Yossarian Lives!

“That’s some catch, that Catch-22,” he observed.
“It’s the best there is,” Doc Daneeka agreed.

  

Joseph Heller May 1 1923-December 12 1999

poppin’

  

Wheelies, stoppies and all of the other balance necessitated shenanigans that stunt riders do. Also make the bike look like a crowd pleasin’ zany bright, zoom and boom machine. 

  
It’s the hip-hop of observed trials riding.

Vitamin C

my next Meriden project will be a tracker for sure.  

 

The orange tang colored frame gives this suitable spare example a fiery look. Carbon black TT pipes, chunky tires on alloy rims, medium rise bars. Cool tiger tee shirt too. Let’s file this image…

Eat Your Greens

A British Racing Green color scheme looks like the way to go… Silver mudguards, blackened frame and a verdant tank.  

It fits with the grassy slopes the tires grip to ascend and descend…   

Golden logo glimmers in the sunlight…

    

Some go for the white fenders. Here this leading link fork has a Greeves air to the proceedings.

 

Green frame a little too much. 

  
This older fixed frame is a nice balance.

Colours

  

Starting to consider a color scheme for the Cub. This one is looking good. Classic red topped tank, silver mudguards and black elsewhere. 

Cub Update

It’s been a little while since we’ve seen this little fella on the blog. Some crucial body parts have been hard to come by. However I have both fenders, a short period trials seat, a clean tank. Looks nearly roadworthy! Exhaust pipe on the list next then the all important ignition set up – the pulse itself.  

 

the Seaside

  

Beach Babe: a box brownie snap of someone’s love. Both two-legged and two-wheeled. Back when you just drove down to the waters edge and had a ride along the damp sand. You can smell the salty air and feel the gritty sand in your toes.

Saint George

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;  Or close the wall up with our English dead.
In peace there’s nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility:
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger;
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favour’d rage;
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;
Let pry through the portage of the head
Like the brass cannon; let the brow o’erwhelm it
As fearfully as doth a galled rock
O’erhang and jutty his confounded base,
Swill’d with the wild and wasteful ocean.
Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide,
Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit
To his full height. On, on, you noblest English.
Whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof!
Fathers that, like so many Alexanders,
Have in these parts from morn till even fought
And sheathed their swords for lack of argument:
Dishonour not your mothers; now attest
That those whom you call’d fathers did beget you.
Be copy now to men of grosser blood,
And teach them how to war. And you, good yeoman,
Whose limbs were made in England, show us here
The mettle of your pasture; let us swear
That you are worth your breeding; which I doubt not;
For there is none of you so mean and base,
That hath not noble lustre in your eyes.
I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game’s afoot:
Follow your spirit, and upon this charge
Cry ‘God for Harry, England, and Saint George!’ 

 Will Shakespeare – Henry V.

  
Contemporary Harry on a Triumph Daytona. Different steed- British blood.

Earth Day

 Not really the intent of today’s Terran celebrations but this here Scrambler looks the business for rainforest rambling, tundra trialling, sand dune swoops and countryside cavorting. Knobby tires, imitation leather saddle and the coolness of a British bike. Earth awaits!
 

Top Speed

The progression of fast. This chart represents the fastest production motorcycles over the last century. The decades long plateau reflects a half century reign of two British Greats: Brought Superior SS100 (TE Lawrence’s ride of choice)  and the veritable Vincent Black Shadow. The steeper section have the early racing developments and the latter competitive superbike wars. My 1985 Ninja 900 takes up a few years in the late eighties.

Everybody loves a Cowgirl

Especially when they have aspirations of the two-wheeled kind. The Thunderbird is just the finest to be galloping around on. “Annie get your gun!”

Sunday Best

Boots ‘n’ Denim. Classy smokin’ tattoo’d cafe chick looking mean enough to kick a period Bonnie into life and haul it down the road.

Peterson Avenue

Pearly Triple: saw this nipping through Chicago traffic earlier today. Triumphs Monster basher the Speed Triple. Narrow purpose with wheels, engine, brakes, suspension, and a seat. A clean machine in Daz White.

Plastic Figure

Doll Face: someone’s idea of fun. Propping an articulated figure onto scale model Triumph Bonneville. Shades of Marwencol, the model town fabricated by Mark Hogancamp (look up the documentary on Netflix). This acrylic lass is called Tamara Cool Girl Harley. She has leathers too.

…not that there’s anything wrong with it…

There’s a lot of it about

Goon, poet, artillery signaller, Irish. That’s Spike Milligan who would be 98 today. His off kilter buffoonery was fresh air in a world of stale comedy.
Say Bazonka every day 
That’s what my grandma used to say 
It keeps at bay the Asian Flu’ 
And both your elbows free from glue. 
So say Bazonka every day 
(That’s what my grandma used to say) 

Don’t say it if your socks are dry! 
Or when the sun is in your eye! 
Never say it in the dark 
(The word you see emits a spark) 
Only say it in the day 
(That’s what my grandma used to say) 

Young Tiny Tim took her advice 
He said it once, he said it twice 
he said it till the day he died 
And even after that he tried 
To say Bazonka! every day 
Just like my grandma used to say. 

Now folks around declare it’s true 
That every night at half past two 
If you’ll stand upon your head 
And shout Bazonka! from your bed 
You’ll hear the word as clear as day 
Just like my grandma used to say!

He sits on a Wooler motorcycle. Some publicity shot from the Veteran & Vintage magazine in 1968.