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| Nick Ashley's Cheney Triumph 500, a bespoke machine |
The sun smiled on the gathered faithful at London's infamous
Ace Café this Sunday, for their annual Flat Track day, with special guests from
Sideburn magazine. I had the good fortune to arrive on a '67 Triumph TR6, in company with two Moto Giro-veteran Ducatis. While riding an hour through the streets of London to reach the old North Circular road might sound daunting, riding a motorcycle in February was reason enough to brave the blue sky and black cabs.
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| Crossing the Albert Bridge from Battersea to central London... |
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| A few of the notorious Mean Fuckers M.C. |
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| London traffic... |
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| The Sideburn Royal Enfield tracker; sounded healthy |
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| A bit more robust in the dirt style; a Triumph Trident |
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| Triumphs everywhere, but only one TR250 - a much maligned bike, but I liked mine. |
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| Inside the Ace Café; a shrine |
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| A pair of '57 Ducatis; 125cc and 175cc - not standard, but lovely |
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| Quite a few customs of all varieties |
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| The real deal; an HD XR750 Miler; Harley should have made a road machine from these, they're fast, smooth, powerful, with excellent handling, and very light. The power delivery is like a turbine, they simply keep spinning faster - completely unlike any other Harley I've ridden. |
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| Old utility machines become the rarest of all - when was the last time you saw a BSA C10 250cc sidevalver? |
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| This reliable little machine was the start of many a biking career in England... |
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| The 'Ace Corner' meeting room/annex |
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| The right stuff; Triumph T110 with all-iron engine, and BSA A10 |
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| Andrew Nahum, curator at London's Science Museum, is a keen vintagent... |
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| Sideburn's Gary Inman, hawking magazines and... |
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| ...the 45rpm disc of music by The Stags, to accompany their 2011 foray into roller derby, 'Rollerburn'... |
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| ...and the album cover, with reference to the film 'Rollerball' |
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| BSA A65 |
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| Funny, the cops use go-faster tape on their helmets too... |
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| Prison stripes and freakazoid customs |
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| Knobbies on the street; squirrely! |
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| Fueling the machine... |
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| ...and the man, at the Ace Café |
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| Lovely ca.'47 Indian bobber, the original flat-track stylee |
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| The inimitable Chief engine and logo |
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| Crez reflects |
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| Mark Eley |
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| The Ace's Mark Wilsmore, with journalist Sarah Bradley |
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| Flat-track frame and bodywork kit for your Triumph... |
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| A tracker'd Norton Commando |
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| 'Til death do us part'. Indeed... |
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| St.Nick bathes in the glory |
5:31 PM
Posted in: Ace Cafe
