Delightful pen-and-ink drawings by Cat Bowman Smith used to illustrate the ‘un-education’ books by Amy Macdonald. The combination is piloted by Aunt Mattie and ably passengered by Uncle Philbert. The line work reminds me of the penmanship of Edward Ardizzone who added imagery to much loved children’s books such as The Otterbury Incident by C Day Lewis and Stig of the Dump by Clive King, among others.
March 19, 2016
Hold On!
March 18, 2016
Marmalade
Golly! The Robertson Preserve Company make the second best orange shredded jam. My father makes the best! Their mascot was used for enamel colored metal badges that were collected. This is a cute combination.
March 13, 2016
Look Back
Upon reflection this is a good idea. I acquired a near side mirror to attach to the handlebar end offering a little more all-round visibility. I still always to a head check on both sides before moving across anyways- this just adds to the sense of awareness. Both mirrors are by California based CRG the left is a 3″ dia. Model Hindsight. The right is the smaller 2″ dia. Blindsight.
March 7, 2016
Alexa
Alec Baldwin takes pilot role whilst Jason Schwartzman rides pillion. Amazon has a new interactive device for information and media: called Alexa (the other Siri). Like some quirky scene from a Wes Anderson movie these two look intent on adventure and shenanigans.
December 24, 2015
Better the Devil you know
Krampus: Saint Nick’s hornéd counterpart who takes care of bad kids! He’s the one who rides motorcycles; Santy just sits in the chair… Good old pagan rituals still strong during this season of goodwill…
Merry Christmas!
October 21, 2015
UNICEF
Motorcycle ambulances, like the one pictured, are saving lives in remote villages that are not accessible by cars or trucks. As well as Riders for Health who do a great job of putting medical staff out to remote areas on lightweight dirt bikes, Unicef have a rugged combination ambulance to haul patients to and fro.
August 16, 2015
MCC Villa Park Vintage Motorcycle Show
Though it was a hot 90 degree day we managed to get out to the west suburbs where a well attended show took place at the Triumph Ducati dealer in Villa Park. The parking lot was divided into show bikes and parked bikes. I had mine in the common or garden parked bikes. There was a great selection of clean examples of old rides in both areas. This little original condition Benelli starts things off. Small in stature but grand in character.
A ’73 Harley Davidson combination owner was very proud of her outfit. She had toted a tree in the chair earlier this year. Wherever she drive it people would wave and cheer!
Another outfit: this time a BMW r75 wartime rig. Fully dressed for European action with MG34 machine gun, jerry cans and trailer. A true enthusiast.
The parking lot contained new Triumphs, this new Royal Enfield Continental GT, Beemers, Kawasakis, Hondas, an odd Harley or two. Motorcycle gawkers heaven! This week I’ll show the congregation of Nortons, Beezas, and other fine examples of older machines.
December 9, 2014
Well give the men a few minutes more Sergeant.
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.
October 4, 2014
LEGO
Angry Toy: Black brick biker (*assembly required).
I learned a lit about how things are built using the basic blocks of LEGO. These days there are countless mouldings to allow anything to be made. Early Technic sets started the idea of gears, axles, riveted beams and the like.
An early motorbike kit had the option of building a combination or chopper, both with working piston engine and chain drive.
I loved the assembly drawings.
May 21, 2014
A fine combination
Baron con Snoopy and his chirruping sidekick Woodstock take to the open road in a ‘snappy’ model sidecar…
Here’s the item in real-life.
It seems having this pair as driver and chair occupant is quite popular…
March 21, 2014
If you shout loud enough… You’ll get a little hearse!
What better way for the conveyance of a casket for a motorcyclist that a hearse combination. Motorcycle Funerals have just that outfit with glass surrounded car being driven along by a appropriate 900cc Triumph Adventurer.
A handsome thing giving dignity to the departed.
..and a wreath for memorial? We have just the ticket for you sir… Poppy red Bonneville.
And a reading….
The Soldier by Rupert Brooke written in 1914
If I should die, think only this of me:
That there’s some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England.
There shall be in that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
A body of England’s, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.
And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.
This was of course written at the onset of that hideous war and before the loss of innocence of a country, continent and world. But it’s a fine poem nonetheless.
An aside note: Chicago, IL once operated 3 different funeral trolley cars over the elevated tracks in downtown Chicago to outlying cemeteries in the western suburbs. A special funeral bureau handled the funeral trains which sometimes operated 3-4 funeral trains a week over the ‘L’. Me? I’ll pick the motorcycle any day!
March 10, 2014
Ring, ring, why don’t you give me a call
On this day in 1876 Alexander Graham Bell called his assistant on the ‘phone: “Mr. Watson—Come here—I want to see you”. And so heralded the age of telephone communication … Ongoing promotion includes this fun BSA combination of a large dial and receiver fashioned to tote around the towns and villages of Britain by the GPO, the General Post Office, who were involved in all communication be they letter, telegram, telegraph or telephone.
“The World at your finger tips”
Photo by Topical Press Agency/Getty Images 20th June 1932
February 27, 2014
to look for America
” A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find that after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us.”
John Steinbeck (born 112 years ago today)
Steinbeck wrote of the ‘open road’ and the journey of life people made along its way. His muse was America and a colorful time in her history during the Depression; the roads were dusty, the workers dustier but the pulse keen. In his latter years he took to the highways and byways to see the state of the Union; with a trusty poodle companion named Charley by his side, and a pickup camper as his wheels and abide both.
Rocinante he named his conveyance, after the man from la Mancha’s steed, and a Quixotic journey was made in 1960 to see with his own eyes how the country was faring.
A cozy spot to journey from, free of fuss and possession. A mobile hermits cabin to journey unencumbered. It has the air of a motorcycle traveler who needs to be lightfooted ready to follow the unknown road ahead. I could see a younger Steinbeck taking a motorcycle combination on such a journey with pup passenger in the chair rambling along the old Routes from dusty town to dusty town on an Indian or Harley.
The venture could easily be adapted into a modern exploration of the country, keeping to smaller local routes, allowing time to absorb the immediate realm.
A bit too sedate… Though nice for an outing to the vintage rally… Parasol, flat-cap and plus-fours speed!
Here we go! Rocinante II
“Pack our bags Honey! We’re off exploring!”
February 14, 2014
Snoopy & Woodstock
Charles M. Schultz created the worldly characters of Peanuts headed by the confidence-lacking-though-persistence-forging Charlie Brown. The voiceless side characters of the beagle Snoopy and bird Woodstock add a vaudevillean duo to the proceedings. Snoops thoughts gave a consciousness to Chuck’s yearnings….
He even traveled in space … NASA naming Apollo 10’s Command and Lunar module Charlie Brown and Snoopy respectively.
LM snoopy approaches the CM above the lunar surface.
Gene Cernan and Ron Evans with their comm ‘Snoopy’ caps… Like Baron von Snoopy’s ace flying cap…. Or his black puppy ears…
Here he is on the moon!
Happy Valentines Day!
January 21, 2014
A Close Shave
“A bloomin’ combination Gromit!” One way to show off the town square annual display. Here’s a superb show in the guise of our plasticine pals Wallace and his trusty companion Gromit.
Welshman Mike Prankerd went a step further taking an old 500cc BSA, giving it a rich red color and bolting on a similarly colored Watsonian chair complete with stuffed hound and started haring around for public good laughs.
A cracking good show.
Finally one for the album so to speak is this cutaway diagram of the sidecar outfit in a classic technical penned illustration. This is taken from one of the light-hearted Haynes manual for Aardman contraptions used on Wallace’s adventures. It even has the folded-up aircraft piloted by Gromit as his chair is separated from his master and takes to the skies.
Nearly as good as a bit of Wensleydale…
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