Plymouth to Ivybridge Ton Up Boys 1962
Young Motorcycle Racers are gathered by a transport café on the A38 Exeter to Plymouth road. They are the ton-up boys taking off into the night.
British biker subculture originates in the 1950s and is influenced by American pop culture and the rock and roll music of Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran and Chuck Berry. 1960s rockers portray a rebellious image emulating the cool moody actor James Dean with white t-shirt and socks, jeans and Black Boots with Fisherman socks, and of course , leather jacket, quiff and motorbike.
The ton-up boys create a lifestyle out of motorbike racing. The aim is to reach the speed of one hundred miles an hour in other words do the ton. The transport café is the starting and finishing post for races and games such as buzzing or chicken are played.
Chicken is putting a record on the jukebox and running to your bike and doing the ton and returning before the song finishes. Chicken is also doing a u-turn lean where the outer edges of the tyre touches the road used to measure a rider’s skill.
A Westwood TV production, presenter not known
A motorbike for an average citizen and consumer of pop culture is an attribute of individuals in one way or another socially maladjusted. Or it involves aggression and crime (bad gangs in sensational movies usually appear on black motorcycles) or is a tool of unrealistic and doomed to fail, a utopian escape from reality (as in the movie Easy Rider). Eric Tretbar, an American independent filmmaker, screenwriter, filmmaker and filmmaker, inspired by the story of his acquaintance who, after divorce, re-emerged with a motorcycle, has created an authorial, artistic film about a woman who finds the courage to search for his own way and life according to your rules.
