Sunday 31 May 2009

Steve McQueen rode a Husqvarna.


I got an unexpected gift this weekend from my youngest brother: a DVD of "On any Sunday" – a film I had seen excerpts from on Youtube but not in its entirety. I could hardly wait until the kids and the missus had gone to bed, before I poured myself a JR Ewing-sized bourbon and settled in for some cool seventies flat track action.

What I hadn't expected was that the movie is actually about almost all kinds of motorcycle racing, from road to ice racing. And I didn't expect Steve McQueen to feature so heavily, nor that he was such a good rider. I knew he raced cars, but not that he was a top amateur motocrosser. But perhaps what made me most excited of all, was the fact that the whole movie is a virtual Husqvarna love fest! There is a Husky in almost every scene (the flat track scenes excluded) and the shots of Steve McQueen doing some beach riding with his buddies on his red
1970 Husqvarna 400 (check out the actual bike here) in perfectly fitting jeans and sweater is some of the best motorcycling footage I've ever seen.

Much has been written about Steve McQueen driving his Mustang in the movie "Bullit". And while that car chase is certainly cool, the shots of McQueen wheelying and crashing that gorgeous Husqvarna in On Any Sunday is in a leauge of its own. Thanks again bro.

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