The Motorcycle: Design ~ Art ~ Desire

Magnetoman

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Obviously, I don't have to tell anyone here that if you've seen one Vincent, you've seen them all... Despite that, if for some reason you'd still like to see another one, the Black Lightning that Jack Ehret used to set the Australian land speed record in 1953 isn't a bad choice. Or, perhaps you'd like to see an amazing Britten, only ten of which were made, that appeared out of nowhere (i.e. New Zealand) in the early '90s to take the world by storm. Speaking of New Zealand, how about one of the two (yes, two) original 'world's fastest Indians' that set a speed record at Bonneville in the 1960s that still stands (OK, the class it ran in no longer exists so its record can't be beaten, but that's a mere technicality...)? While on the subject of speed, Australia often is credited with starting the sport of speedway racing, so how about a Douglas DT/5 (DT, for dirt track) from that period, or a rare 8-valve Harley-Davidson with banking sidecar that was raced to great success on the dirt tracks of Australia?

All of these, and much, much more, from world's very first, steam-powered, motorcycle from 1871 through to the latest innovative electric-powered motorcycles from 2020, will be in Brisbane for the five months after the exhibition opens to the public in less than a week. Well, opens to the 0.3% of the world's public who live in Australia (25M/7.8B).

Unfortunately, life isn't fair. I easily could have completely restored a motorcycle from parts in the time I spent on this exhibition and I'm forbidden to see it. Poor, poor pitiful me...
 

Magnetoman

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Great pleasure and satisfaction can be obtained from giving pleasure, or education, to others.
I sneaked some physics into the Guggenheim exhibition (e.g. in the form of content for the wall captions, such as "Special Theory of Relativity" for the one below). At one point I asked my Dean if he thought the average visitor got roughly the same amount of physics from a tour of the exhibition as they would have learned in just a single one-hour lecture in an average physics class. He readily agreed. However, well before I finished the next step, explaining that the total attendance of over 2M meant that was the equivalent of me having taught a 500-person lecture class every semester for the rest of my career he interjected that, no, he wouldn't excuse me from teaching.

170ExhibitOrganiz.jpg


Despite my ploy not having worked, it illustrates the power of "alternative education" experiences, including the Brisbane exhibition, that can impart scientific knowledge to large numbers of people without them being consciously aware that they're being educated.
 

greg brillus

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Charlie, You'll be glad to know that one of the local radio stations here on the Gold Coast, which is south of Brisbane about 50 miles.......Has been actively promoting your show, and giving away free admission tickets........the local population of bike owners from here to the north side of Brisbane is huge given the great whether we have in this part of the world, and plenty of good roads to support the vast array of bikes old and new.........I'm looking forward to this Friday night.........Cheers.......Greg.
 

Magnetoman

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Greg, actually, firmly in our mind throughout the entire process of putting this exhibition together wasn't motorcyclists, because we knew they would come. Rather, it was the soccer moms (football moms?), young families looking for something to do on weekends, boys and girls on school or club field trips, and tourists in town on holiday who felt compelled to drag their kids to someplace cultural. If those people come away from the exhibition with an appreciation for objects they may never even have given a second thought to before, we will have been successful.

Motorcyclists should love it because they'll get to see some amazing machines they've only read about, displayed in a way only a world-class art gallery knows how to display them. Non-motorcyclists will – we sincerely hope – love it because they'll see motorcycles in historical context as the fascinating design objects they are, as well as learn about the interesting designers who created them.

Phrased differently, we will have been successful if both types of audiences come away from what they see saying "I had no idea!," albeit for different reasons.
 

peter le gros

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Charlie on our local tv news SE Queensland there is a segment on "The Motorcycle Design Art Desire"
Great viewing they presented the story as Retro Motorcycles. We have a population of 3.6 million here in SEQ.
Well done to Charles Falco, Ultan Guilfoyle and team.
 

Magnetoman

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I'm guessing this is a Michaux-Perreaux
After much research, we've given full credit for that machine to Louis-Guillaume Perreaux. Decades ago someone, incorrectly we believe, called it the Michaux-Perreaux based on the resemblance of the frame to the Michaux bicycle. Ever since then other writers have just copied that attribution. However, the frame has the same almost-vertical steering geometry already in use for five decades on a number of ‘draisienne’ hobby-horses, to which Perreaux substituted an S-shaped backbone of hollow tubing to create a lighter and stronger frame that gives additional clearance for the engine. Another of Perreaux’s innovations is that he used threaded steel to make the tension of the spokes adjustable.

Remarkably, it survived the Franco-Prussian War, WWI and WWII to still be with us today. This is the only time it has been nearly this far from Paris, and I'll go out on a limb and predict this also will be the only time anyone in Australia ever will have the opportunity to see it (even when it's in Paris it lives most of the time in the museum's storage where it can't be seen).
 

TouringGodet

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Speaking of New Zealand, how about one of the two (yes, two) original 'world's fastest Indians' that set a speed record at Bonneville in the 1960s that still stands (OK, the class it ran in no longer exists so its record can't be beaten, but that's a mere technicality...)?
Here is a snippet of the current SCTA records, for the 1,000cc classes. Burt's record is in an active class, S-F (streamliner running on fuel other than petrol). Out of respect, though, long timers in the LSR community consider this class unofficially retired. In recent years, they strongly discourage anyone from competing in this class. The person that holds the S-G 1000cc record, Riches Airtech MDR, back before that gentlemen's agreement, tried to break the 1000-S-F record, and had a load of mechanical issues, so he gave up.
 

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