March 18, 2013
A Thousand Words and more…
Stumbled upon this fab painting of a gal riding a Bonnie along a sunny coastal road. Great color, simple daub-work, and perfect subject. Need to get out my oils and canvas and get back to some paintin’.
March 17, 2013
Arrgh Gee Ess
Rocket Gold Star: just a few lines can evoke the classic lines of this great bike. Oh I wish I still had it! My few photos are all that give me the memories.
March 16, 2013
Engine etching
More arty stuff; this time a sketched image of my Bonneville engine… Well this passes the winter!
I like the way it looks like a quick scribble with a 2B pencil including construction lines, which adds a revealed signature of the artists hand. But it’s just an app on my ‘phone!
March 15, 2013
Art App Fun
My new Google phone has some neat photo editing apps available; here’s a few examples:
March 14, 2013
A Fork in the Road
When men were men and roads were barely tarmacadam’d from the cobbled and dirt roads of yestercentury; there was a need to give some shock absorption to the steering proceedings. Otherwise anything above a running pace and the ‘bars would be whipped out of your gauntletted hands. Not Good. Unless you enjoy testing your Tweeds and cloth cap! Here’s the Coventry Company’s early efforts of a girder fork. Simple action, serviceable and met the needs of the expanding moto-denizens. Indeed Phil Vincent used this system on the classically sublime Vincent over its lifetime of much sought after models.
March 13, 2013
Where there’s Smoke
A century ago many small-time bicycle manufacturers tried their hand at motorizing their contraptions. One such ‘shop was Pope from Westfield MA who ran with the best of ’em: Indian, Flying Merkel, Cyclone. Here’s a smashing looking board racer ready for a rider with plenty of derring do to hare around one of the infamous wood tracks of the day; come a cropper on that circuit and you’ll be pulling splinters for weeks…. If at all you make it! Harris Tweed isn’t too great a protective clothing for speed work.
A cardinal name on the tank too…
… And at speeds approaching The Ton on steeply banked tracks a higher power was needed if the competitors ‘came a cropper’. Ouch!
March 12, 2013
The Gettaway
Sometimes you need to dream about the open road: flat cloth capp’d, gal sidesaddled on pillion and the hint of a breezy rural view around. Onward! Fresh air beckons and adventure awaits the travelers.
The sea wafts a briny perfume across coastal meadows; a lone sentinel winks a beacon to lost ships and harks the country revellers alike. The turquoise horizon drops into the infinite sky. The road ahead, a day to fill and a gal by your side.
March 11, 2013
A Matchless Sheene
Blazer, tie and a canny smile: that must be wor Baz, here seen aboard a stunning Matchless at the Goodwood classic meet; his last visit there. Now there is a Barry Sheene Memorial Trophy race held there every year where fast paced Matchlesses go head to head with Nortons, AJS’s, Triumph and Beezers.
2002 was his last race, where, aboard a beautiful Manx Norton bedecked with his crossed seven he saw a victory amidst peers and fans alike: truly a great in the world of motorcycling.
Barry Sheene 11 September 1950 – 10 March 2003
March 10, 2013
G’day mate!
Another law enforcing rider; this time an antipodean one… Here’s a slouch hatted cobber ready for pulling over some tinnie slurpin’ Bruce driving home in his ute from a barbie.
March 9, 2013
S.A.I.N.T.
Stops anything in no time: or so goes the acronym for the trusty TR6 Triumphs used as speedy urban transport by the Metropolitan Police. Here are some such heavenly outriders giving Heavy police and security escort for America’s President Richard Nixon who drove from Claridges Hotel to No 10 Downing Street, London for his talks with the Prime Minister, Harold Wilson. The year is 1969.
Of course this was before the downward spiral of the Meriden shenanigans over the next decade; the police would then take to rotary Nortons and big faired Beemers. However these ‘post-war’ Triumphs gave a very traditional quality to the bobby-on-the-bike!
Here’s another couple of photos from these times showing a perfect line up of Speed Twins and Thunderbirds that the boys in blue loved to speed up and down the country on – when freshly laid motorways were quiet and getaway cars were slow…
Of course the moto’s were used around the world in far flung commonwealth colonies law enforcement units too.
Ah, imagine being the local officer toting around Kingston Jamaica in khaki shorts atop a sweet 500 Triumph; pop over to coral cove for a spot of fishing later on!
March 8, 2013
A Mans Moto: without a tail!
When perfection comes together the outcome is truly sublime. Norton’s decades long experience with two-wheeled racing reaches a zenith with their 500cc Manx. That big piston thumping out power with a rorting boom as it hares around the lanes and circuits of the racing realm.
Need to catch the ferry to Douglas?
March 7, 2013
Yes, Prime Minister
A few loose end from the demise of the UK MC industry. Remember that Matchless from a couple of entries ago? Well there was a little epilogue to that story: in the 80’s one certain Les Harris took a 500cc Rotax single, slotted it into an oil carrying frame, added a few select European components and tried to ply it against the Asian offerings. However the price point couldn’t match the Yamaha SRX single. So out come the Tories extolling British Industry at its best: and who none other than Maggie and Dennis…
Give ‘er a lump of coal and Dennis a stiff drink!
Well move on a decade and the tables turn; in more ways than one: New Labour arrives and our pal Tony get ‘is leg over the smart new Daytona. Smarmy git! Glenda Jackson glowers in the background…
March 6, 2013
The Mufflers
the Mufflers
In Baltimore MD there’s a bunch of gals who promote two wheeled FUN! They’re called The Mufflers, a double entendre is in there somewhere! Blokeyness is forbidden and lady laughs are in; and a few Triumphs are evident in their rides, old and new.
Neat logo with road paint lines used.
March 5, 2013
Son of Zorba
The late actor Francesco Quinn (1963-2011) was the son of Anthony Quinn, he was also a very keen motorcyclist. You know him as one of the members of Oliver Stones Platoon: Rhah.
Good film. Back to the subject at hand: he like bikes and from these images seems to have had a propensity to the Triumph marque. Good choice.
I’m going to have to search out this film; looks like a travel documentary; a la Motorcycle Diaries, or Long Way Round.
geordiebiker.com 