Hugh (the other) Laurie on his chosen ride: a Triumph Bonnie. We also know him as Bertie.
Wooster with indispensable essential valet Jeeves. The perfect pairing for a perfect comedy fro PG Wodehouse…
June 25, 2015
June 22, 2015
Tracks in the Sand
We’ve all heard about the fable “Footprints in the sand”. An allegory reflecting on the journey of life with guidance for the twists and turns thrust in our way. Well here’s the Fathers Day version… Yes I know it was Papas Day yesterday but I need to get this on the blog before I forget it.
Looking back on life you see wheeled tracks of your life’s travels in the sands of time. Early on there are a pair of them. Those double lines weaving in and out denote when your father rode with you; sometimes showing you the way ahead, other times guiding you along and further sections watching over as you speed ahead across fresh sand. Teacher, Mentor, Guide. Later on there is a single tire track weaving along representing the adventures of your own experiences as they travel across ripples, over dunes, through surf; marked by knobby fresh tires at some stretches and worn down ‘boots’ at others. You ask where he went? Well he’s earned his keep on the rugged shores and is traveling parallel to the beach on the smoother roads of life driving his Jaguar saying, “I told you everything you need; now you’ve just got to get on with the job! I’ll meet you for a fish & chip supper at the cafe up ahead!”
June 1, 2015
Chuck Yeagers ride
It is known that Ian Fleming, the creator of none other than James Bond 007, also wrote the children’s yarn Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. A tale about an inventor called Caractacus Potts who took his children on voyages of land, sea and air in their old rebuilt racing car with speedboat carriage work. Well if you’re going for a two-wheeled version then a period Triumpg Speed twin is a suitable candidate; rocket powered too. Not steam punk more rocket-punk. 50’s style technology. Hey I’ve just invented a new genre…
Looks like Leonardo would have been proud of those wings! I believe the front mudguard registration plate holder acts as the vertical stabilizer… (Aka pedestrian slicer)
Concept art by http://www.leadinglightdesign.com
Side note: the original Chitty was a 20’s race car built by Count Louis Zbrowoski who used a Mercedes chassis with a 23 liter 6 cylinder aero Maybach engine…
… Just add wings!
May 26, 2015
Dune
“The mystery of life isn’t a problem to solve, but a reality to experience.”
Frank Herbert
One of the greatest scifi books with far reaching topics of politics, religion, economy, ecology, and eugenics, its setting millennia in the future could be read as a shadow of the world today. Dune was published fifty years ago and is as fresh today as it was in the sixties when the environmental movement was in its infancy.
April 30, 2015
Yossarian Lives!
“That’s some catch, that Catch-22,” he observed.
“It’s the best there is,” Doc Daneeka agreed.
Joseph Heller May 1 1923-December 12 1999
April 6, 2015
Pure Vintage
Her Triumph
I did the dragon’s will until you came
Because I had fancied love a casual
Improvisation, or a settled game
That followed if I let the kerchief fall:
Those deeds were best that gave the minute wings
And heavenly music if they gave it wit;
And then you stood among the dragon-rings.
I mocked, being crazy, but you mastered it
And broke the chain and set my ankles free,
Saint George or else a pagan Perseus;
And now we stare astonished at the sea,
And a miraculous strange bird shrieks at us.
WB Yeats 1865-1939
March 26, 2015
Ruddy ‘ard!
Inspirational words from the great IF poem by Mr Kipling. It comes in handy with vintage motorcycling. Roadside wrenching, perfect twisties, adjusting tappets, purring engine…
March 14, 2015
Idle
Full of cold. So lying on the sofa in the den, Charley keeping me company and reading Ted Simon’s second Round The World book “Dreaming of Jupiter”. 28 years after his legendary Jupiter Travels narrative globe trekking on a Triumph Tiger he takes to the roads again aged 70 on a BMW.
January 27, 2015
Dalziel & Pascoe
Watching an older episode of the Yorkshire police show Dalziel & Pascoe one of the characters, who also works down what must be one of the last pits, rides a late 90’s Triumph T595 Daytona. He’s a main suspect so being a stereotypical rowdy biker maintains suspense.
He wheelies along colliery row houses and near allotment gardens.
Grumpy Dalziel (PR. Dall eel ) is played by the late Warren Clark. Starting his career as Dim in A Clockwork Orange.
“There was me, that is Alex, and my three droogs, that is Pete, Georgie, and Dim, and we sat in the Korova Milkbar trying to make up our rassoodocks what to do with the evening. The Korova milkbar sold milk-plus, milk plus vellocet or synthemesc or drencrom, which is what we were drinking. This would sharpen you up and make you ready for a bit of the old ultra-violence.”
January 25, 2015
25th January
Farewell to the Highlands, farewell to the North,
The birth-place of Valour, the country of Worth;
Wherever I wander, wherever I rove,
The hills of the Highlands for ever I love.
My heart’s in the Highlands, my heart is not here;
My heart’s in the Highlands a-chasing the deer;
A-chasing the wild-deer, and following the roe,
My heart’s in the Highlands wherever I go.
Farewell to the mountains high covered with snow;
Farewell to the straths and green valleys below;
Farewell to the forests and wild-hanging woods;
Farewell to the torrents and loud-pouring floods.
My heart’s in the Highlands, my heart is not here;
My heart’s in the Highlands a-chasing the deer;
A-chasing the wild-deer, and following the roe,
My heart’s in the Highlands wherever I go.
Robbie Burns (1759-1796)
Triumph Bonneville in Glencoe
August 26, 2014
Advice
Sage advice indeed. Your body and mind can be trained to accomplish; but to feel the inner success of the achievement you need at least a modicum of heart. A vital spark of live that makes fulfillment true.
June 3, 2014
Hoofer
The kick start was the owners way of getting the motorcycles engine spinning up for ignition up until the early to mud seventies. It takes a little finesse, careful setup (lest you get an ankle biting kick-back) and a smooth, but hefty swing of the leg. Getting your weight over it eases the proceedings as is an audience of zero. Add one or two bystanders and it all goes to pot. Misfire, blowback pop, slipping pawls or over zealous throttle to get the engine revving like its being mistreated.
When it all goes smoothly and the stars are aligned it can be a beautiful thing: swoosh, crack, put-put…. Into an low rumbling idle…
The road awaits!
April 3, 2014
Tom Swift
Back in 1920 youth of the day had one adventuring inventive lad called Tom Swift to read about. His first foray in print was a tale regarding motorcycles.
After acquiring it after a friend crashes it he restores it and learns how to operate it on the dusty lanes of Upstate New York. The teenage protagonist chases down patent thieves on his derring doings.
The original hardcover book has appropriately contemporary graphics from the time. Victor Appleton was a pseudonym for Edward Stratemeyer, creator of other notable YA (young adult) tomes such as Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew and the Bobbsey Twins. He prolifically penned, though some ghostly, over 1,300 stories.
March 30, 2014
Green Grow the Rashes O
Green grow the rashes, O
Green grow the rashes, O
The sweetest hours that e’er I spend,
Are spent among the lasses, O
There’s nought but care on ev’ry han’,
In every hour that passes, O
What signifies the life o’ man,
An’ ’twere na for the lasses, O.
Green grow the rashes, O
Green grow the rashes, O
The sweetest hours that e’er I spend,
Are spent among the lasses, O
The warl’y race may riches chase,
An’ riches still may fly them, O
An’ tho’ at last they catch them fast,
Their hearts can ne’er enjoy them, O.
Green grow the rashes, O
Green grow the rashes, O
The sweetest hours that e’er I spend,
Are spent among the lasses, O
But gie me a cannie hour at e’en,
My arms about my dearie, O,
An’ warl’y cares an’ war’ly men
May a’ gae tapsalteerie, O!
Green grow the rashes, O
Green grow the rashes, O
The sweetest hours that e’er I spend,
Are spent among the lasses, O
For you sae douce, ye sneer at this
Ye’re nought but senseless asses, O
The wisest man the warl’ e’er saw,
He dearly lov’d the lasses, O.
Green grow the rashes, O
Green grow the rashes, O
The sweetest hours that e’er I spend,
Are spent among the lasses, O
Auld Nature swears, the lovely dears
Her noblest work she classes, O
Her prentice han’ she try’d on man,
An’ then she made the lasses, O.
Green grow the rashes, O
Green grow the rashes, O
The sweetest hours that e’er I spend,
Are spent among the lasses, O
Robert Burns 1759-1796
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