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!

Pier18

A Fast Triumph at Bonneville ~ Gotta love the color!

Taking a bike up to speed on the Salt Flats must be exciting; that bike being a Triumph must be exhilarating! Here's a team from Madison WI who have a blown 650 engine from a '66 TR6 'horned into a stretched drag frame, set up to hare along the black line between the mile markers.

http://bonnevilleproject.wordpress.com/

Von Dutch tank on a 70's Bonnie

Here's a beautiful lightly custom Triumph, bobbed and given a nice monochromatic appearance centered on a tank painted and pinstriped by the hand of Von Dutch (a.k.a. Kenny Howard); motorcycle and hotrod custom painter and pinstriper extraordinaire from the sixties. This bike sold recently at an auction of Bud Ekins items by Bonhams.

http://www.bonhams.com/cgi-bin/public.sh/WService=wslive_pub/pubweb/publicSite.r?sContinent=USA&screen=lotdetailsNoFlash&iSaleItemNo=4831489&iSaleNo=18553&iSaleSectionNo=2

 

Bud Ekins 1930-2007

Triumph motorcycles in the sixties can't be discussed without mentioning Bud Ekins; one time owner of a Triumph dealership in California, desert racer and Syeve McQueen stand in ("The Jump" on The Great Escape) he appears to have an old school coolness when atop his bikes. He ran the ISDN (International Six Days Trial) winning a gold medal 4 times and silver once, no mean feat.

Logos and branding

The use of the Triumph logo with another marque, somewhat like the bike in the previous post. Let the good times roll!  Now the converse could be achieved with Triumph represented with the Helvetica of the Kawasaki logo...

Kawasaki W800 - Bonnie lookalike

Several years ago Kawasaki came out with the W650, a short lived cult classic which had the looks of a British twin, even more so than the then newly debuted Triumph Bonneville, and the unleaking, electric unfailing reliabiliy of a modern bike. Well Team Green have come out with a larger one, to compete directly with the Bonnie perhaps, but this time in classic Kawasaki colors of the time. This should sell by the truckload... sign me up!

Some Triumph specific locations in and near Chicago

First off a couple of dealers where the new Triumph motorcycle range can be found. Note to self: "must go for a test ride of the new Bonneville...". Looking at reviews on http://www.yelp.com/ they both have 5 star ratings for both customer care s well as maintenance. A good motorcycle mechanic you get on with is worth his weight in old british iron!

http://www.motoworkschicago.com/

http://www.teammcc.com/

Here's a place which specialises in vintage bikes, British as well as other European marques such as BMW. Again good review results so worth a try when looking for expertise in the realm of old motorcycles.

http://acemotorcycleandscooter.com/

Finally Morries Place in RIngwood, Illinois. A wee bit of a hike to northern Lake Co. but well worth it. Both for Ed Zenders immeasurable knowledge on Brit Iron as well as his display of Triumphs, Nortons, BSA's and all. He worked on my bikes engine and I trust him with all vintage mechanical work.

http://www.morriesplacecycle.com/

Eye Candy for sure...

Royal Enfield

Triumph Speed Twin

A Pair of Norton Commandos

Making the Triumph look Vintage

 I've doctored a couple of photo's of the bike to give it a more vintage quality. Very period looking. Evocative of halcyon days ripping along english country lanes...

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.

http://imcdb.org/vehicles.php?make=Triumph&model=Bonneville&page=1

Racing Bonneville

 My next vision for the Triumph is to give it the sleek lines of a cafe racer; clip-on bars, rearsets and a windy country lane. Here are a couple of bikes with the low slung look for inspiration.

Judge Dredd - Lawman of the Future

You can't talk about comic art with motorcycles and not mention Judge Dredd. 'Old Stoney Face' Joe Dredd maintained law in the massive Mega City One riding his Lawmaster. He was Police, Judge and Jury all and kept a semblance of order with a harsh hand.

Motorcycles in Comic Art 2000AD INFERNO

One of the outstanding pieces graphically was the story Inferno; loosely based on the movie Rollerball (the sublime 1975 version NOT the 2002 one!). A future sport being a mix of Football, Basketball, Baseball, Speedway, MotoCross, Kung-Fu based in an arena of cinders with jetpacker flyers and a healthy dollop of ultraviolence thrown in. Artie Gruber being one classic character. Massimo Belardinellis bikes were sumptuous choppers with outlandish engineering and cool riders with harpoon-line powergloves. Sadly the plug was pulled due to the overly violent nature of of the action.

Motorcycles in Comics - 2000AD

Back in the late seventies I read the then new comic 2000AD ~ fantastic and violent stories of the near future. Classic artwork by the likes of Pino, Ezquerra, Bolland and Belardinelli graced the pages. I would devour these stories again and again until the pages were threadbare. I would then draw the action scenes and allow the oft featured bikes to soak in to my subconscious. One early story M.A.C.H. 1 centered around a character called John Probe, with superhuman strengths (man activated by compu-puncture hyperpower! `~ "Six Million Dollar Man"?)  Many of his stories involved bikers on the top models at the time, as well as a few fantastical ones.  

Enjoy the art.... beginning with Probe gunning the throttle of a Benelli Sei.

What strength, lifting rider bike and all (a BMW R69)

Here are the speedy killers, reminiscent to the Bond bike in Thunderball.

This unlucky rider is being unsaddled from what looks like a Suzuki GT750 "Water Buffalo"... 

Another early story involved the invasion of Britain by some ficticious Eastern Block country called Volga; it took the rough edged resistance leader, Bill Savage, a lorry driver armed with his shotgun and working class quips to save the day. However the Volgs were armed with fast sportsbikes equiped with machine guns.