One of yesterdays photos given a little Instagram treatment: shallow depth of field creating a miniturized appearance to the Bon. Add a little faded colouring and you have a nicely detailed and completed 1:32nd Airfix kit. Plastic cement anyone? I’m sure to get first place in the diorama group…
A year ago I was pushing the bike after an electrical breakdown; a similar fall day greeted me so I took my chances (though after this years ironing out the electrical creases with less of a worry!) and headed out for some refreshing autumn air. It turned out to be a perfect ride, apart from some slow traffic in spots, but we managed a few choice miles under the last vestiges of the luminous rusts of “fall color”.
The tank looked splendid under the blue skis and earthy backdrop. All we needed was a twist of the throttle and the twin romped along at a pleasant clip.
Sheridan Road had the usual cyclists and Sunday drivers, all obviously looking for the same smile inducing journey. A last hoorah before the dreary tones of winter settle in.
What a photogenic little bike she is… just plays up to the camera. Especially with a firework arboreal setting as fiery as the Northshore in October.
A few self portraits of us zipping along are included for a touch of action. The well-to-do homes of the northern suburbs can keep their castles and palaces!
Sheridan Road has a few perfect spots where the combination of corners, hills and dips converge to provide enjoyable swoops on the moto. Dappled trees provide a calming rhythm of light and shade.
Fun Achieved!
“I would rather sit on a pumpkin, and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion.”
Henry David Thoreau
550 foot pounds per second or about 745.7 Watts. The power of motorcycles is of course measured in it. Here are a few well known Moto’ and their respective figure:
Honda Cub: 7
Vincent Black Lightning: 70
Ducati 916: 114
Honda CB750: 67
Kawasaki Z1: 82
Triumph Bonneville: 46
BMW SS1000R: 193
It was of course Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper’s Easy Rider that provides a visual cusp of a counter-culture youth between the free-lovin’ sixties and the ‘back down with a thud’ hangover of the seventies. Well this here is a chopped Turnip left to fade under a moth eaten canvas tarp in some back pasture barn. The communes fled decades ago and the pot smokers moved out west…
“Needs some T.L.C.” Darn tootin’ it does! But boy if you squint hard enough- well, just close your eyes and plain imagine, you can nearly see a chromed out beast resplendent with Union Flag petrol tank. The journey this time? A couple of weary biker vagabonds heading eastward from Newquay along the A303 across the Salisbury Plains, stopping off at Stonehenge aiming for the seafront of Brighton before meeting an untimely demise on the A23 by a swerving white Ford Transit driven recklessly by a pair of Cockney chavs…
“You know, this used to be a helluva good country. I can’t understand what’s gone wrong with it.” George Hanson 1969
I love ink lined technical drawings showing exploded components. You can see how it all goes together. Here’s excerpts from the Triumph Workshop Manual for a ’75 T140V/TR7 of the front brake system. This will help me with my updated stopping project as mentioned yesterday. I can see the draughtsman lined up in a smoky office at Meriden, Coventry poring over a Mylar sheet taped to vast drawing boards. Examining with a keen eye over the top of a thick pair of hornrims, parts sent up from the development workshops. They occasionally make sure their Rotring drawing instruments are filled, tapping their briar pipes occasionally on the heel of their oxfords.
…and if you’re going to go fast, you’ve got to be able to stop too! I’m slowly acquiring parts for the front end to set up a disc brake system. The conical drum brake standard to the ’72 T120R is okay for delicate slowing maneuvers but when you need to slam on the anchors then they’re more comical in reality, you always have to think ahead with traffic and have a potential run-off space – which you should do anyways when riding!
Basically as the front end of the late model 650 and it’s beefier 750 younger brother (the T140V or TR7) were much the same; all I have to do is swap out the fork lowers, add a caliper, hoses and brake lever with master cylinder, and change the wheel to a disc braked one. Well, the eBay searches have been going well, indeed some items are coming with extra stuff that I can flog off to pay for itself. Get some new seals, stainless hoses and stainless pistons then Bob’s yer uncle, the Bonnie will then ‘HALT’ on my two-fingered command!
With your feet on the air
And your head on the ground
Try this trick and spin it, yeah
Your head’ll collapse
If there’s nothing in it
And then you’ll ask yourself
Red Rocket…… The Triumph Sprint is a bike built on the 955cc sports triple motor but with a wee slant on comfort. Pack yer bags and take to the open road, whether blasting the ‘superslab’ or high-speed curvy lanes. Pop off the bags and take to the twisties; let the country airs flow through your cardinal feathers.
$3,200 on Craigslist today!
I unearthed these pair of photos of one of the main pubs along Wooler High Street: a 17th century coaching inn. Though probably more than half a century apart they both highlight the appeals of group rides and drives. Both taken for a VCMM newsletter.
It would be splendid to have a new gathering of vintage ‘cycles lined up outside this country pub…
Only 25cc’s more than my Bonnie, this Daytona reply-racer looks quick standing still. Here resplendent in team SC Caracchi ridden by Garry McCoy.
… his race bike defies gravity… just wind the engine up and watch ‘er go!
A rainy day allows a few maintenance items to be addressed. Points sweetened, oil level checked and a sprint around a couple of blocks to warm the moto’s blood and blow out a few cobwebs. The throttle gives a firm grunt, brakes snap-to and movement both straight and cornering is supple. Hopefully another bright autumn day on roads yet lies ahead this year…
A couple of colourful brochure covers from nigh on fifty years ago. One promotes both the the worlds best AND the fastest. The No. 9 racer speeds out of the booklet like the Bonneville’s must have shot out of the showroom floors on any Monday after the Sunday racing. Clean graphics very evocative of the mid sixties. We’re watching the TV series called George Gently which is produced with a super sense of time (1964). And, to boot, based in Northumberland with Geordie accents aplenty.
I saw this cagoule wearing moped rider screaming along Greenbay Road, and the image reminded me of the Charles Schultz great Charlie Brown. Perhaps as a grown man he’s given up his zig-zag bumblebee baseball shirt and taking to the blue anorak. Anyways if you have Chuck B. then you’ve got to have Snoopy and Woodstock… Here on their own pumpkin colored scooter.
Magic!
The iconic, and highly desirable, v twin powerhouses are a sight to behold. The motorcycles motorcycle… So when two appear parked next to each other like a pair of prize pugilists, then it’s a sight to behold. The front one has the carefully updated front end utilizing a pair of disc brakes: appropriate for that bicep of a litre ‘gin.
“If you see Sid, tell ‘im!”
There are forgotten corners of Northumbria where the odd craggy outcropping of sandstone reveals messages from the past. A Long forgotten civilization carved unusual circular patterns upon these rocks. All we see are the ‘Cup & Ring’ lithographs which we can but barely imagine their meaning: calendars, maps, ley-line directions? Well this one here can only mean one thing! Ride On and Ride Fast!
This moto-geezer is quite the picture: he’s armoured in well worn leathers and that Venom Thruxton is a crackin’ beast of a bike. Clip ons, rear, sets and bum-stop on the seat all fronted by a big rounded plexi-glass fairing means business. I hope I’m haring along at speed when white haired…
Fact: the Venom was the first production motorcycle to average over 100 mph over a 24 hour period. A record still unsurpassed to this date for a 500cc bike. Cracking stuff!
