Another law enforcing rider; this time an antipodean one… Here’s a slouch hatted cobber ready for pulling over some tinnie slurpin’ Bruce driving home in his ute from a barbie.
March 9, 2013
S.A.I.N.T.
Stops anything in no time: or so goes the acronym for the trusty TR6 Triumphs used as speedy urban transport by the Metropolitan Police. Here are some such heavenly outriders giving Heavy police and security escort for America’s President Richard Nixon who drove from Claridges Hotel to No 10 Downing Street, London for his talks with the Prime Minister, Harold Wilson. The year is 1969.
Of course this was before the downward spiral of the Meriden shenanigans over the next decade; the police would then take to rotary Nortons and big faired Beemers. However these ‘post-war’ Triumphs gave a very traditional quality to the bobby-on-the-bike!
Here’s another couple of photos from these times showing a perfect line up of Speed Twins and Thunderbirds that the boys in blue loved to speed up and down the country on – when freshly laid motorways were quiet and getaway cars were slow…
Of course the moto’s were used around the world in far flung commonwealth colonies law enforcement units too.
Ah, imagine being the local officer toting around Kingston Jamaica in khaki shorts atop a sweet 500 Triumph; pop over to coral cove for a spot of fishing later on!
March 8, 2013
A Mans Moto: without a tail!
When perfection comes together the outcome is truly sublime. Norton’s decades long experience with two-wheeled racing reaches a zenith with their 500cc Manx. That big piston thumping out power with a rorting boom as it hares around the lanes and circuits of the racing realm.
Need to catch the ferry to Douglas?
March 7, 2013
Yes, Prime Minister
A few loose end from the demise of the UK MC industry. Remember that Matchless from a couple of entries ago? Well there was a little epilogue to that story: in the 80’s one certain Les Harris took a 500cc Rotax single, slotted it into an oil carrying frame, added a few select European components and tried to ply it against the Asian offerings. However the price point couldn’t match the Yamaha SRX single. So out come the Tories extolling British Industry at its best: and who none other than Maggie and Dennis…
Give ‘er a lump of coal and Dennis a stiff drink!
Well move on a decade and the tables turn; in more ways than one: New Labour arrives and our pal Tony get ‘is leg over the smart new Daytona. Smarmy git! Glenda Jackson glowers in the background…
February 25, 2013
Hawaii or Bust
Sons of the Desert: nope not a Laurel & Hardy adventure; but a jaunt across rutted, scrub patched scorched back country in SoCal or Baja. Knobbly tires shod on a tough old purely functional sled. Looks like way too much fun!
Is that an AMC Javelin poking its nose in?
February 22, 2013
Not so careless torque
The Tau of Life: The echoing O’s of the Norton logo repeated in the speed tipped wheels of this racer creates a strong Moto-image. Force times by its displacement vector.
Horsepower is torque times revs divided by 5252.
February 11, 2013
Sunshine Coast Gals
Port Elizabeth, South Africa. More family two-wheeled shenanigans, this time my Great Aunt Lil. A happy biker chick on her BMW R60, at what looks like the early seventies. My grandfather George Lawrie’s sister-in-law.
Now then! Here is a great photo of Aunt Lil’s sister, Aunt Jean, taken a few years ago, she flew over to visit for her sister’s 90th. She had to have a go on her nephew, Gordon’s latter day Beemer, the sublime GS1200.
Slowly but surely the Moto-family-tree is being formed!
February 10, 2013
Moto-Lady 1918: Jessie Curry
Another one from the family vault. A very period image from circa 1918 of my great-great aunt Jessie. It looks like a visit to a summer chalet. She’s dressed appropriately for the English roads of the day. After a little research I find the make and model of this bike: a Royal Enfield 225L. This one with the transverse barrel tank was the ladies model with lower cross bar for their long dresses. Apparently a popular model too; it was later used by the Women’s Army.
225cc and about 9hp… Just enough power for those quiet roads of a century ago.
February 5, 2013
Snowy
A clean white blanket of snow covers all; not to much to require much digging out mind, but enough to stymie all but the most ardent of riders. Warm clothing, studded tires, and a decent old hack. Not so here in Chicago… The two-wheeled crowd are all inside with their moto’s warmly ensconced ready for that first spring day. Or, having cycle-surgery being undertaken such as my ride. Here are a couple of neglected bikes seen on my local dogwalk. A long legged Suzuki 850 ready for the long haul, and a Honda VT Shadow 750. Both quite sculptural in their wintry cloak.
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 24, 2013
Goin’ faster than a Roller Coaster…
Long before one Don Maclean wrote That song the boys were having a great time riding a wave of youths popularity. After a long tour in May 1958 they took a side trip from Lubbock to Dallas to pick up some mo’orsickles. The Harley D dealerships told these young whippersnappers not to touch their machines; across town at Ray Millers Triumph showroom they received good enough treatment to pick up a few of the latest models of Brit Iron available at that time.
Buddy took an Aerial Cyclone; J.I. a Triumph Trophy; and Joe B a Triumph Thunderbird. Story goes they then rode ’em back across town to the Harley dealer to show off their new rides, then hauled along the highway to Lubbock some 350 miles away. I bet they were singin’ all the way!
Here’s a period advert for the Ariel…
The Aerial eventually made it to the Waylon Jennings estate; as you know he gave his seat on that fateful flight to Buddy. It’s a nice looking bike fit for one if the true founders of rock ‘n’ roll.
January 5, 2013
The Conqueror
A Moto-mechanics factory: Phil Vincent’s gaff at Stevenage Herts. These images show the rolling assembly line, yes each bike has its own platform, as it would be trundled around the Great North Road plant.
Apparently they would take each component and either machine it to a finer tolerance fit or take another component from the stock shelves. Truly high end motorcycles ready for fast work on the new motorways being branched through the nation post war.
The Rapide: 1000cc’s of Superbike. 150mph out of the factory.
January 4, 2013
Priory Street Works
For nigh on the first half of the Twentieth Century the Triumph company was based in Coventry. Housed in a large factory where both motorcycles and cars were built in large numbers. The clunking of machinery, grinding of lathes, and rumbling of engines must have been a heady experience. Horn blows and the shift starts.
Here’s a great image of a squad of weathertight adorned test riders ready to hit the Midlands lanes to check the bike for owner worthiness.
The factory turned to war efforts in the late thirties which put it square in the sights of the German Wehrmacht; and lo, during the Coventry Blitz between September 1940 and May 1941 the works, along with other manufacturing, were flattened by Heinkel and Dornier bombers. (A side note: Coventry is twinned with Volgagrad and Dresden, both noted sites of major WWII history)
Triumph Motorcycles were rapidly rebuilt in ’42, this time over in Solihull at the Meriden factory.
December 31, 2012
Luck before you Leap…
Let’s all see a jump into the New Year a lot more safely than our old friend Bob Craig ‘Evel’ Knievel. His Sin City leap over the Caesars Palace fountain on New Years Eve in 1967 though launching his celebrity it landed him in a months coma…
You be careful out there folks!
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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