You’ll find a charming intro to 1908 courtesy, inevitably, of the Blue ‘Un, followed by an equally charming letter from one ‘Bougie’ recounting a run of 235 miles in 12 hours. Also from 1908 but tucked away in poetry corner is, repetitive but true, a charming poem which strikes a chrord with any enthusiast who’s resorted to random doggerel to numb the misery of a winter run. It starts thus:
It is rather entertaining,
When it’s cold and wet and raining,
And the language you’re restraining
Is becoming hard to hear,
When with clothes all wet and wringing
To your handles you are clinging,
With your motor ever dinging
Out its rhythm in your ear,
Just to take its cheery meter
For to make the journey sweeter
And to render time the fleeter
‘Tis a very good idea,
And to rhyme all out of season,
Say good-bye to every reason, Tell the weather it can freeze on
If it likes, as you don’t care…
And then its ascends to pure gibberish. Nearly forgot, more assorted pics courtesy of Francois await you at the end of Melange trois, and racing Harleys and an Indian have swollen the American collection in premier Mélange.
Motorcycle Timeline 