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.

A Century ago....

Family outings aboard two wheeled transport; let's take Granny along too! Idyllic Edwardian times for early Coventry built machines.

Mother and daughter can come along too. Sidesaddle and cross bar comfort! Flat cap and goggles complete period look; Harris tweed the early bikers gard. Classic stuff!

These early motorcycles were basically bicycles with engines; even a well sprung Brooks leather seat adorns the frame. Think of the freedom these offered to early road users.

King of Cools bike collection...

Every few years another of the items from the collection of Steve McQueen becomes available. Recently his wax cotton Belstaff jacket from the ISDT was sold for several tens of thousands. This year a motocross is up for sale. A 400cc Husqvarna that rode in the Elsinore, as seen on the great documentary On Any Sunday, as well as adorning the cover of Sports Illustrated. The bids will commence and a hammer fall on no doubt a hefty winning bid on May 14th in Carmel CA, Bonhams will carry out the auction.

Steve with aforementioned bike taking it through its paces across some SoCal sands.

 

of Malcolm Uphill and the Triumph Bonneville

From http://www.triumphbonneville.com/ - a site dedicated to the T140 and TR7:



"The best lap could be around the 103mph mark" predicted Paul Dunstall, for whom Ray Pickrell had put in a storming circuit of the 37.73 mile course at 99.39mph on a Norton twin, but Dunstall's favourite was Triumph's Malcolm Uphill,on a 60bhp 650cc Triumph Bonneville...



The production TT introduced in 1967 was no reprise of the worthy but often dull Clubman's races. Rider's were top names and engines were tuned to last for the three laps it would take to boost sales and prestige for the coming season. British Manufacturers might have lost the battle for the smaller capacity classes, but big twins like the Commando and the Bonneville were still competitive on the track and in the showroom.



Uphill ignored the pressure and still likes to recall how he eased off once he was sure of a win.
"The 100mph lap didn't mean much to me at the time", he says. Far more important was the £50 prize, £70 in trade bonuses and the £300 Triumph Bonneville MAC232E-his fee from Meriden.

Hunched well forward on the howling twin,pudding basin hemet bobbing above the steering head, Uphill flew through the speed trap at the highlander pub at just under 135mph. His standing start at 100.09mph looked effortless until spectators realised the scraping sound was Malcolm cornering on the Dunlop K81's until his fairing touched the road. A faster second lap and a ton plus race average looked certain until this cool professional throttled back to finish with 99.99mph. It was the Bonnevilles finest hour,and a feat immortalised by Dunlop on the sidewall of every K81 the 'TT100'.


As well as the Thruxton 500 in 1969 he also dominated the NW200 road race in Northern Ireland.

Fantastic shot of him at speed, classic lines of the Triumph blurs the scenery.

Wall of Death - hear the "Roar"

Just love this picture, the wind blowing through the lions mane is priceless; not sure what the bike is, sometimes the light but powerful Triumphs were put into action on these motordromes.

Triumph Adverts

Here's another selection of the various methods through time to propote the prowess of a Triumph motorcycle...

...first off, sea, sand, seagulls and... 

However, the worlds best motorcycle has to rule the globe... quite literally!

Of course a word straight from the racers mouth doesn't go amiss either.

... or a land speed record!

But in the end it all comes down to impressing the ladies!

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...