[wildman]

Just an old family snapshot from 1948.
Had nothing to do with it was just given the scanned file from someone.
So typical of family snapshots with their Brownie or whatever...

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Last edited by wildman; 03-18-2015 at 08:19 PM.

[cooltouch]

So you don't know any of the history behind that photo? Cuz that is one killer of a photo, dude, if you're into old bikes like I am. The bike is a Harley "knucklehead," and the knuckleheads dated back to about that time frame, so it was most likely a fairly new acquisition for the rider in that photo. And he was certainly dressed to fit the part, wasn't he? Could have been a model for Marlon Brando's character in "The Wild Ones". Cept Brando rode a Triumph. Poseur. BTW, I'd love to have a full size copy of that scan for my collection, if you'd be willing to part with one. You could PM it to me, I suppose.

[wildman]

So you don't know any of the history behind that photo?

They are all cousins one way or the other and I have at least met all of them. The location is in the anthracite coal mining region of Eastern Pennsylvania.
If you just want it for personal use feel free to just download it directly from the forum. Take my word for it, what is posted here is much better than the original scan I was given.

BTW back in about 1967 we picked up a new BMW motorcycle from the factory in Munich Germany. We drove through Austria, Italy, the Balkans , the Near East, North Africa, Spain, France, England and then had it sent home to the States. Superbly built and never a lick of trouble with it. We hit a 250 mile stretch of unpaved sand in Libya and were really glad to have that totally enclosed shaft drive instead of a chain. It saved our bacon more than once.

[cooltouch]

I was just a kid back in '67 but I was reading the bike magazines by then, and I recall all the ads inviting folks to buy their bikes over there, spend their vacation with their bikes and then ship 'em back home -- often for less than what it would cost to buy one here. Then the DOT got involved, I guess it was, and pretty much put an end to all that. I have a few choice words for bureaucracies that queer a good deal for us regular folks, but I won't waste the bandwidth here. Anyway, your '67 looks like an R250, right? I didn't realize BMW was still making a single as recently as 1967.

I was at the British Motorcycle Owners Association Rally a couple years ago, which has become much more than a Rally for Brit bikes. It's now pretty much a Rally for everybody, but classic bikes especially. I got a pretty good shot of an R250 when I was there, with a really cool looking Laverda 750 in the background:



And another gent had just a gorgeous R60 on display:



Here's my '76 R90/6. Not a concourse bike by any means, but not a bad 10-footer. It gets me around, it's my primary transportation right now, in fact. Taken at the same meet with my gear draped all over it,


Okay, I realize none of the above shots were taken before 1990, but all the bikes date well before 1990 and they are also all film shots -- taken with my Bronica ETRSi and 75mm f/2.8 lens, film was Fuji Provia 100.

As for the photo of your biker cousin, thanks for letting me use it. Yeah mostly I'd just like to have it for my collection, certainly wouldn't try to use it for anything commercial. The reason why I was asking for another copy was on the off chance that the original you had might have been larger than the one you have displayed. If you have a larger file, I wouldn't mind having a copy. I'm pretty good at post processing also and if there's detail to be had, I can almost always find it.

So anyway, are you still riding? Do you still have that old Beemer? I'll bet it was cool riding an in-line shaft-drive single.

[arnold]

Okay, I realize none of the above shots were taken before 1990,

I love the style of the old bikes - that is what old age does to one. All this reminded me of my BMW, taken in 1978.

---------- Post added 13-03-15 at 23:49 ----------

BTW back in about 1967 we picked up a new BMW motorcycle from the factory in Munich Germany

What a lovely classic.

[p38arover]

Back then a 650 was a big bike.

My current ride is a Yamaha XJR1300 (No, it's NOT a cruiser!)

[wildman]

Anyway, your '67 looks like an R250, right?

Yep. 250cc at 18hp. It was officially called the R27. We considered the twins (R50 or R60) but we knew we were going to be mostly on unpaved back roads in third world countries and thought they would be just too damn heavy especially on sand. As it turned out we were right. Plenty of power and low end which was perfect for where we were going.

In fact we were at a low elevation heading for a high mountain pass in the Atlas Mountains in Morocco, It was well over 100 degrees F when we seen this kid pushing this bike with a live goat lashed to the back. Turned out he was heading back to his mountain village about 12 miles away. The kid couldn't ride the bike on the steep grade and it was all sand and rocks anyway. So we threw him a rope and gently pulled him up to his village. What took an hour with the Beemer would have taken him till after sunset pushing that damn bike. The Beemer got hot but it never skipped a beat. When we got the kid home his folks were immensely grateful so we were treated to tea and sweets and they arranged a place for us to sleep that night.

If I may be permitted a little political statement. We all hear in the Western press at how bad things are in the Near East. And they are. But as far as we are concerned you will not find a more hospitable person than the average village Moslem towards strangers.


When we got back to the States we eventually got an R60. Took it from Fairbanks Alaska to the Panama Canal.

Some pics -
1. Your original
2. Heading towards the Atlas Mountains Morocco.
3. Austrian Alps.[COLOR="Silver"]

---------- Post added 03-14-15 at 07:13 AM ----------

Back then a 650 was a big bike.

For all practical purposes it still is.

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Last edited by wildman; 03-18-2015 at 08:21 PM.

[gofour3]

French Flares, Vacuum Tubes, Transistors and Bare Feet.
My Tasmanian friend just unearthed and scanned on a V500 this slide he took in about 1973.

At that time I had a day job and started a moonlight side job in Sydney to help pay for an extended trip to EU.
This one was a bit Hare-Brained, trying to refurb some old punch tape machines that were destined for re-use on an island in the Pacific. It was only of marginal success, but a few of them came back to life.

Great picture that brings back memories!

When I started my first IT job in 1978 the lumber company I worked for still got some data everyday on punch tape. We had to read the tape through a machine that uploaded the info into the mainframe. The tape broke almost every other day, which meant you had get out the splice kit to do a repair job.

The one in your shot is blue, which means it could be IBM.

Phil.

[cooltouch]

Yeah, back in the day IBM was called Big Blue, ya know.

[wombat2go]

Yeah, back in the day IBM was called Big Blue, ya know.

I don't recall the brand of the one in my earlier post and I could not see a similar image by search engine.
It might have been an ICL, also blue, because in the 1960's, Commonwealth countries were "encouraged" to use ICL.

Here is a link to an open ICL mainframe of the time showing the similar construction.
ICL 1900 Series Machines in The Netherlands

[arnold]

Another from the late seventies. This is Boundary Bay airport near Vancouver. It had been decommissioned after the war and that is what you see here. Later, it was reopened and is now a busy secondary hub for Vancouver. One of my earlier shots on this thread shows me flying a model aircraft here.

[arnold]

Honolulu at the end of the runway. This is another negative copied by my K5 (like the one above) in the late seventies.
[IMG][/IMG]

The colours and quality are far below what I achieved back in 1961 with Kodachrome 10 and a view finder camera, seen below:

.

[RobG]

Another from the late seventies. This is Boundary Bay airport near Vancouver. It had been decommissioned after the war and that is what you see here. Later, it was reopened and is now a busy secondary hub for Vancouver. One of my earlier shots on this thread shows me flying a model aircraft here.

Honolulu at the end of the runway. This is another negative copied by my K5 (like the one above) in the late seventies.
The colours and quality are far below what I achieved back in 1961 with Kodachrome 10 and a view finder camera.

Cool to see airports from years ago. I was a bit confused by the last image because it didn't look like Honolulu and indeed it was the Cocos Islands. Thanks for posting!

[cooltouch]

When we got back to the States we eventually got an R60. Took it from Fairbanks Alaska to the Panama Canal.

Some pics -
1. Your original
2. Heading towards the Atlas Mountains Morocco.
3. Austrian Alps.[COLOR="Silver"]

Say Wildman, did you mean to post these images, or . . . ? Cuz I couldn't find them here. If you have any pics of your Alaska to Panama Canal trip, those would be cool to see also.

Arnold, sorry I missed it, but that's a beautiful R100. It's a /7, right? I have an 88 R100RS. Great bike, but I've never cared much for the riding position. I'm thinking about converting it over to an RT.

[arnold]

Arnold, sorry I missed it, but that's a beautiful R100. It's a /7, right? I have an 88 R100RS. Great bike, but I've never cared much for the riding position. I'm thinking about converting it over to an RT

I thought the RS was a super looking bike with it's cowling, but I have to agree that the "rams horn" bars are not comfortable. Any way, all this bike talk had me rummaging through the old negatives again, and here is me sitting on my R100 (1978 model)