Btw, for you guys who don't know the story of why it's a Triumph, made to look like a WWII German-issue motorcycle, that Bud Ekins(who subbed for McQueen) used for that famous barbed wire jump scene...well, here's the scoop:
Word is, McQueen had talked director John Sturges into that whole motorcycle escape scenario once the filming had already started, but the producers wouldn't let their star actually perform the stunt. And so, McQueen talked his old friend and fellow motorcycle racer Ekins into flying over to Europe to do it. However, once Ekins arrived to the set, he told everyone concerned, "There's NO freakin' way I'm going to do THAT jump on a freakin' BMW!"
(I love that story...which btw was only one of many which I heard at the Bud Ekins memorial service that was held a couple of years ago at the Warner Bros movie lot in Burbank California...AND btw, someone there had a older Meriden Triumph sittin' outside the studio theater where the ceremony took place, and which was also a very nice re-creation of this famous machine...it too was VERY cool!)
