Back Street Heroes Issue 391 November 2016 preview

ISSUE 391 NOV 2016 £3.99

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GSX-R 750 STREETFIGHTER super-tough Scottish street scrapper

– all that’s new and happening in the custom bike world

offers

– Our Billy rides the new Moto Guzzi bagger

sun, sea and Sagres in the far south

DUCATI DRAG BIKE cafe racer’d and bloody quick!

XS650 YAMAHA

stunning engraved Cornish chopper

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US TRIKE

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NI RATFEST/ ROARING MEG BIKE SHOW

blacked-out and double ‘ard

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ROCK & BLUES

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this year’s biggie in the Derbyshire hills

BMW R100RT

flamed and funky airhead

HOT ROD HAYRIDE

the cool kids meet in Surrey

78MAG NEWS

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883 SPORTSTER

old-skool choppers in Suffolk

– see here for the best subscription

44(ALMOST A) ROAD TEST

FARO

THE LOWDOWN (pictured)

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– have your say about ... well, owt really!

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6OPENFACED 12LETTERS 34SUBSCRIBE TO BSH

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– our regular column by the MAG chairnongenderspecificperson

STREET 80PROJECT MUTANT

– part four of our new Yamaha XSR900 project

ultra-kool Seventies ‘Onda

MR BRIDGES’ 88MOTORCYCLE DIARIES

Yorkshire MAG pulls it off again

–

DESERT 92PROJECT RACER the exhaust

THE BSH CUSTOM BIKE BUILDING CHAMPIONSHIP YORKSHIRE PUDDING

– exhausts, oil cooler, electrics, the last bits and bobs

batteries and battery charging

our FD travels across the water

your last chance to vote

84PROJECT RAT ROD – finishing off

96EVENTS READERS’ 100LIVES

–our guide to the best rallies, shows, parties and runs!

– four pages of your pictures and our silly captions ... yeah, sorry about that.

105SMALLS 113NEXT MONTH here

– sell your bike for free!

–what’s in the mag next month … obviously!

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RICK HULSE – the musings of one of the most eloquent thinkers in bikerdom!

NOVEMBER 2016 BACK STREET HEROES

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THERE SEEM TO HAVE BEEN A LOT OF EVENT ANNIVERSARIES THIS YEAR, DON’T THERE? THE NABBED RALLY WAS 25, THE FARMYARD WAS 30, THE BULLDOG WAS 30 AND, 3,000 MILES AWAY IN PORTUGAL, MOTO CLUBE FARO’S CONCENTRACION (OR FARO AS IT’S MORE COMMONLY KNOWN) WAS 35.

WORDS & PICS: NIK

IT

was also the 20th time I’ve been – me and a few mates went in an ‘orrible ol’ ‘orsebox with bikes in the back in ’97 ‘cos we were all skint and it was the cheapest way of getting across on the ferry (and because I was… ahem, banned… for speeding… again), and I was so blown away by it that I came back and said to Stu, the then editor, we’ve got to take British people there – the following year the BSH Faro Run was born.

Twenty years later, the Run has fallen by the wayside, a victim of its own success really, but hordes of Brits still descend on Faro, both riding there and flying in, and it’s easy to see why – low entry price, cheap beer, cheap food (although it can be a tad tricky if you’re a vegetarian), good people, no

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attitudes, good bands, and wall-to-wall sunshine. This year it felt particularly hot, not because it was actually any hotter than normal, but because there wasn’t a breath of wind to provide a cooling breeze. On the Saturday in particular, it truly was baking and even the native Portugeezies (as I believe they’re known) were remarking that this one was a bit warm even for them.

WORDS: NIK PICS: SIMON EVERETT

ALL THAT GLITTERS IS NOT GOLD, SAID OUR WILLIE BACK IN 1596 IN THE MERCHANT OF VENICE – A STATEMENT THAT MEANS THAT NOT EVERYTHING THAT’S SHINY AND SUPERFICIALLY ATTRACTIVE IS VALUABLE. THE OPPOSITE IS ALSO TRUE; JUST BECAUSE SOMETHING ISN’T SHINY DOESN’T MAKE IT SHIT.

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here is a perception, you see, that all bikes that’re painted matt black are rats and while that may well’ve been true at some point in motorcycling’s history, these days it really, really isn’t. Manufacturers such as Harley-Davidson, Indian, Ducati and Moto Guzzi now all offer motorcycles painted in

this most non-reflective of hues and, as the more enlightened among us have always known, ‘dark’ bikes are cool.

Mick, the owner of this particularly black Sportster 48 Iron, had seen pictures of blacked-out Sporties on t’internet and decided he really wanted one too. He also wanted one with a fatter front wheel than even the 130 they come

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AT THE HEMSBY ROCK ’N’ ROLL WEEKENDERS 18-20 YEARS AGO, WHICH MAINLY ATTRACTED YANK CAR OWNERS AND HOT RODDERS, THERE WAS ALWAYS A SMALL MOTORCYCLE CONTINGENT THAT TURNED UP. THE HAYRIDE KIND OF GREW OUT OF THAT, AND STARTED AROUND THE TIME THE OLD SCHOOL CHOPPER SCENE WAS GAINING MOMENTUM. YEAR ON YEAR THE NUMBERS OF CHOPPED AND BOBBED ‘60S/’70S STYLE BIKES STEADILY INCREASED AS THEIR RIDERS FOUND THAT THE RETRO VIBE AT THE HOT ROD EVENTS AND NOSTALGIA DRAGS SUITED THEM PERFECTLY.

WORDS & PICS: GARRY STUART

AT

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this year’s year s Hayride there were a lot of bikes to see; from classic dirt bike Matchless and Triumphs, Indians, a few Knuckleheads, a fair few Panheads, and loads of Shovelheads – most of which were chopped ‘70s style with tall sissy bars and psychedelic paint jobs in many cases. For lovers of old school customisation this was truly a treat that you won’t see in the more mainstream biker shows – just here and at The Trip Out really.

The Hayride’s home has been the Bisley Rifle Club, which is a historic relic of the British Empire, some of the buildings built prior to the First World War. Their timber

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DISCOVE EVER SINCE I RED T AEE HON HIS R ARE DA TRIKE SEVER A IMMEDIA L YEARS AGO, I T OF TR ANELY THOUGHT SFO INTO AN RMING IT E ST YLE CR D ROTHEATION.

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hese trik e kits use d to be so magazine ld throug in the mid h Street -‘70s. It w trike, buil Chopper as a prett t around y plain Ja 1975, fitte My first ne d with a task was sto to create ply wood a mock ca ck 1970 CB750. and strap b o p ut of luan ing. Keep fit a 6ft d ing it low river wasn profile an ’t easy. T would be d still h e se o nly rear su at shocks from a lo – the only ng spring spension er fork. H su long fron sp ension co aving bu t end sm mes ilt other ooths ou a 24” ove hardtails, t the bum r fork ma I knew a p s signific de by the (w w w.su antly so I legendary garbearc ordered Sugar Be hoppers ar .com).

IT’S PART FIVE OF THIS BUILD SERIES AND WE’RE ALMOST INTO THE HOME STRETCH…

Probably the longest oil lines on any motorcycle anywhere…

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o, where were we? Oh yeah, I remember (look, it’s been four weeks and I’ve slept since then).

I forgot to mention the rear ‘guard which was made

by Luke on one of the rare days I have off.

He took a piece of stainless perforated sheet which was hanging around from an earlier scrap-finding mission, doubled it over, made a series of slots down the sides to get it into a compound shape and welded it up. It fits on to three tabs on the post behind the seat and looks reasonably cool. Check out the photos ‘cos my description doesn’t really do it justice.

He also surprised me with the zorst.

Starting with a set off 1200 Bandit downpipes, our idea after talking with Nik, was to have numbers 1 and 4 exiting one side of the bike and 2 and 3 the other, just to see if it made any

difference to the noise. He’s made a system that does this and looks radically different, almost organic. He made it up in pipe first and then welded oversized tube in various places around it, giving the impression it’s made from millions of bits. Smart!

Just having a stock black or grey engine for a build like this wouldn’t do, so the wheels, engine cases and rocker box cover were sent to Mr John Patch at Patch Bespoke FX, the hydrodipping and painting maestro, and came back looking like a load of atomic waste’d been smeared over them.

Usually this is a bad thing when you get paint back, but in this case it was just what we wanted. Excellent job, cheers John.

When we fitted the exhaust we found the oil cooler no longer had any space for it to go in the usual position which, I supposee, was a bit of a blesssing in a

PART 5 WORDS & PICS: JIM & LUKE

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BACK STREET HEROES NOVEMBER 2016

Nine foot oil lines and a rear-mounted cooler out in the air-flow, that should keep it cool, shouldn’t it?

Fabricated? Looks more like it was grown, doesn’t it?

LAST MONTH I CHOPPED A DAMAGED CAN DOWN TO FIT THE HERALD, BUT THAT STILL LEFT IT NEEDING TO BE MOUNTED TO THE FRAME AND CONNECTED TO THE ENGINE. FIG.2

FIG.3

FIG.1

AND THAT’S A WRAP...

aving acquired a suitablysized can mounting strap and a clamp I offered it up to see what I needed to do to mount it. It’s always worth putting a bit of thought in at this stage for several reasons.

Not burning yourself on the exhaust is a fairly major one – I prefer it if it looks like it was supposed to go there rather than appearing

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to be held in place by 18 blatantly obvious pieces of Meccano. Less obviously some sort of leeway on the mounting is useful because it’s easy to get things slightly out and it allows for a little adjustment.

Given the position of the can, and taking the first two points into consideration, I realised that if I made the mounting bracket stick out from the frame, rather than hang down off it, it would make things a lot easier… except for the minor detail that the bracket was likely to break off the frame because it would get repeatedly bent by the weight of the can if nothing else. It would put all the mounting hardware out of sight behind the bulk of the can though and allow for it to be adjusted in and out, rather than forwards and backwards. Rather than making the bracket from the usual piece of strap steel, I made a cardboard template for it and jig-sawed it out of some 2mm

steel sheet before bending it in the vice and welding it to the frame (Fig.1).

With a short piece of strap and a cheap 3/8” drive socket as a spacer connecting the bracket to the can strap, the can was positioned more or less where I wanted it to be. Taking the original exhaust and sawing it off just behind the foot rest would get the exhaust gas halfway from the engine to the can, but left a couple of

words & pics: MR BRIDGES

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PART SIX

KE, YOUR LADY, YOUROK) TO SEND PICS OF YOUR BIER IS ISN’T FACEBO TH , NN DI UR YO T NO UT (B E OK BL NIK@BACKSTREETHEROES.COM

The world’s only air-cooled CX500 belongs to Neil Saunders – rat cool!

ABOVE: Steve Taylor (no, not him) on his Little Red Rooster Beezer chop back in the summer of ’83. Cool pic an’ no mistake!

RIGHT: Scott Littledike has recently finished building this Bandit 1200 streetf tfighter f in a military sty tyle y – he did all the work himself on a budget of just £1,500 from a Cat C write-off ff. f 100 BACK STREET HEROES NOVEMBER 2016