Black ‘n’ White and Red all over

Woodcut Wheelie! Stunning black and red print-like graphic of some riding dude hauling their Triumph onto its back wheel.

Le rue de moto

BAAK Moto – proud custom Thruxton tracker parked-up on a warmly lit French street waiting to take its owner around le campagne de Massif Central. Wot a bruiser!

Spring Scene

Fences – Another photo from the weekend ride. Sun sinking in the West across the expansive North Shore gardens; farm fields; and spring-fresh woodland. Lilac hedges waft heady scents in the cool dusk breeze.

Center Line

Vanishing Point – where perspective meets and parallel lines converge. Traveling the road the future draws nearer and the present recedes behind you. On a bike you feel at rest whilst the world screams past in a fleeting blur. Sometimes you just need speed man, to feel alive.

6 o’clock shadows of

Shadow Bar – the evening light with its low warm illumination lights up the orange tanked Bonnie to good effect. The shadow of you and your bike speeding along beside you is quite mesmerizing.

Sheridan Road

Evening Ride – after a hot day the cooler air before sunset was perfect for an early summer jaunt up to Lake Bluff.

Howlin’ Wolf

Of Ink & Skin – in the vein of a Sailor Jerry Tattoo this graphic has a rosy cheeked brunette surrounded by classic ink symbolism. Piercing daggers and forkéd tongue serpents represent the Roman god Mercury for transportation or trickery. The red rose promises new hopeful beginnings. Safe travel is borne by the wings of a bird. And Lydia, for she IS the tattooed lady, has the German Kriegsmarine cap emblazoned with the Triumph motorcycle logo for winning effect.

Jim Stark

James Dean only starred in a handful of films, but what movies he did have remained powerful examples in the media. This Triumph Thunderbird advert puts a twist on one such title with the promotion of uncompromising motors. “You’re tearing me apart!”

Cowboy

Cheyenne- he was a big dude with mellow baritone voice and perfectly cast as Cheyenne Bodie for 8 seasons back in the late fifties. Clint Walker, who passed away a couple of days ago at the sturdy age of 90. enjoyed riding, either equine or moto. Here he makes his BSA B40 single look like a pony on the trail. That’s Andra Martin who portrayed an Arapaho captive in another Clint Walker movie Yellowstone Kelly, about an Indian tracker.

In the Halls of the Mountain Kings

Mountain View – taking your gal on an alpine tour behind the controls of a Speed Twin is good as it could get according to this advertising illustration from the fifties. The yellow frock doesn’t seem like suitable attire for high altitude pass cresting. Of course the Amaranth Red is picture perfect for the sublime scenery.

White Lightning

Boon – gravel voiced and surly: that was the typical characters portrayed by Michael Elphick. As retired fireman in this particular role he rode around on a ’68 BSA Lightning in a Lone Ranger like fashion carrying out courier work as well as private eye shenanigans.

Zipper or Button-Down?

Denim – on this day in 1873 businessman Levi Strauss and tailor Jacob Davis took out a patent for heavy canvas work trousers. Utilizing copper rivers at stressed corners and an indigo dye for color the modern jeans were born. Though not the best for heavier riding at higher speeds, the sturdiness of a good pair of ‘Levi’s’ are both comfortable and cool. Roll up the lower leg turnips, wear a suitable denim jacket, blonde roper gloves, engineer boots and a puddin’ bowl lid and head out on the roads looking VERY James Dean. Blue Jeans are a symbol of the Working Man; the counterculture hippy,m; a grunge rocker; and the low-rise sagging apparel of skaters or hip-hop. They are a cry from the norm, a symbol of the rejection of the values of mainstream society. Rebellion!

Blue Blood

Royalty – with the wedding of Harry & Meghan earlier today I thought I’d look at the Windsor’s and compare them with their corresponding Triumph. Queen Mother? Model H, old world classic, suitable for a day at the races. Prince Philip? A German TWN 2 Stroke – the European Triumph. QE2? Easy, a ’59 Bonnie; timeless classic. Princess Margaret? The racy Thruxton, Charles? The too-little-too-late Trophy 250.

William & Harry? The new Triumphs! 675 Daytona or T120 Bonneville. Next generation.

Alberta Moto

TRW – the side valve developed by Triumph for the war effort in ’42. Here’s a lass in suitable attire ready to look for some pastoral country lane to zip along. Very stylish she looks to along with the forest green bike.

The Rocket

A Full Head of Steam – Fill the boiler, stoke the fires, crank the flywheel, spin the governor. The Age of Steam Power fed the Industrial Revolution the explosion of society that would eventually become modern times. Some inventive folk like to adorn Victorian garb and assume an air of a contemporary age still driven under James Watt’s engines. Steampunk! Here’s a custom Triumph Triple set up as as if it were a 19th Century era Motorcycle.