Our Steve McQueen would have been 84 today.
The Cooler King!
March 23, 2014
Any color as long as it’s Black
Frame and fork components were returned today in splendid gloss black powder coated finish. All slick and span and ready for chassis assembly. The work was carried out very capably by JTS Coatings & Cycles in Lakemoor IL.
Charley the Quality Control Cat looks on approvingly. He doesn’t miss a trick!
March 22, 2014
You say tires I say tyres…
The original tire was a heated steel hoop quench-shrunk onto the wooden wheel. The anglicized tyre was a 20thC spelling only used in Britain. Tire is the standard spelling. Scotsman John Dunlop invented the rubber pneumatic tire, further developed with galvanizing by Charles Goodyear. Now my Cub wheels are shod with lightly knobbled trials boots. Something complete for the project!
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 20, 2014
Equinox
Spring arrived today with a dusting of airborne snow, but a promise of warmth emerged with a bright afternoon sun. Can nicer weather be on the horizon? Hope so. In the meanwhile here’s the magical Speed Triple in lush greenery.
Splendid!
March 19, 2014
Bud
I picked up my cylinder head and barrel today from The Machine Shop, a little hidden gem in Rogers Park where Bud Clements works his time honored magic on engine parts old, new, common and esoteric. He rebored the cylinder to receive the new 60 over piston and cleaned, set new guides, and lapped seats for a pair of valves too. He knows his stuff down to the micron.
The great convergence is upon us!
March 18, 2014
Rollin’, rollin’, Rollin’.
Pair if wheels ready to roll. The front was finally trued and spoke excess ground off. Rubber rim strips installed and they’re awaiting the tires to be shoehorn’d on.
March 17, 2014
A leprechaun’s ride
Low Rider lightweight bobber from a custom JJ ‘shop in Denver CO. Apple green and a smatterin’ of blarney details to celebrate St Paddy’s day. Not my glass of Guinness but a finely crafted tool for smooth roads and a straight line nonetheless.
B’gorrah look at that shiny engine!
“Think you’re escaping and run into yourself. Longest way round is the shortest way home.”
James Joyce
March 16, 2014
The idyll of a coastal tour.
The salt air, bobbing cobles, oily quaysides and the promise of a fresh fish and chip dinner… On top of that all undertaken aboard a Triumph motorcycle. Halcyon Days!
March 15, 2014
Friends, Romans, Countrymen
“Et tu Brute?” In ’53 when The Wild One was upsetting parents about the trouble the disenfranchised post-war youth could get up to Brando played another disgruntled character from literature. It was of course Mark Anthony from Bill Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar.
Well it is the Ides if March! As Johnny said: “Whaddya got?”
“…lend me your ears!”
March 13, 2014
Dial ’em up
My handy dandy little dial indicator came today. An older but fully functional item allowing measuring tolerances down to a thou. I’m using it to tweak the final wheel truing. Works a treat!
Also… Watching Quadrophenia whilst doing my taxes. Crackin’!
March 12, 2014
World Domination
I believe that our feline friends are well on the road to taking over the world. They control us to tend to their every need, we cannot interrupt their sleep, their whiskered face with grumbling purr melts our hearts, and, they can unleash sharp ninja like weapons of terror.
I don’t mind; let them Triumph! “Hear me Roar!”
Starting in the Nile plains of Egypt five millennia ago their goddess Bastet is leading them to global rule!
March 11, 2014
Jenny Wren
The Women’s Royal Navy Service was an auxiliary group to support the naval arm during WWII. They took over land based tasks so that all able bodied men could be aboard ship. “Become a Wren – Free up a man for the Fleet!”
One duty was as dispatch riders ensuring secure document communication could be maintained between the Admiralty, its harbored fleet and the Commanding Chiefs if Staff in London.
Here’s one such dicky bird on her Triumph at work with courier satchel. They carried out a crucial role especially during the Battle of Britain when keen motorcycling skills through the bombed streets of the capital were key to the success of the countries defense.
Buckingham Palace acts as a backdrop as this lass kicks over the very capable 3H single cylinder 350. Which were a bargain in 1938…
Here’s one of those enlisting posters…
Very smart they looked in their uniforms too: double breasted suit with tricorne hat.
“Hoist up the Union Jack lads!”
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
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