Photo credit: Double Red
A fully restored, ex-works 1952 Vincent Black Shadow was the top selling motorcycle at the Bonhams auction, held at the International Classic Motorcycle Show at the Staffordshire County Showground on Sunday, April 28, selling for £113,500 (US $176,341 after premiums). Continue Reading »
Caution: Swarming Hipsters.
From Silver Lake to Wicker Park, from Williamsburg to the Mission District, from Portlandia to Austin and on the industrial outskirts of every college town in between, these annoying hipsters are everywhere you turn. You stand by and sigh as they slouch and smirk in their skinny jeans and perfectly tousled hair, grilling the barista on whether or not their $4.50 coffee is Certified Fair Trade (meanwhile, they have no problem paying $5 for a can of Pabst Blue Ribbon).
You can’t escape their entitled whines: guys with scarves and designer sneakers grumble about the infrequency of their unemployment checks as they tap furiously on $2,000 MacBook Pros; girls with shaved temples and tattooed sleeves loudly mock their boss’ fashion sense in one breath and wail that no one takes them seriously in the next. Their haughty blogs clutter the internet, their bumptious mugs crop up on TV.
And now the gnats have infested our passion.
On pre-fab café racers they zip around, oblivious and/or indifferent. They race through parking lots, pass on the right, split lanes perilously and make rights on reds without envisioning a stop, all the while checking themselves out in rearview mirrors and storefront windows. Taunting their parents’ insurance deductibles is sport to these insufferable imps. It used to be that biker gangs gave motorcyclists a bad name. These days, it’s all we can do to keep from swatting at the maddening horde.
The hipsters’ rides of choice are an eclectic mix, as it’s almost impossible to be cool if you’re on the same bike as thousands of other riders. Our informal polling brought up dozens of bikes appreciated by hipsters, and we’ve distilled them down to an easy-to-digest 10 choices. Plus a bonus pick, as we can’t be hip if we just stick to the rules.
Thirty-two years after his death, Steve McQueen still reigns as the coolest movie star to ever ride a motorcycle. One of his preferred brands was Husqvarna (another, seen here, was Triumph) and to the delight of motorcycle enthusiasts and McQueen fans alike, one of his bikes will soon be in the hands of a new owner. This 1970 Husqvarna 400 Cross owned and ridden by Steve McQueen will be up for auction on January 10th, at Bally’s Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, by Bonhams. The motorcycle comes with an exhaustive quantity of documents supporting its provenance and authenticity.
Triumph will celebrate the 110th anniversary of the brand with a special edition version of the Bonneville T100.
The current Hinckley-based Triumph Motorcycle company has only been around since 1984 but the original Triumph Engineering Co. first began producing motorcycles in 1902.
For a company that proudly trumpets the brand’s heritage, an anniversary edition of the classically-styled Triumph Bonneville should come as no surprise.
British motorcycle manufacturer Triumph and Swiss watch manufacturer TAG Heuer have collaborated to create a special, one-of-a-kind “Bonneville Heuer” Triumph motorcycle. The association between Triumph and TAG Heuer comes as a result of their common values and the legacy of Steve McQueen, who was famously linked to both brands.
This photo is from a scanned article titled “Motorcycles: What I Like in a Bike and Why” from the November 1966 issue of Popular Science. Steve McQueen reviews six (so called) dirtbikes, today some for the selections would be questionable but its still a great read.
Hit the jump and click on each page to enlarge, enjoy!
There are few motorcycle icons within pop culture that have endured as vividly as that of the late, great Steve McQueen. A man who was at one time the highest paid actor in Hollywood, he avoided the limelight in favor of immersing himself within his passion for motorcycles. Never afraid of getting dirty, McQueen was at his happiest flogging a bike around the track with fellow racers or tinkering with the machines himself.
