Four Legs or Two Wheels: if you join The Force you could get to ride either. The 70’s Triumph set up with ‘blues and two’s’, tank mounted ‘phone and tall fairing give the Roz on a Rumble an imposing view of the traffic of the day. I can’t imagine giving chase at speed with that conical front brake! Cheery kids look like they’re having fun on both steeds while the local Bobby’s look on.
Rufus T. Firefly: “I’m in a hurry! To the House of Representatives! Ride like fury! If you run out of gas, get ethyl. If Ethel runs out, get Mabel! Now step on it!”
The Freedonia ruler in ‘Duck Soup’ along with the small kingdoms agent provocateurs Pinky and Chicolini use a ’26 Harley Davidson JS outfit to get about from escapade to escapade. These three are of course Groucho, Chico and Harpo – as well as straight man Zeppo. The silent one taking the reins of this ride.
“Hello, I must be going, I cannot stay,
I came to say, I must be going.
I’m glad I came, but just the same,
I must be going.”
You’re nicked sonny! We’ve been catching up on some recent Brit-TV of late; one show in particular has been a fun show to watch: George Gently. Based on novels by Alan Hunter and based in Northumberland and Durham it follows the exploits of London DCI from Scotland Yard relocated up North and dealing with the more backwater crimes of the Geordie vicinity. The first episode had a storyline revolving around a biker gang who tear around the countryside and towns on Triumphs & Beezas. Indeed the ringleader, Ricky, has a beautiful featherbed fram’d, manx-tank’d Norton.
An interesting note: The actor playing Ricky, Richard Armitage, plays the main dwarf character, Thorin Oakenshield, in the upcoming Hobbit film.
Line, colour and shape: put ’em together just-so and visions appear. Here’s the classic lines of a ’68 Bonnie, considered by many to be the best of ’em!
This online CAD drawing was downloaded then rendered in Photoshop.
They thought it was a good idea at the time… Added a foot to the fork tubes, thinned the seat, de-muffled the pipes. Shout-out to the world “I got me a Choppa Tri-oomph!” Fridays are for zany ideas; but this rebuild looks like it could saved from a fate worse than… Doesn’t look like the headstock has been fettled with, may just need a new pair of tubes and springs, seat, decent bars and this Bonnie would live to ride another day…
Peter who?
Now this is a lot better! Johnson Motors Inc. in California hauled around their two-wheeled wares nicely ensconced within the bed of a beautiful Chevy 3100 truck.
Lined up with motos ready to deliver to their Pasadena owners who are anxiously waiting to get out on the Pacific backdropped highways.
A period image from Catalina in ’56 shows these carriers had a classic Triumph white and blue color scheme. Smart Stuff!
Don’t need no truck, trailer or van. I can jes’ tote my motos on the roof of my Caddy Coupe DeVille. If I want to head out into the woods and decide which bike I’ll ride when there it’s the perfect vehicle for luxury hauling. A decal on the wing also reinforces the Brit-Iron fandom of this scene.
Now where did I put that ramp…?
Here’s a gaggle of road tester gaffs heading out for a zoom on the latest batch of motos from the Norton plant. I’m sure the A38 was a regular stomping ground to spin out the motors and supporting frames. Swing on up to Derby and Leeds beyond; or down to distant Exeter. Traffic back then was light too. “Ride Out Lads!”
Wartime Wonder – here’s the Norton in military guise: drab green, a stenciled registration, blackout headlight hood, and blackened chrome parts. Pure function to get through traffic for some messenger carrying “For Your Eyes” documents to some secret bunker war-room.
Period photograph of some uniformed bod atop the Norton. Per previous posts this is the moto grandpa George rode in North Africa as a Military Policeman. Good workhorse. Here’s a good link to a 16H owner with plenty of information on this model.
If anyone out there knows of a 16H in need of TLC; I’m interested!
Further to the earlier family snap here it’s companion: the kids camping on the beach cram aboard the Norton steed. My uncles bookend the line-up: David on the tank up front and Jimmy perched atop the pillion pad at the rear. My mother, Joan, sandwiched third from the back. The other kids? Family friends also living wild on the summertime Cresswell Dunes.
A nice photo of a clean example of the 16H – I now need to find one of these under an oily tarp in some barn now.
The final image? It’s the open hold of SS Thislegorm stacked with coral encrusted Nortons resting on the floor of the Red Sea after coming a cropper from some German ‘wolf’. These may be a bit beyond repair… As well as being a perfectly good marine habitat. A barn it’ll have to be!
Here’s a lovely family photo from yesteryear. It’s my mother mother, Edie, sitting astride my Granda’s Norton. This was the family transport for many years; that’s three kids. One of which is propped on the silver and black pinstriped tank: my Uncle Dave. Taken during a summer during the early fifties a pyramid tent in the background denotes the seasonal camp down at Cresswell. I’ve ascertained that this is a 16H 500cc single Norton. Girder forks possibly put it in the 30’s or 40’s. this model was the platform for the wartime bike used worldwide by the British armed forces during WWII.
The Empire was built on a strong Navy with a long reach, part of that reach was the construction of a fleet of swift warships. The Northeast of England, centered on Newcastle-upon-Tyne, wor Geordieland, has a Great shipbuilding history. Built up by Whitworth Armstrong, works that built the engines and armament of the dreadnoughts of the seas.
HMS Triumph was the second of the two Swiftsure-class pre-dreadnought battleships of the Royal Navy. Purchased from Chile before completion, she was initially assigned to the Home Fleet andChannel Fleets before being transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet in 1909. The ship briefly rejoined Home Fleet in 1912 before she was transferred abroad to the China Station in 1913. Triumphparticipated in the hunt for the German East Asia Squadron of Maximilian Graf von Spee and in the campaign against the German colony at Tsingtao, China early in World War I. The ship was transferred to the Mediterranean in early 1915 to participate in the Dardanelles Campaign against theOttoman Empire. She was torpedoed and sunk off Gaba Tepe by the German submarine U-21 on 25 May 1915. (from Wikipedia)
Steam engines for HMS Triumph at Armstrong’s Elswick works, 1901. Twin 6250-HP engines propelled the 475-foot battleship at a reliable speed of 19 kts from her commissioning in 1902 until her fiery demise off Turkey in May 1915. When installed in the ship, the shape of the engine would become less apparent as a grating would be installed at the cylinder head level, just above the top row of gauges, to provide access to valves and controls for other equipment in the engine room. The range of the ship with full load of coal (2000 tons) was 6000 nautical miles at 10 knots. Long Reach indeed! Guy Martin would love this one!
She was lost during the Dardanelles campaign at Gallipoli but the rusted, but still monumental, remains of the Triumph’s twin engines may be glimpsed to this day on dives to the wreck off the coast of Turkey.
I downloaded a wee app for the phone that allows finger scribbling. So I had a go with a Triumph digit-painting. The screen is small and a stylus would add accuracy; but it’s a handy dandy little notepad tool. Fun!
Patterns in the Machine: tire treads can be defined as an endless repetitive pattern. And when broken down is three different ‘blocks’ which with a simple overlapping intersection repeat creates the knobby grip on the rougher pavement. It’s the rubber itself that provides much of the friction for go and stop.
Another penned line drawing of the bike. A little more engine detail framed by the tank, seat and exhaust headers.
10 minutes scribble…
geordiebiker.com 