10th Anniversary Urban Sketchers Sketch Walk

Royal Enfield

Whilst sketching the rare 150 year old Ombu tree, this Enfield Bullet parked up, it started to rain so I abandoned the tree and moved across to the bike - umbrella sketching.

Turbo

Here's a sketch from a Classic Motorcycle Show. Although there were some very old and rare bikes here, I chose some from the early 80's. These three bikes all have 'Turbo' decals at least once on the outside. Of course, this is short for the Turbocharged engines that they had. This term is a bit spoiled to me and seems slightly kitsch now. Back in the 80's, there were so many things that were said to be 'Turbo'. Bicycles, Gobots, washing machines and pretty much any other home appliance at the time.
I also liked how one of the bikes had Turbo written in reverse on the front... as if someone has good enough eyesight to look in their rear-view mirror and can read that while driving.

Triumph

 Triumph - polished up  and ready to go - a cool $13500. Great colour . I'm sure those at home would understand !  MLB  - 0.04 drawing pen and Tombow.    MLB .

Victory Twin

 Victory  Twin 1800 : parked just outside the show while the owner was looking around. Motor rating the same as a Corolla !   - 0.04 drawing pen and black Tombow    MLB

Classic Bikes

Hundreds of enthusiasts, only some in leathers filed through the New Plymouth Classic Motor Cycle Clubs show peering up and down at the 90 bikes - BMWs, BSAs, Triumphs, Ducatis, Matchless', Maicas...  Eldon was manning tickets at the door - and told me to my surprise he had a Velocette and a monster BMW on show.  The LE (Little Engine) was most unique with its boxy look - 150cc water cooled.  It was in production from 1948-1970.  Their breakthrough came when the British Police ordered more than half their production for patrols. The Met Police normally had to salute Inspectors and above but this meant taking their hand off the handlebars, so it was agreed they could nod instead.  This lead to their nickname 'Noddies' and the bike became the 'Noddy Bike'

It was a lot of fun watching the enthusiasts and sketching midst the distinctive smell of sump oil. This 1932 Royal Enfield 500 Bullet certainly had a classic look.

Flowers & Bikes

Mike's Bike - up for a ride from Wanganui

 

Fernery Flowers

Bikes by the Landing Cafe

The two guys in leathers approached me half way through this sketch.  They kindly walked around the block again to let me finish.  A gorgeous day for sketching (and biking), one was from Auckland and the other Masterton.  The renovated area in front of the libary is well patronised.  We'd sketched the diggers here earlier during construction.

I had 20 min left for a quickie sketch of the cafe after the bikes departed.  Today we welcomed visiting Urban Sketcher Su Min from Singapore to join us, which made the sketching world feel smaller.