Comments on: 1953 Motorcycle Tour of Europe

1953 Motorcycle Tour of Europe

NoMich — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 04:18:57 -0800

In the Summer of 1953 my father Geoffrey Gander and his friends set off on their annual Motor Cycling holiday around Europe. (Warning: hi res black & white photos of vintage Brit bikes, alps and roadside tea abound.)

Go on a ride in the sidecar of the Brough Superior SS100 that took part in the 1953 European trip. Now watch someone start that beast. "Fantastic!"

By: maxwelton

maxwelton — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 04:23:32 -0800

Wow, this is insanely good stuff. I've been ignoring the BSA but if the weather cooperates tomorrow I'll run my afternoon errands on it in honor of this post.

By: maxwelton

maxwelton — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 04:24:49 -0800

(I keep hoping the original owner of RYC 445 or one of their descendents will find me one day, but probably in vain.)

By: Flood

Flood — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 04:44:04 -0800

cool pics

By: the noob

the noob — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 04:44:08 -0800

I do love the Bristol Freighter

By: GallonOfAlan

GallonOfAlan — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 04:51:52 -0800

The French countryside looks like it could be anywhere from 1853 to 1953. I keep expecting to see Monsieur Hulot in the background.

By: titanium_geek

titanium_geek — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 04:55:10 -0800

Brilliant! I'm tossing around the idea of writing a diesel-punk nano novel, so this is great inspiration!

By: growabrain

growabrain — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 05:04:46 -0800

"HALT!"... But seriously, this is the stuff that my deepest dreams are made of.

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 05:05:19 -0800

This is fuckin AWESOME! vintage Brit bikes But alas, no Vincent Black Lightning, 1952. Oh well, let's enjoy the song, anyway...

By: sonascope

sonascope — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 05:08:30 -0800

Judging from the misdeeds of my '72 Triumph Daytona, I find it hard to believe such a thing was ever possible. British bikes and hundreds of miles seem completely incompatible in my experience, but the Daytona's a very particular engineering disaster. Lovely pictures, though.

By: Wolfdog

Wolfdog — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 05:10:22 -0800

[This is jolly good!]

By: Harald74

Harald74 — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 05:14:32 -0800

Great set of pictures and commentary, and a wonderful post!

By: HuronBob

HuronBob — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 05:19:36 -0800

This is one of the best posts we've had in a while. It is truly a "best of the web" FPP. Thanks a lot for sharing this with us! What fantastic photographs.

By: bardic

bardic — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 05:19:58 -0800

Can't believe how well they're dressed.

By: HuronBob

HuronBob — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 05:20:28 -0800

and, from now on, please call me Geoffrey Gander.. thank you.

By: Harry

Harry — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 05:32:34 -0800

I strongly suspect most of those areas look very much the same today. The countryside, the small villages.. those places change very little in 60 years.

By: Kirth Gerson

Kirth Gerson — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 05:39:16 -0800

So - when did the Germans stop walking around in leather shorts?

By: squeak

squeak — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 05:41:33 -0800

Damn, Turner sure knew how to make a good looking bike.

By: Abiezer

Abiezer — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 05:57:16 -0800

Can't believe how well they're dressed. Hell's Gentlemen. Great post, thanks!

By: hecho de la basura

hecho de la basura — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 06:09:21 -0800

Amazingly beautiful! I cringed at their jackets and ties, though, because I could just imagine the unceasing flapping during the ride. I rode 150 miles this weekend in an ill fitting jacket and the flapping was crazy making. 2000 miles? Nope.

By: splatta

splatta — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 06:10:52 -0800

Sonascope! I've owned a 1973 Triumph Trident for almost ten years and it's never traveled even 100 miles. What was going on in Meriden in the 70s?

By: pracowity

pracowity — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 06:11:40 -0800

Can't believe how well they're dressed. Adults used to dress like adults. So - when did the Germans stop walking around in leather shorts? Isn't that Austria?

By: Forktine

Forktine — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 06:15:17 -0800

This is great. Beautiful bikes, and of course the clothes! I am insanely happy to not have to wear a tie, but there's also no question that men dressed like that look far better than a dude today in a sloppy shirt and baggy athletic shorts.

By: Benny Andajetz

Benny Andajetz — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 06:26:01 -0800

Three things: Those bikes are gorgeous. The valley that runs by Kitzbuhel is spectacular. One of my favorite places on earth. Reckless Kelly's version of 1952 Vincent Black Lightning rocks. Great post.

By: DreamerFi

DreamerFi — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 06:29:22 -0800

So - when did the Germans stop walking around in leather shorts? You haven't visited Oktoberfest recently, haven't you?

By: obscurator

obscurator — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 06:32:51 -0800

This stood out...the son talking about his own motorcycle:

"When he came back I was surprised to hear from him that whilst it was quick - "it took longer than expected to reach a ton". A short chat and the mystery was solved. He had taken it to an indicated 160 still thinking that it was a kilometers speedo and 160kph would be 100mph. So my 70+ year old father had just done 160mph on the Alton bypass! Mum was not amused, though dad clearly was and had a cigar and a beer to celebrate"

Heh.
Of all the gear pictured though, I wonder most about the photographer and camera(s) used. Awesome contrast, framing, just seems effortless. So, are we sure about this digital photography stuff?

By: Harald74

Harald74 — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 06:35:02 -0800

I strongly suspect most of those areas look very much the same today. The countryside, the small villages.. those places change very little in 60 years.
In Europe, many, many buildings are over 60 years old. Those streets and cafes look much the same today. They look familiar to me from my holidays of recent years. And regarding "adults dressed like adults"; in large parts of Europe this is true even today. I come from Norway, where we nowadays dress quite sloppily, and noticed the difference in especially France and Italy.

By: freya_lamb

freya_lamb — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 06:58:37 -0800

This is just gorgeous. Thanks for posting. My dad carried on riding bikes until he was 87 and then decided he was getting a bit old for bikes and bought himself a sports car. Brilliant :)

By: pracowity

pracowity — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 07:13:30 -0800

Is this the same place as this? No leather shorts in sight now.

By: analogtom

analogtom — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 07:15:11 -0800

Great post, thank you for sharing this.

By: pracowity

pracowity — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 07:27:56 -0800

Here are some pictures of the Rattenburg-Kitzbuhel-Grossglockner part of that route but in the 1930s and on bicycle.

By: straw

straw — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 07:49:41 -0800

obscurator: "So, are we sure about this digital photography stuff?" A good B&W print film can capture more stops than most modern digital point-n-shoots, and you can then pick and choose what and how to print from that. So, yeah, someone who's doing a decent job of metering can get more dynamic range than digital, and then pick and choose how to print that.

By: stbalbach

stbalbach — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 07:52:14 -0800

They are called Lederhosen. "The role of lederhosen in Bavaria is thus comparable to that of the kilt in Scotland and the cowboy hat in the United States."

By: sonascope

sonascope — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 08:18:02 -0800

splatta - I tend to have a lot of Basil Fawlty freak-outs with my Triumph, almost to the point of beating it with a large branch, most of which end with me yelling "this is why your entire lousy stinking stupid motor industry is now owned by German and Indian companies now, Britain! If one crappy Amal carburetor wouldn't ever work right, why would you put two on this goddamn thing!?" Of course, my neighbors have all grown accustomed to my nationalist gearhead breakdowns, but...sigh. Damn if these bikes don't look the part, though. I can hop on my modern BMW and go anywhere in the universe without a moment's fear that I'll be stuck somewhere, but aside from the occasional "Ah didn't know B-M-Dubya made motorcycles," it functions like a cloak of invisibility. Drag that Triumph out and every male eyeball within a thousand feet is locked on. Every little boy wants to ooh and ahh, every grown man becomes a little boy, and every older guy has a long, long rambling story about his Triumph/BSA/Norton. All that in spite of the fact that my bottom-of-the-line Italian designed/built BMW-reengineered F650ST is superior to the Triumph in every conceivable function. Maybe I need to get up my nerve to forgo proper gear, dress in those fantastic derring-do adventure outfits with a pair of goggles, and really go all out for the fifteen miles I'll manage before I need to pull over and fiddle with the thing for an hour.

By: pts

pts — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 08:28:08 -0800

Beautiful photography and beautiful machines. This is best of the web. The story at the end about the dad taking the son's Ducati out and taking the speedometer out to 160 is priceless; the stuff of family legend. Love it. I grew up riding motorcycles, and it always gives me a kind of twinge in my chest not to have one now. I love taking the family bikes out for errands when I visit home, though, and maybe one day I'll hit it big (by which I mean hit it modestly middle class) and be able to afford that Royal Enfield I've long coveted.

By: blue_beetle

blue_beetle — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 08:31:48 -0800

Even back in the 50s people were posting about their travels in their blogs (bike-logs).

By: jadepearl

jadepearl — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 08:51:24 -0800

There are many things to like about this post. First, one of the things I appreciate is that there is a genuine admiration and liking of the author towards his father with motorcycles serving as the vehicle. Second, that people did cool stuff and that the geezer yelling at you from their lawn were and still maybe rocking it. Third, travel photos and journey are fun -- a lot of world literature is based on the road trip. Fourth, people seem to be so much more snappier in dress and carriage and I speak with a certain envy in my sandals and shorts as I say that. Finally, whose heart does not do a little pitter and patter with a well clad person on a motorbike?

By: suki

suki — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 09:08:18 -0800

Toodling around Maine on vintage bikes, in jeans and leathers, stopping for beers is fun enough, but this....oh....wow.

By: Mike D

Mike D — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 09:18:46 -0800

You should send this link to the Triumph website or their Facebook page; it'd blow them and their followers away! Love the tea brew-up while they're waiting for the bikes to be offloaded from the Argosy (although don't hold me to my vintage aircraft identification). Crossing into Germany as an ex-RAF just eight years after the war ended must have created some gut twists. Thanks a bunch for sharing these photos.

By: Mike D

Mike D — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 09:24:01 -0800

Hmmm... For the purists, looks like it might have been a Bristol in which they flew the Channel.

By: Mike D

Mike D — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 09:26:18 -0800

Should have paid more attention to the noob's sentence earlier in the comment stream.

By: Windopaene

Windopaene — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 09:59:45 -0800

Been reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance recently. Looking forward to reading this post.

By: Daddy-O

Daddy-O — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 10:17:27 -0800

Great post, thanks! BTW, Lawrence of Arabia owned 8 Brough (pronounced "Bruff") Superiors and was killed riding one.

By: OHenryPacey

OHenryPacey — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 10:41:13 -0800

This is my favorite spot for vintage motorcycle porn (possibly several times previously on the blue). Lots of Brough goodness as it's archived by subject.

By: splatta

splatta — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 11:54:34 -0800

sonascope - You should count yourself lucky that you only have two Amal carbs, I have THREE, and three sets of points. An old Triumph will make a mechanic out of any man.

By: jedicus

jedicus — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 13:04:08 -0800

At the Austrian border crossing at Ursprung there's a sign for Coca-Cola. That's kind of jarring.

By: sonascope

sonascope — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 19:13:04 -0800

An old Triumph will make a mechanic out of any man. An old Triumph made a BMW owner out of me, as it happened, but demoting The Beastly Conveyance to tertiary status in my fleet also made me love it again, after trying desperately to make a sensible commuter out of it. Spending three hours in the saddle of the BMW is a kind of precise, zen pleasure, and it's not even one of the truly refined examples of the marque, but pulling out the Triumph for a ride—it's just such a theatrical, messy, monstrous thing. To hear the jagged, race-tuned idle of mine (the Daytona was essentially a racer variation of the classic twin), you'd never believe it would make it to the other side of town, and you'd be right, on most days. I curse the thing, from the thick, grimy chrome to the age-dulled burgundy tank to the impossible heaviness of everything, juice it up with the absurd dual "ticklers" that leave my riding gloves stinking of gasoline, flip out the kickstarter, and it always catches in a quarter kick with a window-rattling roar. It's unreliable as hell, but like these pictures, it fires the boilers in my time machine. The kickstand goes up, a toe on the right side engages first gear with a ratcheting clunk, and I'm off. In my helmet, I sing, as I'm prone to do, and on this ruinous, embarrassing, and nearly uncontrollable machine that belonged to my long lost Dad a hundred years ago, it's almost always the same song the keens in those confines, albeit with little fidelity to the grace of the original. Oh! England, my Lionheart! Dropped from my black Spitfire to my funeral barge. Give me one kiss in apple-blossom. Give me one wish, and I'd be wassailing In the orchard, my English rose, Or with my shepherd, who'll bring me home. One day, it won't start so easily, an old man stirring ever more slowly on those cold, cold mornings, and the rides will be further and further separated, but The Beastly Conveyance will always be close at hand, always resting somewhere near, so I can sit on a milk crate with a bottle of polish and an old t-shirt on a sunny Saturday and work all that aging chrome back to its brilliance, humming all the while.

By: Duke999R

Duke999R — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 02:46:00 -0800

Brilliant find NoMich, thank you so much for sharing. So glad to hear you have your Dad's bike Sonascope. My old man's second wife sold his '54 T100 for $2000 a week after he passed. Beer money.