– I managed to take a shot of Dean zooming along Melvin Amstutz Highway near Waukegan.
November 28, 2019
CAPTAIN Hilts
The Cooler King | Our man Guy Martin is to recreate the classic Finland scene from The Great Escape made famous by Steve McQueen. In blue torn down sweatshirt and khakis he’s to jump a barbed wire border fence on a green Triumph Scrambler. On Channel 4 December 8th.
January 17, 2016
How! Di ye diy art de ye?
Powerful paintings of icons on Triumphs by John Froehlich. Slight abstraction of classic images depicting Steve McQueen as Hilts and Marlon Brando as Johhny.
March 7, 2012
Norton Transformed
After the CAD bike a couple of posts ago here’s a video which takes it a step further. A full real life/animated short. A neat wee story about the trials of Norton ‘ownership’. Masterfully created by Steve Twist as part of an Undergraduate Degree in Computer Visualisation and Animation at Bournemouth.
September 17, 2011
Heeeey!
A well known bike to millions of American TV viewers of the 70’s is comng up for sale. The ‘cool’ Triumph we see The Fonz riding on during the opening credits of Happy Days. It’s a 50’s 500cc TR5 Trophy with rigid frame. A moto used by the desert racers in SoCal at the time; this one beginning in the hands of Bud Ekins. When Happy Days was in it’s conceptual infancy Hollywood called their biker pal Ekins to supply a chopper for a new cool character to ride on; he put high bars on, stripped the front fender and sprayed the tank silver… an icon was born!
Roll-on 3 decades and Ekins was clearing out his not inconsiderable collection passing a warehouse of bikes, parts and memerobilia to another Triumph dealer ‘Mean Marshall’ Ehlers. This old Trumpet was sitting forlornly amongst it all. Now Mr Ehlers needs to sell it so this bike is up for grabs to the highest bidder through Bonhams.
Full Story: www.cycleworld.com/fonzies-triumph
September 11, 2011
A Triumph Rat Packer
How better to tootle around the studios of Hollywood in the sixties than on a white Bonnie; here’s Dean Martin with pillion, actress Stella Stevens, enjoying the British Bike in the California sun… the movie “The Silencers” starred Martin as secret agent Matt Helm in his first outing.
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!
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!
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 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…
March 10, 2011
Batgirl on her Batbike
February 1, 2011
The White Helmet Display Team – Royal Signal Corps
These guys are another early memory of motorcycling. They would ride around arenas across the country, as well as at the Royal Tournament, in perfect syncronized fashion, either piled up on one bike, or through flaming hoops, or on one great feat, ride towards each other in a X-shape just missing each other by fractions of an inch. Bike skills and control are superb. They are a volunteer team within the Signallers and are one of the oldest motorcycle display teams in the world. 80 years.
Their bike of choice: a 750 Triumph, with loud TT pipes, knobbly tires and a red flash’d tank to match their pistripe trousers. More tuned to their machines against the modern street stunt riders who rely on wheelies, burnouts and stoppies.
The classic flaming jump.
The Pyramid
Juggling backwards.
Sidesaddle standing with no hands, cool control.
9 guys as well as the rider on one bike.
Atop a ladder and riding around.
Two wheeled gymnastics.
January 29, 2011
Triumph Scrambler Video
Here’s a great short video to get the blood flowing! A customized Scrambler taken through its paces in a derelict urban setting; great stuff!
January 11, 2011
Bonnies on the Silver Screen
A site dedicated to different vehicles in movies and TV; motorcycles included; in particular for my search, a database of Triumph Bonneville’s used.
geordiebiker.com 