A triptych of one of the old pistons from the Bonnie. They are quite elegant in their purposeful form.
June 9, 2011
A perennial favourite
Beautiful loose sketch from some brochure in the 60’s, A sense of light adventure to be had astride a Meriden twin. Won’t go too far or fast with her skirt though!
June 8, 2011
Wot no Triumph?
… yup it’s wor blokey bloke Barry Sheene, two wheeled racer boyhood hero. Great shot on this ealry 70’s Yamaha with a ginormous dront 4LS drum. Duck helmet icon evident also. V for Victory!
June 8, 2011
What they say about kids and animals…
Mascot goes anywhere; loves to flap ears in breeze; supports weekend racer!
Speedy lads enjoy the desert flats…
You gotta start somewhere; whether two wheels or four!
June 7, 2011
Minkie the Motorbike
When I were just a wee lad… one of the early motorcycle inspirations was a Ladybird book called Tootles the Taxi; within its thin tome was a page with this picture on it with a small verse.
I’m Minkie the motorbike
Off for a run,
Gathering up speed
Can be glorious fun !
For I am a racer
And run with a zest,
To win all the races –
North, South, East and West
A zippy, smilin’, Norton Manx droning around a racetrack, rider crouched for speed, front wheel slightly loft!
An early edition had the boy, girl and dog on the track ~ removed from later versions due to safety concerns of kids wandering around Brands Hatch during races…. where are those stewards!
June 5, 2011
I’m gonna put you in the movies….
…I’m gonna make a big star out of you…
…..All you gotta do is, act naturally!
June 5, 2011
Mid Seventies Bonneville Cafe
A clean example of a cafe’d Oil-in-Frame Bonnie, Right hand shifting, discs, so must be T140V from 75 or 76. Nice black paint scheme and grey frame. This helped my own rebuild inspiration…
The racing hump seat , a reupholstered cover available from Vietnam of all places, affords a further speedy line to the desired appearance.
Eliminated front fender gives a bobbed look too. Clip-Ons the correct stance.
Close-up view of frame, timing side of engine and rear sets. The standard ‘boxy’ side covers actually look right with the grey frame finish and dull engine casings.
Anotehr view of the Norman Hyde rearsets, close in appearance to mine, as well as the gear change lever.
A final rearview shot of the rounded ‘rump’ and the long pipes; altogether a balanced build with clean lines and serious purpose of speed.
June 4, 2011
What doyou get if you multiply two by three?
A hot rod racer set up for a sub 10 second run… 1950cc at least! What a sound this must have made!
June 3, 2011
Todays Craigslist offerings…
A clean fairly original 76 Trident. $6500
…and a 79 Bonnie. On Consignment at Morries $poa
June 2, 2011
Line Drawn Triumphs
An ink and brush comic of the benefits of owning a triumph; could you see this on a Ducati advert today?
If only my brakes worked as well as this… hopefully someday!
Classic charcoal rendered Thunderbird, crisp graphics.
Line drawing of bike with engine as photograph. This is the introduction of the 5 speed gearbox on the T120V (’73). Also showing the larger UK spec tank that I have bought from Ebay in UK, soon to arrive!
June 1, 2011
Sunny Sunday ride in May
Perfect early Sunday morning weather, 60’s, sun, fragrant woods, cool breezes up the ravines, an occasional glimpse of the lake and quiet roads. Went up to Lake Bluff; bike running well too! Doesn’t get much better than this!
May 31, 2011
Vintage Rally
Arenowned meeting of vintage bikes next weekend in Kansas MO. Triumph being the selected make of the promotional poster; itself having a Milton Glaseresque look about it… see Dylan album cover below.
May 29, 2011
Great Escape movie poster
A week of Steve McQueen and The G.E. is closed off with this super narrow movie poster with the bike jump taking ‘center stage’, the black and white with turquiose highlight is cool too.
May 28, 2011
McQueen modelling
One last model kit featuring Hilts on his bike is this small diarama showing him in full posed evading capture.
Simple assembly but a good paint finish would be essential.
Plenty of images to reference too!
May 28, 2011
Prefab Sprout
An album from the Durham based 80’s group Prefab Sprout called “Steve McQueen” features a nice 60’s Trophy TR6C on the cover. A good look, and good music of that time. Ah memories…
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