motorcycle: Steve McQueen repro

Monday, August 10, 2009

Steve McQueen repro

Steve McQueen

hier op zijn Triumph... in aktie in The Great Escape

The Great Escape is een Amerikaanse film over de Tweede Wereldoorlog. Het is een verfilming van een waargebeurd verhaal tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog. Het gaat over een gevangenkamp waar geallieerde ontsnappingsspecialisten bij elkaar gezet zijn in de verwachting dat ze daar niet uit kunnen ontsnappen.

De film werd geregisseerd door John Sturges.

(Bron: Wikipedia)

Hier nog wat info:

The Steve McQueen bike built for the film "The Great Escape" was a 1962 Triumph TR6 Trophy with a 1957 fork. Two Triumphs were modified, one having a full a width front brake & the other the standard half-brake, and both having the normal British full valance front fender that was highly unpopular in the U.S.at the time. Additionally, the bike that did the jump by stuntman Bud Ekins had stronger springs & the battery removed for weight savings. Due to insurance issues, McQueen was not allowed to jump, although probably quite capable, due to his extensive motocross experience. Both bikes were modified in California & brought to Germany for filming, then sold off later in the U.S. after the film.

After three vintage BMW's, I've decided to build a replica of the movie bike, so the research is interesting. The company Ace Classics in London is assembling the bike from parts, so it will be a near perfect copy, with a ground up overhaul of everything. Duplicating the color is difficult, as it did not match any WH color. In the film, you'll see the proper grey on the German bikes, but a black-green on the McQueen Triumph. Also, the front number plate is English, repainted to look German, as it's smaller. With the matt black-green, I'm happy I'll have an interesting bike that I don't need to polish. In June, the annual German Triumph meet is just down the road from where I live, so I'm sure this will be an interesting addition.

by Steve Whelan

There was a good article in
the Times online newspaper
recently on this very subject

Follow the link for the story and video.

Greetz, Lex

Steve McQueen repro The Great Escape

Such is real use: shortly overtaken from UK London studios, still under run-in, the owner coming from Luxemburg via Belgium to my place in Germany, and while I am writing, he still has a couple of hours to ride till his place in Southern Germany. First observations not bad: only a few loosened bolts, reduced oil leakage, the idle setting not optimal, dies irregularily after kickstart. The handling is not always easy, high position of gravity point, what is good for handling during run, but sometimes a burden, when standing. Consumption around 5 ltr/100 km what is good for an almost 700 ccm four-stroker. I hadn´t dared such a long journey without previous full run-in and the usual introductory refinements, but obviously no problem. The color irritating - rather different than what is seen here and always different again in the next minute.

Dietmar