Daytona – little brother of the Bonneville. Though only 500cc’s against the 650 T120 it still managed to maintain an enviable racing career. This original example is owned by Ed Zender; he’d just pulled it from storage the day before. I’m including the old shop sign from the earlier location up on Route 173 near Richmond IL.
Woodcut Wheelie! Stunning black and red print-like graphic of some riding dude hauling their Triumph onto its back wheel.
Greeting Card – a work colleague saw this card built up using layers of cutout paper. Nicely done – I made a request for my next birthday…
Meatloaf! – for old time sake I picked up this overplayed album from the eighties. Classic and theatrical. Perfect foot stompin’ dashboard slappin’ music when you’re stuck in Friday evening Lake Shore Drive traffic – water on the drivin’ side…
The Mother Road – beautiful crisp graphic art by Antonio Ortega showing a MotoGirl sitting recumbent on her speeding triple. A lucky cat sits contentedly at pillion. All is Good in the World.
Cartoon – burly and surly character and his ’67 Bonneville illustrated in fine style by Quique Maqueda. Other graphic offerings can be seen on his blog: Magnificent Men Flying Machines.
Technical Lines – side elevation of a racing spec Triumph T120TT. Reminds me of a draughting table, set square, and 0.15, 0.25, 0.5 & 0.7 Rotring drawing instruments.
Five Crows – companions on a ride. Appropriately a Triumph 6T Thunderbird. The linocut is quite perfectly composed, with the necessary dark and light creating the image beautifully. The crow is one of my favorite birds; intelligent, curious, blue black plumage as dark as a storm. From the capable artisan hands of Matylda Mcilvenny from Sweden. See her work at the Etsy shop GoneUndoneSthlm.
Red Molly – flowing crimson locks under a moonlit star-studded sky. The muse in Richard Thompson’s most known song; who was given the keys for a ’52 Black Lightning by her dying beau James Adie, as he gasps his last breath from injuries sustained from armed robbery.
Illustrator Brett Breckon from the UK has created a stunning vision of le femme Moto.
Using a process called scraperboard it is the removal of black ink to reveal a white subsurface. The dark mass of a Vincent and it’s leather-clad rider are perfect for such a media.
Ogri’s Ancestor – further to the previous post here’s a series of cartoon panels, published over a century ago, illustrating the travels, or more accurately travails, of Motorcycle Mike. Quite destructive in his quest for a suitable worldly destination.
Motorcycle Mike – interesting doodle by cartoonist Frank King in a sheaf of autographs from 1915. King is known as the creator of Gasoline Alley, the second longest running cartoon strip (1918). A character in that strip was Skeezix who grew up and got old during the C20th. Motorcycle Mike was one of a number of characters developed by King in the mid teens for the Chicago Tribune.
O my Luve’s like a red, motorcycle,
That’s newly put in tune:
O my Luve’s like the Bonneville,
That’s quickly rode vroom, vroom.
Backfire! One of the unfriendly characteristics of a kickstarting motorcycle is the occasional pre-detonation that flails the lever back into your foot or shin. There aren’t enough curse words in the English language when this happens… Fantastic depiction by the talented pen and ink work of Dutch illustrator Charles Burki “The Recoil!”
Steam Punk Rocker – Nicely sorted custom, built from a Triumph Scrambler, for racer, and former boxer, Sarah Lahalih. Created by the capable mechanic-artisan shop Garage Company owned by Los Angelean Yoshinobu Kosaka. Using a flat-track theme its low lines a reflected in the smooth grain of a wooden seat and crescent swept back handlebars. A leather clad tank, tanned to a warm complexion, with stitched “Triumph” logo emphasize the boardtrack chassis vision, supplemented with a springer fork front end. The leather strapped Pendleton wool blanket completes the look. All she needs is a South West weave covered water canteen and an adventure road from the nineteen twenties beckons. Westward Ho!
geordiebiker.com 