Beautiful loose sketch from some brochure in the 60’s, A sense of light adventure to be had astride a Meriden twin. Won’t go too far or fast with her skirt though!
June 8, 2011
What they say about kids and animals…
Mascot goes anywhere; loves to flap ears in breeze; supports weekend racer!
Speedy lads enjoy the desert flats…
You gotta start somewhere; whether two wheels or four!
June 4, 2011
What doyou get if you multiply two by three?
A hot rod racer set up for a sub 10 second run… 1950cc at least! What a sound this must have made!
June 3, 2011
Todays Craigslist offerings…
A clean fairly original 76 Trident. $6500
…and a 79 Bonnie. On Consignment at Morries $poa
June 2, 2011
Line Drawn Triumphs
An ink and brush comic of the benefits of owning a triumph; could you see this on a Ducati advert today?
If only my brakes worked as well as this… hopefully someday!
Classic charcoal rendered Thunderbird, crisp graphics.
Line drawing of bike with engine as photograph. This is the introduction of the 5 speed gearbox on the T120V (’73). Also showing the larger UK spec tank that I have bought from Ebay in UK, soon to arrive!
May 31, 2011
Vintage Rally
Arenowned meeting of vintage bikes next weekend in Kansas MO. Triumph being the selected make of the promotional poster; itself having a Milton Glaseresque look about it… see Dylan album cover below.
May 29, 2011
Great Escape movie poster
A week of Steve McQueen and The G.E. is closed off with this super narrow movie poster with the bike jump taking ‘center stage’, the black and white with turquiose highlight is cool too.
May 28, 2011
McQueen modelling
One last model kit featuring Hilts on his bike is this small diarama showing him in full posed evading capture.
Simple assembly but a good paint finish would be essential.
Plenty of images to reference too!
May 28, 2011
Prefab Sprout
An album from the Durham based 80’s group Prefab Sprout called “Steve McQueen” features a nice 60’s Trophy TR6C on the cover. A good look, and good music of that time. Ah memories…
May 26, 2011
A Model Escape
Here is an accurate 1:12 model of the bike used by Hilts to escape the Germans and the Stalag Luft. Actually a Triumph TR6, painted and detailed a little to replicate a wartime BMW R45 bike of the time; probably its because this is the model Steve and his pal Bud rode to great effect across the SoCal dessert. Nevertheless it is still one of the most classic bike scenes in ANY movie!
Below: a replica built for the Imprial War Museum exhibition on the G.E. in 2005/6 – A 1960 T110.
May 25, 2011
Desert Sleds
A great image of the Triumphs used for desert racing in south California. That first fella looks a lot like Bud Ekins; west coast bike shop owner and racer as well as pal to Steve McQueen.
Here’s an early Dunlop promotional shot of Ekins and his Trumpet Iron; look at that front wheel!
…and here he is with Steve havin’ fun on a Sunday desert race no doubt.
May 24, 2011
Bobber-ville
Here is a selection of the venerable twin customized into the hardtail low seating bobber form. Some nice details and individual bikes. I’m sure a hoot to ride… …starting with this pre-unit. #14
High Pipes and chunky tires.
Webbed tank painting, pedal kickstart and springy seat. Lowbrow forsure.
Whitewalls, lime green and throaty sound.
Even the later oil-in-frame models get the hardtail treatment. And a black finished conical front brake, that ebony patina wont help! Thin saddle and unsprung… ouch.
May 21, 2011
A proven performance
With the Trimph models being used extensively in racing of the period, especially endurance at speed, the engines proved themselves to the daily riders as reliable, strong units. No wonder they sold by the truckload.
May 20, 2011
All in a Row
Nicely lined up, a chorus of Trumpets ready to blare…
A very proud owner of a pre-unit engined Triton. Nice high pipes, a solid 4LS front brake, low profile polished alloy tank. A swell machine.
Let those who you pass at speed know what you’re riding!
Gorgeous fairing clad Bonnie, alloy wheels, bum-stop seat, rear-sets, M-bars a true cafe racer.
May 19, 2011
Tiger on the Mountains
Back in the day when Lancashire working men Don WHillans and Joe Brown, were powering up new climbing routes over North Wales, the Lake District and the Alps, Triumph brought out their sporty model: the Tiger. Appropirate advertising.
Here’s Don himself heading off to Grindenwald and an attempt on the North Face of the Eiger; Chris Bonington is pillion. Climbing helmet as a lid, mountaineering mitts for gloves; look at that hemp rope! The bike is most likely a Triumph Tiger.
geordiebiker.com 