Back Street Heroes - March 2021 - Preview

ISSUE 443

MARCH 2021

£4.40

FEBRUARY 2021

1

accessories

clothing

6: Mr BATCHELAR’S SCRAPBOOK – THE LAST IN THE SERIES OF GROOVY OLD PICS… FOR NOW! 12: BMW CAFÉ RACER – WITH ADDED FIZZIE! 16: CX500 TRIKE – ONE OF THE NICEST EVER! 20: SUZUKI GSX CHOP – OWNED BY A BOY NAMED JOHN, NOT SUE… 24: PANHEAD CHOPPER – IT WASN’T S’POSED TO BE LIKE THIS…

TO GET THE DIGITAL EDITIONS APP, SIMPLY SEARCH FOR ‘BACK STREET HEROES’ IN THE APPLE APP STORE FOR iPAD OR ON GOOGLE PLAY FOR ANDROID

36: REVTECH CHOPPER – WHO’S THE (BIG) DADDY? 40: T160 TRIDENT CHOP – SEVENTIES SURVIVOR THAT’S NO LONGER PINK

CHECK OUT THE BSH FACEBOOK PAGE (BACK STREET HEROES) AND THE BSH FACEBOOK GROUP AT BACK STREET HEROES – THE OFFICIAL GROUP

44: CANADIAN BSA – THE COVER BIKE IN ALL ITS GLORY 54: SWEDISH H-D 45 – A PIECE OF SWEDISH CHOP-BUILDING HISTORY! 58: 750 HONDA RAT – THE ONLY REAL RATBIKE IN THE LAND?

28: YORKSHIRE PUDDING RALLY – THE SECOND RALLY OF 2020... YES, THERE WERE ACTUALLY TWO! 32: SUZUKI SIDE-CAR OUTFIT – ONE OF THE MOST RADICAL THREE-WHEELERS ON THE PLANET…

4: EDITORIAL NIK WAFFLES ON ABOUT SOME SHI… NO, ACTUALLY, THAT’S RIGHT 50: CENTRESPREAD AN ARTISTIC POSTER FOR YOU TO PUT ON YER WALL 52: SUBSCRIBE TO BSH SEE HERE FOR THE BEST SUBSCRIPTION OFFERS

62: (ALMOST) A ROADTEST TRIUMPH ROCKET 3R! 66: MR BRIDGES THE GURU IMPARTS MORE OF HIS KNOWLEDGE OF MECHANICS 70: JIM FOGG FICTION YAMAHAS, TRIUMPHS AND NAKED CAFE RACER OWNERS?

76: NEWS ALL THAT’S NEW AND HAPPENING IN THE CUSTOM BIKE WORLD 78: PRODUCTS LOADS OF GOOD STUFF FOR YOU TO SPEND YOUR HARDEARNED ON 80: LETTERS SOUND OFF, ONE, TWO, SOUND OFF, THREE, FOUR!

83: MAG NEWS OUR REGULAR COLUMN BY THE MAG CHAIRNON GENDERSPECIFIC PERSON 84: SMALLS SELL YOUR BIKE HERE FOR FREE! 86: READERS’ LIVES YOUR PICS, OUR CAPTIONS… YEAH, SORRY ABOUT THAT

97: NEXT MONTH JUST TO WHET YOUR APPETITE… 98: RICK HULSE THE MUSINGS OF ONE OF THE MOST ELOQUENT THINKERS IN BIKERDOM

So, into February then and, so far, it seems to be a case of, as Pete Townsend wrote, ‘Meet the new boss, same as the old boss’ or, more prosaically, same shit, different year. We’re still in what feels like a lockdown that hasn’t let up since god-knows-when and, to make it worse, January was feckin’ freezin’ and not conducive to dragging the bike out unless you really, really had to.

The last lockdown, looking back, didn’t feel quite as bad because it was Spring/Summer, and so you could go out for a blast, stop for a take-away coffee, and sit in the sun to drink it. Now though, if you stop for a brew, it’s necked as quickly as possible (after you’ve warmed your hands round the cup), and then you’re off again…

It’s funny, I can always tell when it’s really cold (mainly by going outside and thinking ‘Bloody hell, it’s cold’) cos the Harleymounted servicemen from the local airbases stop riding past the window of my gaff. All through the winters, usually, I hear H-Ds growl past at all times of the night and day and, even though I’m dead ‘ard and rufty-tufty as hell (ahem), I quite often think, as I sit in front of the fire, ‘Really? ‘Kin ‘ell, glad I’m not out tonight’. This year, though, they were still out and about in December, but all through January the road ten feet from the window of the BSH editorial hovel was noticeably free of Yankee iron. Hell, even the ‘ped bois who hang around the local supermarket car park, and the 125 commuters, who are usually out in all weathers, were conspicuous by the absence last month, and that really is unusual.

I did get out on the Future Bike towards the end of December, and got in a few days’ riding, and I’m glad I did ‘cos… well, we’ve talked before about riding keeps you sane (well, as sane as any of us ever are), haven’t we? What else also kept me going was the very strange looks I got from the guys on big adventure bikes (most of the bikes you see out ‘ere in the sticks in the winter are big adventure bikes, usually ridden by guys who look slightly too short for them) when I blart past with matt black paint, four shocks and handlebars up ‘ere – always cheers me up!

Anyway, a good sign is the number of rallies/parties/shows for the summer that’re being posted to Facebook and other social media sites. Sadly, the NABD’ve just announced that their annual biggie, You’ve Been Nabbed, is to be postponed until 2022 as, because it’s held at the beginning of May, there’s doubt as to whether we’ll

EDITOR:

GROUP ADVERTISING MANAGER:

PIC: EMMA T

HELLO, AND WELCOME TO THE NEW ISSUE OF BACK STREET HEROES – THE FOUR HUNDRED AND FORTY THIRD, AS GENEALOGISTS’D SAY, OF ITS LINE.

all’ve been vaccinated by then, but later ones, kind o’ August and beyond, are looking promising, which is really good news. It does mean that August and September’re probably going to be crammed full of events so, a little like last year, it’s going to be towards the end of the summer when things get busy again but, hell, we can wait, can’t we? I mean, we’ve put up with this bollox for nearly a year now – another couple o’ three months isn’t really going to hurt, is it?

I’m sure I’ve mentioned it before, but just in case… we’ve been getting together an on-line archive of BSH back issues and work’s been progressing on that front. By the time you read this we should be up to (or around at least) issue 50, and you can access them by going to our website at www.backstreetheroes.com and clicking on the ‘Back Issue Archive’ wotsit. There is a small charge because it’s such a time-consuming endeavour (each issue takes between four and five hours to scan and then tidy up a little), but it’s probably less than a pint in a pub (remember them? Not sure I do…) south of Watford for a six-month period, so it’s not going to break the bank, and’d be significantly cheaper, and a lot less hassle, than buying (and first, finding) those first 50 issues on eBlag.

I know that, for a lot of us these days, a digital copy isn’t quite the same as having a paper one, true, and sitting on the bog with a tablet or laptop (or, if you have really good close-up eyesight, a phone) isn’t quite the same as it was with a magazine back in the day, but your legs’ll still go numb as you sit there reading just as they used to all those years ago (always the sign of a good read), and your laptop/tablet/phone also won’t crease or fold like a mag would (one of my personal pet hates). On the other hand, it will be a lot more expensive if you drop it down the bog, y’know?

Swings and roundabouts, as they say, swings and roundabouts… whichever way you do it, digital or paper, do remember to wash your hands afterwards, eh?

Well, that’s pretty much me for this issue – all that remains is to tell you that in the next ‘un, out at the beginning of March, we have a couple of new features starting to, as the old BBC mantra of the 1930s goes, educate, inform and entertain you.

One of them’s a great two-part travel series about a couple of lads (and a lassie too) riding around the circumference of Ireland on chops, and the second’s a series of reminiscing features as various BSH folk look back at their biking lives in the dim and distant past. The first of these is a cracker, it really is… and also a wincer too, you have been warned!

See you next time!

FREELANCE CONTRIBUTORS:

NIK

EDITORIAL ADDRESS:

BACK STREET DAVE BATCHELAR, HEROES, MORTONS MATT WOODS CIRCULATION MANAGER: MEDIA, MORTON WAY, 07884 052003 PHOTOGRAPHY, STEVE O’HARA STAFF WRITER: HORNCASTLE LN9 6JR SIMON EVERETT, MARKETING MANAGER: SUBSCRIPTIONS: DAVE MANNING dave@backstreetheroes.com CHARLOTTE PARK 01507 529529 ROBERT ‘BOB’ LUND, WEBSITE: PUBLISHING DIRECTOR: DESIGN: ANDREWGERARD WWW.BACKSTREET DAN SAVAGE GARETH WILLIAMS PHOTOGRAPHY, HEROES.COM COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR: PUBLISHER: DAVE WORDEN, ENQUIRIES AND BACK ISSUES: TIM HARTLEY NIGEL HOLE ERIK STIGSSON, PAM 01507 529529 24hr answerphone DIVISIONAL AD MANAGER: BARAUD, MR BRIDGES, ARCHIVE ENQUIRIES: BILLIE MANNING THE LATE JIM FOGG RIP, bmanning@mortons.co.uk JANE SKAYMAN LOUISE LIMB, SELINA jskayman@mortons.co.uk OFFICE HOURS: 9-5PM 01507 529414 LAVENDER, RICK HULSE 01507 529423 OUT OF HOURS: 07775 753966 NIK SAMSON

nik@backstreetheroes.com

SUE KEILY

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Distribution by Marketforce UK Ltd, 5 Churchill Place, Canary Wharf, London E14 5HU. Tel: 0203 787 9001. Printed by William Gibbons and Sons, Wolverhampton. ISSN: 02679841. BSH is copyright to Mortons Media Ltd 2021 and all rights are reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

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PART 3 OVER THE LAST TWO ISSUES WE SHOWED YOU A WHOLE BUNCH OF PICS FROM WAY BACK WHEN SENT IN BY DAVE BATCHELAR AT P&D CUSTOM BIKES (01403 791038 OR FACEBOOK), CUSTOM BIKE BUILDER EXTRAORDINAIRE AND ALL-ROUND GOOD EGG. This is the last lot for the moment (although he’s threatening to send more too) and, as with the others, they’re just old pics from his collection – he saw ‘em, he liked ‘em, so he took a pic of ‘em, y’know?

MARCH 2021

7

8

MARCH 2021

NEXT ISSUE: ROUND IRELAND ON CHOPS… WITH NARY A FRIDGE IN SIGHT 10

MARCH 2021

HAVING ONE’S FIRST FULL-BUILD CUSTOM PROJECT FEATURED IN NO LESS THAN THREE DIFFERENT CUSTOM MAGS, AND ACCEPTED INTO THE BIKE SHED LONDON SHOW (LESS THAN 200 BIKES FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD MAKE THE GRADE EACH YEAR) TOO, IS A FAIR ACHIEVEMENT IN ANYONE’S BOOK, BUT STEVE B WASN’T GOING TO REST ON HIS WELL-EARNED LAURELS.

and his step-dad and partner-in-crime Malc, had always planned to build three bikes powered by the venerable old air-cooled air-head BMW boxer engine – a bobber, a café racer and a cruiser – and, after completing the first of the trio, the bobber that was featured way back (well, ish…) in BSH 414, started on the second.

He found another 1977 R75/7, the rare-as-t*ts-on-a-bull 750cc model that they only made for that one year, and after tracking down another rare twin-disc front end (and a rare kick-start gearbox too), set about pulling it apart to turn it from only-suitable-for-geography-teachers to sexier than Megan Fox in small shorts. He planned to keep the Yamaha FS1E moped tank theme that he’d started with the bobber (which, admittedly, he’d borrowed from Kingston Customs in Germany), but planned to add to it by using not only one as a fuel receptacle, but another, seriously modified as a seat unit too.

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