September 28, 2011

'KEEP ON RIDING' - LONGCHAMP

Audrey Marnay draped around a very nice Norton...
Founded in 1948, Longchamp of France is best known for its nifty (and very much copied) 'Le Pliage' bags, made of vinyl with leather handles, which roll up into a tight cylinder to pack inside a suitcase, and unroll to hold all that extra stuff you bought on your vacation, as a carry-on bag.  Like Dunhill of England, Longchamp started out making accessories for smokers (pipe covers, tobacco pouches), but by the 1950s they'd expanded into other leather goods, scarves, etc.  After the massive success of 'Le Pliage' (introduced in 1993), the company expanded into the high-end leather goods and clothing business, with collaborations with the likes of Kate Moss and Tracy Emin bringing attention to the brand.

This Fall, they've launched an ad campaign in print, web, and stores, featuring French model Audrey Marnay on a beautiful Norton Commando with Dunstall double front disc brakes and a long-range Gus Kuhn petrol tank.  The Longchamp website features an interactive video game, in which the viewer take the handlebars of a late model Triumph Bonneville (sadly, not the Norton!) on various trips through and around Paris, attempting to find mysterious Audrey and her new handbag. Pity Audrey doesn't ride the Commando wearing her lovely new gear, nor will you find tasty Britbikes gracing a Longchamp retail establishment (I checked in London and Paris).
Nice bike!  Alloy rims, performance upgrades...in the 'making of' video, the Norton logo is white, but the print ads have blacked out our favorite Vampiric font
You know it already, but fashion houses have discovered vintage motorcycles are cool, beautiful, and trés chic. In the September issue of Vogue, you'll see Longchamp, Ralph Lauren, Dolce and Gabbana, etc, using old bikes in their ads, but while fashion houses love adding kinetic excitement with vintage wheels, long-term collaborations between bikes and couture houses are rare. The likes of Dunhill and Chanel, while using 'branded' vintage bikes briefly in advertising (and in Dunhill's case, actually selling a few very tasty Patrick Godet/Dunhill Egli-Vincents), such a love affair never seems to last.  Maybe its the oil leaks.
Please ride this motorcycle.  The new 'Balzane' handbag is supposed to be the star of the show, but I'll take the bike...
And of course, a Ruby helmet is a must for every moto-fashion shoot!

September 27, 2011

'MOBY DICK' AT STAFFORD

'Moby Dick' coming up for sale at Bonhams Stafford, Oct 16th.
What's in a name?  A lot, if it happens to be attached to the fastest road-going motorcycle from the late 1920s and well into the 30s.  Charles Hobbs, owner of a garage in Guildford, was not satisfied with the 'fastest in the world' performance of his standard 1929 Brough Superior SS100 with JAP JTOR 980cc engine; every SS100 was guaranteed to have recorded 100mph at Brooklands, but testers conceded they were happy to use the assistance of gravity (coming off the high banking) to hit the 'ton'...   Hobbs embarked on a performance upgrade, while keeping the bike completely road legal.  Two years of development, working with George Brough and JAP themselves (who specially cast cylinder barrels for larger pistons), made the Brough Superior a bit of a monster by 1931, at 1140cc.
Spotted at the Bonhams tent at Goodwood Revival...
The larger capacity, hotter cams, and better breathing gave a 13hp increase over the standard SS100 (which had ~44hp), and Motor Cycling's Dennis May was invited to test the machine. It proved difficult to find a public road on which to stretch the beast to its limit...1931 was a long time before the existence of motorways, and 100+mph on tiny English 'B' roads meant villages, pedestrians, animals, and bends in the road were frequent, even if traffic police weren't.  Simply put, there was nothing on the road with two wheels doing anything like that speed, and only a few supercharged Bentleys were faster on four.  Plus, the roads were far from billiard-table smooth, and calculating the percentage of wheelspin from the indicated speed was a guessing game; the rear wheel would have been airborne a lot of the time, aviating over bumps, as any rider of a machine with crude (or no) rear springing has found at high speed.  It feels like you're flying... because you are!
Moby had the highest spec rear suspension available in 1929; a fully triangulated swingarm from Bentley and Draper, with dual springs under the saddle, and hand-adjusted friction dampers keeping the plot under control.  Front forks were, of course, Brough's own 'Castle' brand, very similar to Harley forks, but in reality both copied an FN design.  The long B-S chassis had super-solid headstock and robust frame, with enough rake to those Castles for a very stable ride at speed.
Dennis May's first encounter with the Brough, in 1931, netted a "genuine 106mph", the fastest road machine Motor Cycling had ever recorded, and Hobbs dubbed her 'Moby Dick', so impressed was he with the bike's staggering performance.  Not satisfied with this, owner Hobbs left Moby with Ted Baragwanath, a Brough racer at Brooklands and expert speed tuner.  In 'Barry's' talented hands, the JAP engine gave 65hp (21 more than stock - half again the horsepower!), and Dennis May tested Moby in a more remote locale, on a fairly straight stretch of road...at least, until speeds topped triple digits, when several distinct bends were discovered.  The subsequent headline read, "Just Fancy, 106mph in Second!"  Hobbs barely shifted into top gear (third gear on the Sturmey-Archer 'Super Heavyweight' gearbox) before needing to shut the beast down, to avoid a rapidly approaching series of bends.  He calculated his rate of knots at 115mph, given the gearing, rpm, and wheelspin... a speed which wasn't bettered by Motor Cycling until the postwar Vincent v-twin appeared.
What every other vehicle saw...
Hobbs later sold Moby Dick to the Bilbe brothers, who intended to race the machine at Brooklands.  At one handicap race in 1937, Moby was placed on 'scratch', meaning Brookland's handicapper 'Ebby' Ebblewhite figured her as fastest of the race, and when other riders were flagged off, Moby sat on the start line until nearly lapped by the field!  Undaunted, Ralph Bilbe flattened himself over Moby's tank, wound open the throttle, and finished the race a lap ahead of the next bike.
Moby Dick is the original Speed Custom, the spiritual grandaddy of every turbocharged hyperbike making suicide runs on Youtube.  Tip your hat to Moby; Grandpa kicked ass.

September 26, 2011

BMW MUSEUM SALE, ROUND 2

 Bonhams and BMW have teamed up again to host a one-make sale at the incredible new BMW museum in Munich.  Launched last year to host the sale from (mostly) a single collection, such a sale of a single marque, within the factory grounds, is unique in the vintage auction world, and makes a grand excuse to visit the 'home turf'.
After the success of last year's sale, Bonhams is continuing the relationship with BMW to regularly host sales at the Museum, and the selection this year includes some interesting cars and bikes, with a few clear 'stars'.  On the bike side, that includes the ex-Georg Auerbacher BMW Rennsport 500cc ohc sidecar outfit, which won the non-championship 750cc sidecar TT in 1971.  Click here for the full history of the machine.  A little lighter on the wallet is a 1936 735cc R17 (top), the most powerful roadster BMW built from 1935 - 1952 (until the R68 arrived).  I road-tested the previous model (a 1929 R16) two years ago; the pressed-steel frame BMW 750 is a fantastic vintage roadster.  I'll be at the auction; expect an update.
Rider's eye view of the Auerbacher Rennsport
Massive Dell'Orto carbs with double-sided float chambers, to cure fuel starvation in hard cornering...

'PIPEBURN' INTERVIEW

Andrew from 'Pipeburn' was kind enough to interview me a few months ago: follow this link for a piece of my mind...
Riding a Vincent Black Lightning at the Grossglockner Hillclimb last year...

September 22, 2011

GOODWOOD ANNEX

Simply too many good photos of Goodwood Revival to let them languish in the computer...
At the Bonhams tent; the fastest road-going motorcycle on the planet, circa 1927...the Brough Superior SS100 'Moby Dick', famously capable of 106mph in second gear!
Details of Moby's Bentley and Draper rear suspension, and later 'Doll's Head' Sturmey-Archer gearbox.  This famous big Brough is coming up for sale at Bonhams Stafford on Oct.16th; more on this shortly...
Four cylinder motor art; Gordini engine
Half the exhausts from a Ferrari v-8 racer
A Maserati 'Birdcage' sports racer, one of many at Goodwood
Talbot-Lago racer in French racing blue
A humble BSA Bantam makes an excellent pit bike
Alfa Romeo sports racer, road registered...note one carb per cylinder
Bookended friction dampers on an Alfa Romeo 8C rear end
Another Maserati 'Birdcage', so called from the mass of short, thin tubes making up the chassis.  A nightmare to repair after a crash, but ultra-light and stiff
In the Bonhams tent; racers available for next years' Goodwood Revival...
Beefy front suspension, brakes, and steering linkages on this ERA...
...while this 1927 Bugatti has far more graceful and delicate components...
...although this 1948 Bugatti is more robust; still delicate, and completely hand-made.
Fast cars, hot women, strong drink; the Bushmills hut.
Cobras everywhere, with hoods on to keep the rain out. And it did rain.
Daytona Cobra with mechanic in period wrenching gear
Lotus Cortina at the fun-fair; I used to own a Mk1 Cortina with twin-cam Lotus engine, just like this one.  A cheap sedan with great performance...
Triumph Tiger Cub Trials model makes a great pit bike too.
Mighty friction damper keeps the leaf spring front suspension is some kind of control...
David from El Solitario M.C. bring Spanish gypsy hobo chic to Goodwood...
Derek from Lewis Leathers shows off pix from the new collection to Steve Berry...
A legion of D-Type Jaguars; 'short nose' and 'long nose' variants, all feral and feline, looking restless, four wheeled Spitfires game for action
An Ecurie Ecosse D-Type with distinctive dorsal fin
1950 Gordini type 18S...
From humble beginnings; as part of a Juan Manuel Fangio tribute, many of the cars he raced were flown in; this pair from his native Argentina, including the Chevy with which he won his first races, and began his career on dirt roads
A great car deserves a great outfit...
Even a humble early Volkswagen Karmann-Ghia looks magnificent in the impressive pre-'74 parking lot.  The joke goes, a fellow came to Goodwood, and never made it past the Vintage car park...exclaiming what an excellent show it was.  Jags, Ferraris, Astons, Bentlys, Porsche, something for everyone, and lots of them.
Part of a Ford racer tribute; the 'Golden Ford' 1911 Model T racer...
Ferrari GTO, looking magnificent, and being raced.  No trailer queens here.
Inside the Men's File photo booth...
A Kieft racer with Coventry Climax dohc v8 engine...
Ferrari 250 LM peekaboo...
Charles Gordon-Lennox, Earl of March and Kinrara adds a few words to the Best Dressed Ladies proceedings, expressing his appreciation for the level of participation amongst attendees to the Revival...
Things get bent, things get broken, things get fixed
You never know what you'll find at Goodwood...
Organized complexity; a Mercedes-Benz W196 monoposto with fuel injection
Lots of military motorcycles among the displays of wartime vehicles; Royal Enfield, Matchless, Norton, BSA
As if riding a motorcycle weren't fun enough... now the kids can have a bit of thrill
Men's File's Nick Clements shoots Rockers
Early, long-stroke Featherbed Norton Manx readied for its race
Old friends from faraway California; Pete Young and Paul d'Orléans....who is wearing all Double RL (barring a Missoni tie, Barcelino cap, and crazy studded BessNYC shoes)
Old relatives from nearby France; Paul d'Orléans meets Paul Dorleans from Jersey.  I'm not in fact wearing Vintage - the suit and underpinnings are all Thom Browne, who certainly nods to traditional cuts...although the death's head cane is quite old.

Shark attack!  A lineup of Lotus and Lola Formula cars
Nicely restored ca.1950 Triumph Speed Twin in Amaranth Red
Re-sculpting the Spirit of Ecstasy, as per Rolls Royce insignia...
Another of Fangio's cars; surely a straight 6 under there!
If milady has no seam in her stockings, best to make one...
Original Ecurie Ecosse transporter with Jaguar C-type racer atop
Southsider Vincent Prat and Matt Hind of Men's File
Winner of Saturday's Best Dressed Ladies' competition...

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