This famous photograph by Michel Monteange shows the pit crew of the Gauthier and Schaller team at the 1969 Bol d’Or endurance motorcycle race held at the Autodrome de Linas-Montlhéry just outside of Paris.
The most immediately noticeable element in the image is the cigarette hanging from the mouth of the no-nonsense chap in the tartan beret pouring the fuel from an old milk jug. The proximity of the cigarette to the petrol has raised many an eyebrow over the years, and it would likely result in the entire scene being blasted with fire extinguishers in any modern pitlane.
The original photographer, Michel Monteange, has partnered with Sails & Rods to produce a very limited edition run of prints of this photograph. Just 50 will be made from the original negative, and you can order sizes from 20x30cm up to 80x120cm.
Ben Branch has had his work featured on CNN, Popular Mechanics, the official Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with millions of readers around the world and hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
The legendary NCR workshop played a significant role in the early competition life of Ducati, perhaps most famously they built the special 900cc race bike that Mike Hailwood piloted to his seemingly impossible comeback win at the the 1978 Formula One TT at the Isle of Man. NCR was founded in 1967 as a small motorcycle…
The Indian Sport Scout was designed and built to regain the crown that had been lost when the Springfield, Massachusetts-based company discontinued their ever-popular Scout 101 in 1931. The Indian Scout 101 The story of the Indian Scout 101 is a two-wheeled example of the old adage if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. The…
The story of Elspeth Beard is legendary within the motorcycle community, in 1982 aged just 23 she set off on a round the world adventure with nothing more than a tent, some meagre savings from her job in a bar, and her trusty 1974 BMW R60/6. This was many years before GPS, email, cell phones,…
The Silver Bullet MKII is the second coming of the BMW R100 RS Custom by XTR Pepo that took the moto-web by storm last year. The bike proved so popular that it was taken on a road trip to many of Europe’s best motorcycle shows, including The Bike Shed Show, Wheels and Waves, and the…
The Speakeasy is the latest offering from Fitzke Wood Boards, a small Minnesota based company run by Kevin Fitzke. Kevin was born and raised in Minnesota, known as the land of 10,000 lakes (which he spent countless days exploring), and he spent much of his life admiring the sleek mahogany speedboats of the 1930s. In…
Ben Addison is a multi-talented artist who was born and raised in London, with frequent trips to the USA as a child to accompany his father, an interior designer of no small repute, and his mother who was a fashion designer. With both parents being full-time creatives it was almost guaranteed that Ben would follow…
