Of the Triumphs of course…
High Noon!
Truly the Ultimate.. still!
April 23, 2011
Salute
A great image of “Da Man” in Le Mans garb prepared in great artistic fashion by Conrad Leach. Super…
April 22, 2011
88 ate
Back in the nineties there was a BBC programme where two gastronomes travelled around the UK on a Triumph Watsonian sidecar outfit: “Two Fat Ladies”.
April 21, 2011
Doctor Who?
Here is a shot of Jon Pertwee, for it is he, aboard what looks like a late 60’s Triumph (or BSA). He was the 3rd Doctor after Patrick Troughton and before the legend Tom Baker. He was also seen in straw packed tweeds as Worzel Gummidge as well as the lip smacking professor in Carry on Screaming among other things.
April 20, 2011
Wonder Woman
Adorning a tight blue lycra jumpsuit and star spangled helmet and dark goggles we see Diane Prince’s Amazonian good defending heroine chasing some enemy of truth and justice. Red boots finish the look. She’s riding a diminutive Kawasaki 100cc trial bike. Well it beats the invisible aircraft…
As has previously been shown, superheros must also be available to the kids, here a Wonder Woman on Motorcycle toy. She has fairly burly arms ~ so I wouldn’t mess with her…
April 18, 2011
Sunny Sunday
A clear skied Sunday afternoon beckoned me ou on the Triumph. I kicked her over and roared up Sheridan Road along the Northshore suburbs of Chicago. Still a few things to iron out with the new controls; but overall the bike ran well and the engine purred.
April 17, 2011
Tom, Dick and Harry….
…and Hilts, the Cooler King. Taking on the Germans in his famous motorcycle escape in my favourite film. An ensemble cast topped by the great Steve McQueen.
April 16, 2011
A Century ago….
Family outings aboard two wheeled transport; let’s take Granny along too! Idyllic Edwardian times for early Coventry built machines.
Mother and daughter can come along too. Sidesaddle and cross bar comfort! Flat cap and goggles complete period look; Harris tweed the early bikers gard. Classic stuff!
These early motorcycles were basically bicycles with engines; even a well sprung Brooks leather seat adorns the frame. Think of the freedom these offered to early road users.
April 14, 2011
King of Cools bike collection…
Every few years another of the items from the collection of Steve McQueen becomes available. Recently his wax cotton Belstaff jacket from the ISDT was sold for several tens of thousands. This year a motocross is up for sale. A 400cc Husqvarna that rode in the Elsinore, as seen on the great documentary On Any Sunday, as well as adorning the cover of Sports Illustrated. The bids will commence and a hammer fall on no doubt a hefty winning bid on May 14th in Carmel CA, Bonhams will carry out the auction.
Steve with aforementioned bike taking it through its paces across some SoCal sands.
April 9, 2011
of Malcolm Uphill and the Triumph Bonneville
From http://www.triumphbonneville.com/ – a site dedicated to the T140 and TR7:
“The best lap could be around the 103mph mark” predicted Paul Dunstall, for whom Ray Pickrell had put in a storming circuit of the 37.73 mile course at 99.39mph on a Norton twin, but Dunstall’s favourite was Triumph’s Malcolm Uphill,on a 60bhp 650cc Triumph Bonneville…
The production TT introduced in 1967 was no reprise of the worthy but often dull Clubman’s races. Rider’s were top names and engines were tuned to last for the three laps it would take to boost sales and prestige for the coming season. British Manufacturers might have lost the battle for the smaller capacity classes, but big twins like the Commando and the Bonneville were still competitive on the track and in the showroom.
Uphill ignored the pressure and still likes to recall how he eased off once he was sure of a win.
“The 100mph lap didn’t mean much to me at the time”, he says. Far more important was the £50 prize, £70 in trade bonuses and the £300 Triumph Bonneville MAC232E-his fee from Meriden.
Hunched well forward on the howling twin,pudding basin hemet bobbing above the steering head, Uphill flew through the speed trap at the highlander pub at just under 135mph. His standing start at 100.09mph looked effortless until spectators realised the scraping sound was Malcolm cornering on the Dunlop K81’s until his fairing touched the road. A faster second lap and a ton plus race average looked certain until this cool professional throttled back to finish with 99.99mph. It was the Bonnevilles finest hour,and a feat immortalised by Dunlop on the sidewall of every K81 the ‘TT100’.
As well as the Thruxton 500 in 1969 he also dominated the NW200 road race in Northern Ireland.
Fantastic shot of him at speed, classic lines of the Triumph blurs the scenery.
April 8, 2011
Wall of Death – hear the "Roar"
Just love this picture, the wind blowing through the lions mane is priceless; not sure what the bike is, sometimes the light but powerful Triumphs were put into action on these motordromes.
April 8, 2011
Triumph Adverts
Here’s another selection of the various methods through time to propote the prowess of a Triumph motorcycle…
…first off, sea, sand, seagulls and…
However, the worlds best motorcycle has to rule the globe… quite literally!
Of course a word straight from the racers mouth doesn’t go amiss either.
… or a land speed record!
But in the end it all comes down to impressing the ladies!
April 3, 2011
Wallace – The Cooler King
One great biker, or rather sidecar driver, is Wallace, who, along with his trusty sidekick pup Gromit get up to all sorts of adventures on their red Triumph hack. One imaginative modelmaker has taken the idea to represent our top motorcyclist hero Steve McQueen in his most noted bike scene, the Great Escape fence jump, and applied an Aardman appearance to him. More cheese Gromit?
Here’s the original duo…
geordiebiker.com 