WORDS: ROGER MORONEY
TOM CRUISE PUNTS A TRIUMPH
THRUXTON THROUGH LONDON IN
THE MOVIE ‘EDGE OF TOMORROW’
CELEBRITIES AND MOTORCYCLES
O
kay then… A spot of celebrity name
dropping. What do David Beckham,
Hugh Laurie, Pink, Tom Cruise, George
Clooney and Bear Grylls all have in common?
Yes, they’ve all been on TV.
But wait - as they say - there’s more.
They all ride Triumph motorcycles. Yep,
even stylish singer and songwriter Pink… and
good on her… why not? She boots about on
a few bikes, but mostly aboard a Hinckley
Triumph T100 Bonneville… so the lass clearly
has some class on the two-wheeled front. I
guess her love of motorcycling was powered
along to a degree by being married to former
motocross ace Cary Hart.
And yep, the others I mentioned all have
Triumphs of some sort.
For the world of motorcycling is an enticing
one of style, power, adventure and fun. Lots
of it if you have the sort of dosh they’ve got to
satiate their biking desires.
Old Becks? He’s long been a fan of
motorcycles and is often spotted aboard one
of his chopped Harley-Davidsons or one of
his many Triumphs.
He even went adventuring through Brazil on
80 KIWI RIDER
a modified Triumph T100 five years ago for
a documentary rather intriguingly titled ‘Into
the Unknown’. Mind you, he would have had
a fair old back-up crew with him.
And Hugh Laurie… the toff lad from
Blackadder and Fry and Laurie… he has long
been hooked on bikes. Among his Armada
have been power-packers like a Yamaha
XJR1300 and a Honda CBR600RR… and a
Hinckley Bonneville.
George Clooney? Well, being a proud
American he’s got some Harley-Davidsons
in the garage of course, but he also has a
customised Bonneville which has a racing
seat hump and cam covers in gleaming…
yellow. Nothing like a point of difference.
I noted earlier that one of the ingredients
in the mix of motorcycling is adventure,
so no surprise to discover that television’s
high profile adventurer Bear Grylls has long
turned a throttle grip. Sounds like he kind of
moved up through the capacity riding ranks
like most of us (especially those with modest
means). For he got about on 125s way back,
before surging up to some one-litre jobs and
recently a Triumph Tiger.
Triumphs certainly appear to have a