christoph404

well ,while we are thinking about motorbikes, think we should mention Jack Cardiff's "Girl on a Motorcyle" wonder what kind of bike that was? Triumph? Didn't Steve McQueen and Bud Ekins use a 1960's Triumph motorbike to do the stunts on "The Great Escape"........and shouldn't we be talking about British motorbikes anyway instead of these Italian and Japanese pieces of junk?....only joking!

Steve Crook

Or the Ariel square four ridden around the country lanes by Dr Reeves in A Matter of Life and Death. Shame it ends up crashed and on fire.
Or the Rudges ridden by the front pair of despatch riders (at least, can't see the rest well enough) in the beginning of The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp

Steve

christoph404

Peter O'Toole as Lawrence spends hours cleaning his wretched motorbike before crashing it into a muddy ditch and killing himself in the process!

Harleybloke

Didn't Marlon Brando have a Triumph in 'On the Waterfront'?

.....You couldn't hear it, if they were shooting at me with howitzers!

Nick Dando

He certainly had one in The Wild One.

Nick

Steve Crook

The real T.E. Lawrence was riding a Brough Superior when he died. What was O'Toole riding?

Steve

christoph404

I think in some of the close ups he must be on the back of a flat bed truck sitting on an armchair or something because his hair does not move out of place at all despite the speed he must be going!! but good question and one for our automotivehistorian I think.

Nick Dando

A Brough Superior - although not the one that he died on. That had an all black tank, which was one of Lawrence's trade-marks. The registration number of the machine he died on is GW 2275 and the bike is kept at the National Motor Museum at Beauleigh and was known by Lawrence as George VIII. There was an interesting article on this machine in the October 2003 edition of The Classic MotorCycle magazine.
The machine in the film, registered UL 656, was owned by Lawrence and he took possession of it in January 1929. It was presented to him by his friends, including George Bernard Shaw and his wife, Charlotte. Lawrence called it George VI.
I can scan the article if anyone is interested.

Nick

Harleybloke

As I recall there was an episode of 'Lovejoy' where his sidekick Eric and a girl try to recreate Lawrance's exact bike. Loverly bike yer Brough!!

.....You couldn't hear it, if they were shooting at me with howitzers!

tonyb

if you wanna see m/bikes watch MOTO GP (rossi ) or BRITISH/WORLD SUPERBIKES..it is soooo much better than F1..but thats only my opion and i`m a motorbike nut (got 2 yamahas)

"MR GRIMSDALE"-----" they`re at it again"

tonyb

steve i bet they did`nt get far because if i remember rightly from my youth the ariel square four suffered from overheating to the rear pistons and you had to wait for it to cool down...they would have been better on an ariel arrow 2 stroke much more reliable(just)

"MR GRIMSDALE"-----" they`re at it again"

Steve Crook

It was raining heavily, and it was at night, when he went on his final journey so I don't think overheating pistons were his biggest problem

Steve

penfold

And IIRC, Lee Marvin had the decidedly less-glamourous Matchless, with the big chrome-plated 'M' turned upside-down...

Bit of a Bay Window, what??

penfold

Only if you let the oilways clog up....we never had a problem with ours (1951 1000cc light-alloy two-piper IIRC), and we rode it hard; still good for the ton in the 'mid '80's. Lovely bike...

Bit of a Bay Window, what??