Was Ian Fleming a Motorbike/Motorbike Racing fan (e.g. FAVTAK)?

Dragonpol

It's been a good while since I posted a new thread in the Literature section on MI6 Community, so here goes....

I've been wondering about the above thread question this the past while and I thought I would ask you guys here on the community. It's run through my head like a stubborn marble on the move. :)

Obviously motorbikes/motorcycles have featured quite prominently in some of the James Bond films but the literary Bond only rode one in the SHAPE dispatch rider assassination case reported in Ian Fleming's short story 'From A View to A Kill' (1960) involving BSA motorbikes. Interestingly, Fiona Volpe also rode a BSA motorbike in the film version of Thunderball. I may have missed a continuation Bond novel where he rode one but I don't recall motorbikes featuring in any (Villains in Spain in SeaFire perhaps?).

So what do we think? Was Ian Fleming a fan of motorbikes/motorbike racing in general? He certainly wrote convincingly about them in 'FAVTAK'. We know he was very interested in racing cars (see MR novel and 'Murder on Wheels' from around the same time as 'FAVTAK').

So far all I have dug up on the matter is the following:

"While at Eton he became a close friend of Ivar Bryce. He purchased a Douglas motorbike and used this vehicle for trips around Windsor. He also took Fleming on the bike to visit the British Empire Exhibition in London. They also published a magazine, The Wyvern, together." (excerpt from Ian Fleming, Spartacus Educational - http://spartacus-educational.com/SSfleming.htm )

I have Ivar Bryce's memoirs on Ian Fleming so I really must consult it on the matter.

As an aside, I live in Northern Ireland, home to the Dunlops and the North West 200 world-famous motorbike race but I am not a racing fan despite having been to the North West 200 when I was younger two different years (1998/1999 I think).

As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this one and maybe we can fill in the blanks, if indeed there are any! :)

Dragonpol

Any help at all out there with this one?! :)

Villiers53

I'm pretty sure Fleming was a car man albeit any motorised machines were doubtless of interest to him and the detail he accorded the BSA in FAVTAK was just typical of his writing style.

Dragonpol

Villiers53 wrote: »

I'm pretty sure Fleming was a car man albeit any motorised machines were doubtless of interest to him and the detail he accorded the BSA in FAVTAK was just typical of his writing style.

Thanks - I think you are probably spot on there! :)

PFO

Don't forget that his one-time girlfriend Muriel Wright was a motorcycle dispatch rider. I'm sure she took him for a spin - on and off her motorbike. :p During the war Wright joined a small team of despatch riders at the Admiralty who roared around London on BSA motorcycles.

In FRWL Red Grant defects to the Soviets as a motorcycle courier with sensitive documents to sweeten the deal.

In DAF, first chapter, the diamond smuggler uses a motorcycle.

The man who steals Bond's wallet in YOLT later follows him on motorbike.

Hugo Drax was a motorcycle dispatch rider when he had his accident.

A motorcycle cop happens upon Bond cradling dead Tracy in OHMSS.

Count Lippe's killer also drove a motorcycle in the novel Thunderball.

There's a cop on a motorcycle in chapter 17 of Thunderball.

A motorcycle patrol cop gets shot in Casino Royale.

And as you rightly point out, Bond drove a Triumph Daytona in SeaFire, chapter 9.

We'll skip over the GE novelization.

007InVT

Nice job @PFO

Villiers53

Mon Dieu, @PFO is an aficionado of great detail and how correct he is - I'm going to have to read the whole lot again!
By the way, I loved Muriel Wright's courier outfit in the Sky Atlantic Fleming faction — made me want to go out and get a motorbike!

Dragonpol

Thank you so much @PFO!

Thunderfinger