Bonneville America Forums Forums Off Topic Discussion Forums Lounge Triumph Motorcycle Documentary

Watched a 2003 Triumph MC doc on Prime TV last night made in 2003 by Liam Dale, some of you may have seen it before. One salient point made by Liam Dale about the early days 1902/03 was how it opened up travel to the British and how it changed their world. Rather then paraphrase I will quote him

"It was instrument of social change for the first time in history the common man could afford to travel and explore new horizons. No longer was the village idiot a tragically inevitable accident at birth. As with the bicycle came the opportunity for people to move around the country side consequently the gene pool strengthened and the working classes became a strong and intelligent force to be recon with"

It goes on from there but I was wetting myself laughing I missed the next bit all the way up to the 1930s or maybe he skipped over a couple decades but that is when I caught up to it.

Triumph motorcycles, who knew they had such an influence.

So, I’m not inbreed because of Triumph?
Wow, who’da thunk?!

The thought that no one went anywhere until Triumph came along is interesting.
I’m pretty sure the horse and cart was around a long time before the internal combustion engine ...

.

It seems they traveled long distances on those horses too, regularly too, for trade. Average peasants probably did not though.

Yeah, that "village idiot/gene pool" line certainly was a rather strange manner in which to comment upon the decrease in provincialism which took place during the 20th century, but I have heard that until the automobile came along, the average person never ventured further than 40 miles away from their home during their entire lifetime.

(...although word is even to this very day and even with their ownership of the motorized vehicle, you can still find some residents within the state of West Virginia which this changing social phenomenon never affected...oh, and in certain parts of Utah too, I hear)

LOL

We have two provinces that may be similar but then again they are surrounded by water on all sides. ;-) Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland. So if you don't own a boat, a big boat then venturing out was a bit troublesome although they may have gone to the other end of the island to spread their genes around somewhat like the British Islanders did on a Triumph.