for the lad about town post conflict.
geordiebiker.com 