Leap Year

   
Our Bloke Guy Martin takes flight with his Smiths Triumph in 2015 over the infamous humpback Ballaugh Bridge on The Isle of Man TT. 

 
Even more impressive is Harvey Williams catching air on his 125 BSA Bantam in 1952. Fag is lit too!

Academy Awards

  
And the Oscar goes to… Triumph!

The British bike has been used in numerous films over the ages from the fifties, sixties and eighties: Marlon Brando in The Wild One, Steve McQueen in The Great Escape, to Richard Gere in An Officer and a Gentleman. Latter day films include Carrie Ann Moss as Trinity (appropriately riding a Speed Triple) in The Matrix, Glen Hansard in Once, and last years Jurassic  World with Chris Pratt roughing it on a Scrambler.

Ranger

  
We’ve seen this truck before… It’s rescued a couple or three breakdowns on the Bonnie in years past. The white Ford Ranger owned by Dean Rennie. It’s been up on chocks for a couple of months while the brake lines were getting replaced. Today I gave Dean a hand at dropping the truck bed back on. A solid little work horse.

Though discontinued in the US in 2011 there arewhisperings from Detroit to bring back this mid-sized truck platform .

Nose Art

  
Thinking of clear spring days for those early season rides. Just need a glamour gal sitting on a bomb to complete the scene.

Photography by Derek Queensberry 

Thunder Bird

  
After hoofing it around on the Indian I’m investigating what classic tourer Triumph has to offer. Their 1700 Thunderbird LT is a close match. It’s 270 degree timed parallel twin must give a v-twin sounding thump. Floor boards for rider and pillion alike, tall windscreen, leather bags and var nigh 100 ponies on tap. 

Route 66 beckons…

Pass me a 3/8th Whitworth…

  
A well stocked tool wall from a vintage workshop in Oxfordshire. 

In the desert you can remember your name

  
Park Boulevard passing through Joshua Tree National Park (formerly Monument) is sixty miles of perfect blacktop that meanders with the natural geography of this 800,000 acres of Californian desert. The monzogranite rounded by eons of water and wind erosion give an otherworldly atmosphere. You really feel like your venturing across a Martian plain.

10 out of 10 

Roadmaster

  
Well, the trip is over and the bike had to go back today. It handled admirably on smaller roads and bigger highways; solo and two up. The engine and pipes get a bit hot as traffic slows but cools off with speed and the adjustable windscreen gives superb protection. 

Where the Streets Have No Name

  
Joshua Tree National Monument- quite a lovely road through the desert surrounded by Henry Moore-like rock formations and the sentinel Yucca that give the park its name.

Injun

  

1800cc motor – ample sized vee twin lump lets the bike stroll along at a good clip even two-up. Some highway miles, town bumbling and mountain ascents were all taken with great aplomb.

Indian Reservation

  
Picked up the big hauler today. Pulls like a train and is as comfy as a Chesterfield. After the aged but lithe Bonnie it was a little ponderous but once you swing it around along the road your muscle memory syncs in with its needs. 

Palm Springs SoCal

  
Here we are in the hinterland of Southern California catching some winter sun, enjoying a taste of mid-century modernism and heading over to Joshua Tree on an Indian (which we’ll be picking up tomorrow). 

The weather is just perfect!

Long Legged

  
It’s sometimes a matter of how we roll. Chopper’d BSA and a couple of seventies dudes tottering along the drag looking for a suitable spot to chill the day.

Fold

  
折り紙 The intricate craft of origami. Paper folding to create various object. Plane to solid. Here’s a wee paperbag motorcycle. Perhaps Gaff left it for Deckard. 

A Sine Curve

  
Heading north along the Wisconsin shoreline of Lake Michigan you’ll end up in the narrowing peninsula of Door County. A Midwestern backwater of the northwoods with freshwater on your port and starboard. Highway 42 dodders along in a lazy meander through the trees which from the look at these images can be enjoyed any time of year. Autumn is of course the best.

My recommendation? Don’t order the Fish Boil!