This is a spare tool: muckle tank, teeny seat with close bum-stop, low bars and rear pegs. Built for low slung road going rapidity it can’t stay stopped for too long; you need to get a pace on to get the balance of streamlined stance versus tired wrists and neck. I like it! Very much!
Branding is a name, branding is identity, branding is recognition. In the motorcycle world none more so than Triumph. With over a century of visibility the marques logo has developed and adapted with its place through history to create a timeless brand.
The latest logo was developed by the ad agency Wolff Olins.
It has evened out lettering, equal height and rounded off serif to create a hint of slope and movement. Looks good on the tank…
For the nerdy graphic designers…
Here’s the technical font structure and letter space kerning. More to it than meets the eye for sure.
A fabulous long ride around the south part of Lake Michigan through the Indiana State Dunes Park to New Buffalo Michigan. Cool bright morning turning into a warm day suitable to be called May 31st. We stopped in at Bob Goodpastors ‘shop in Hobart.
Benches lined with engines: race and road both. The floor with half built chassis such as featherbed, and Goldstar. Shelves packed to the gunwales with boxes of parts, cylinder heads, gearboxes, hubs. A veritable Aladdin’s Cave!
Wheels overhead hang with miles recorded in the tension of their singing spokes. Tools bedeck the wall ready for plenty of action the old machines require. A back shed if filled further with plentiful supplies of cycle components awaiting projects needing donor parts.
And of course in the center of it all is the friendly and gracious Bob, more than willing to show us the nooks and crannies if his world. Pup was super friendly too!
Exquisite technical illustration from the masters hand. This is Lawrie Watts at his finest: taking a complex machine, engine or entire vehicle and in perfectly weighted line work achieves both x-ray vision and form of assemblage.
It reminds me of the old hand drawn plans and details I had to prepare before computers were in the office. Ink, mylar and stinking dyline machines…
Before wheels there’s the ubiquitous playroom rocking horse. Here’s one given a sweet ‘update’ only needing the bucking shenanigans of some mini leather jacketed kid with a grin as wide as the curved rails. 🙂
Blue sky graphic with streaming air speeding past this ink print of the suitably dressed period biker and his Triumph. Classic comic penwork with speed lines imply the moving moto.
Fill ‘er up and let’s hit the road! Weather a crystal clear day with glowing blue skies, a hint of a cooling lake breeze and minimal holiday weekend early Sunday morning traffic.
We would through leafy roads north and ended up in Volo. The car museum was open and also had a classic car show to boot. Opening with this fire-engine red Duisenberg. Coachwork on the boat shaped body was sublime.
Carroll Shelby knew how to pump some adrenaline into these 60’s Ponies: the gold striped black example looked the part. Your for fifty grand.
M
Ford Econoline open van: functional, turquoise, spare…
Loved this greyhound good ornament adorning the windward end of a fine 39’s Ford. Geordie at speed…
Stopped at a diner in Rockland Road Rote 176 for pancakes and syrup. Good weather and a cracking ride!
A pair of dudes were supping coffee at a Starbucks at Plaza Del Lago: these were their rides. Shiny new Guzzi and Triumph. Do you speak Italian or English? That’s the question.
An open house at the Triumph dealer Motoworks was attended last evening. The ride down too an hour and a half; covering the fifteen mikes from Evanston in slow/stop holiday weekend commuter traffic along Western Avenue. The Bonnie didn’t like the slow progress with her engine warming up a little too much when crawling along.
Nevertheless we got there to see the Triumph flat track racers showing off their tools: and what machines they are! Go fast, turn, repeat.
Sunset photoshoot for staff and racers both. To be competitively fast you need to have a jockey-like stature… My cooling moto looks on sweating oil weeps…
A nifty mobile workshop is an absolute necessity when hauling between oval mike venues. Nicely equipped facility here!
Gearing sir? We have you covered!
We rode back up Lake Shore Drive at dusk. A cool but invigorating haul back north. The city’s skyscrapers reflected a golden sun, beyond the deepening night swallowed the lake beyond.
Across America The long highways between growing cities, sprawling suburbs and the breadbasket countryside riders were taking to Triumph motorcycles to haul them across the big miles. Experiencing their land. The swift lines of the Speed Twin, Tiger, Thunderbird… The same year NASA was formed and the space race was well and truly underway.
Meanwhile the ‘other’ Triumph – Germans TWN ‘Boss’ two-stroke 200cc was shown hauling a combination through the Casbah of Marrakech.
…elsewhere Fidel tours Havana Cuba…
” …quality of life lies in knowledge, in culture. Values are what constitute true quality of life, the supreme quality of life, even above food, shelter and clothing.”
What a year ’58 must have been.
A Reading from the Book of Armaments, Chapter 4, Verses 16 to 20:
Then did he raise on high the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch, saying, “Bless this, O Lord, that with it thou mayst blow thine enemies to tiny bits, in thy mercy.” And the people did rejoice and did feast upon the lambs and toads and tree-sloths and fruit-bats and orangutans and breakfast cereals … Now did the Lord say, “First thou pullest the Holy Pin. Then thou must count to three. Three shall be the number of the counting and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither shalt thou count two, excepting that thou then proceedeth to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the number of the counting, be reached, then lobbest thou the Holy Hand Grenade in the direction of thine foe, who, being naughty in my sight, shall snuff it.”
Destination today: Antioch IL. The route taken was a very pleasant Lake County backroad called Old McHenry. Rolling horse country with spring blooming hedgerows and the far off scent of spring cut grass. Beyond that Fairfield Road aims northward to the destination. A roadside cafe offered the usual breakfast fare, I had pancakes with a side of sausage links, washed down with fresh coffee on demand. We sat outside in the warm sun with classic Johnny Cash tunes blaring over the tannoy.
The quote above is of course taken from Month Pythons Holy Grail. Religious devastating relic used against the killer rabbit of Caerbannog…
Fifty Five years ago: from the Tigress moped, Tiger Cub, Thunderbird, the Bonneville; all sold on the promise, and proven speed, of superiority on the road. The Record was Johnny Allen’s Devils Arrow which, under the methanol fuelling reached a two-pass speed of 193.3 mph with a 650 Triumph engine.
When you want go, get a Triumph. Or so says the promotional literature. Another splendid period pen and ink illustration.
After Kipling:
If you can fill the empty hour with sixty minutes worth of distance ridden….
A latter day recreation of Ann Margaret this time good guy George Clooney goofing about on his Bonnie.
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