Two wheels are enough for me

So now that I'm a bit more confident with this photobucket thingy (except for arranging the photos in order) its time to put something with a little class on this site. If you don't like motorcycles you'd be better off mowing the lawn or something 'cos that's all I got.Actually all these motorcycles (except one) have a strong family connection with me. Or at least the models do.

First up we have a 1950 JAP powered speedway bike - exactly the same as my dear old Dad used to race. Pretty, huh?

Next up we have a 1971(?) Triumph Trident. They're pretty, but I don't like 'em all that much. Releases in about 1970 they were essentially a 5T with an extra cylinder, which means that they are 11/2 times a1938 motorcycle designed by Edward Turner. You can tell when one has been ridden for any length of time, the centre two header pipes (the middle gylinder has a siamesed exhaust port) go blue from overheating. In fact, until people wised up and started honing out the centre cylinder a few thou, they would sieze at the drop of a hat. My brother has one...

Now we get on to the good stuff... A 1939 MOV 250cc Velocette. Originally built as commuter bike, somebody has obviously gotten enthusiastic on this one. My Dad had one of these that he would ride to work on the weekdays and race on Sundays. He rode it to Bathurst once, then raced it there...

A feller from Adelaide(?) called Les Diener took one of these little pushrod singles and turned it into a twin cam firebreather that on one occasion was used to beat current 250 world champion of the time Hugh Anderson at the Ballarat GP. Anderson was a Kiwi...

Now this is a Triumph Tiger 110. Not sure of the year but I think it's about a 1949 or 1950. The '110' was a factory guarantee that every bike of that name would reach 110 miles per hour. The high compression version of the 650 Thunderbird, my father and I built one up from three boxes of bits. Ours was a 1954 model and differed from this one in that it had swingarm rear suspension. It never got to be this pretty. Dad sold it. Bastard...

This is the one with no family connection. It didn't have any information with it, but by looking at it I can tell you that it has a '50's Triumph engine with probably a '60's cylinder head on it, judging by the twin carbs. Could be a GP head too, I s'pose, but I don't think so. The frame looks like a '60's Hagon speedway frame to me. I don't know why anybody would do this, maybe they thought a Speedtwin/Tiger 100 motor was the go (They're not, not for speedway, anyway), maybe it's a longtrack bike - but it doesn't have the two speed gearbox longtrackers used to have. Dunno.