Back Street Heroes - February 2021 - Preview

OLD-SKOOL SHOVEL BOBBER

ISSUE 442

FEBRUARY 2021

£4.40

H-D SOFTAIL, TRIUMPH CHOP, Z250 SINGLE, INDIAN BOBBER, DIESEL CHOP, FEBRUARY 2021 GS550 SUZUKI, OLD-SKOOL CB750, STEAMPUNK HARLEY

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accessories

clothing

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

6: Mr BATCHELAR’S SCRAPBOOK – THE SECOND BATCH OF COOL OLD PICS 12: DIESEL CHOP – IT’S A SURVIVAL BIKE, JIM, BUT NOT AS WE KNOW IT…

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

16: GS550 BOBBER – PROBABLY THE GROOVIEST ONE EVER! 20: INDIAN SCOUT – ANOTHER GOBSMACKING PAINT SCHEME FROM NORTH O’ THE BORDER 24: Z250 SINGLE – CORKIN’ LITTLE STREETBIKE FOR A NEWBIE 28: AMOC CUSTOM SHOW – ONE OF THE FEW THAT HAPPENED IN 2020 32: T140 CHOPPER – LONG, LOW, AND UBERSEXY TRIUMPH 36: LONG SHOP SHOW – A SHOW AT A MUSEUM IN THE SUNSHINE 38: TWINCAM SOFTAIL – A REAL RIDER BY ONE OF THE GREATS

54: CB750 – MAD BIKE BUILT

BY A MAD MAN!

44: RETRO SHOVELHEAD – THE COVER BIKE IN ALL ITS GLORY

58: STEAMPUNK EVO’ – BRASS N’ COPPER CHOPPER

66: MR BRIDGES THE GURU IMPARTS MORE OF HIS KNOWLEDGE OF MECHANICS

84: MAG NEWS OUR REGULAR COLUMN BY THE MAG CHAIRNON GENDERSPECIFIC PERSON

70: JIM FOGG FICTION DO BAD MEN DO GOOD?

85: NEXT MONTH JUST TO WHET YOUR APPETITE…

50: CENTRESPREAD AN ARTISTIC POSTER FOR YOU TO PUT ON YER WALL

76: NEWS ALL THAT’S NEW AND HAPPENING IN THE CUSTOM BIKE WORLD

86: SMALLS SELL YOUR BIKE HERE FOR FREE!

52: SUBSCRIBE TO BSH SEE HERE FOR THE BEST SUBSCRIPTION OFFERS

78: PRODUCTS LOADS OF GOOD STUFF FOR YOU TO SPEND YOUR HARDEARNED ON

62: (ALMOST) A ROADTEST ROYAL ENFIELD INTERCEPTOR

80: LETTERS SOUND OFF, ONE, TWO, SOUND OFF, THREE, FOUR!

87: READERS’ LIVES YOUR PICS, OUR CAPTIONS… YEAH, SORRY ABOUT THAT 98: RICK HULSE THE MUSINGS OF ONE OF THE MOST ELOQUENT THINKERS IN BIKERDOM

NIK SAMSON

GROUP ADVERTISING MANAGER:

07884 052003

CIRCULATION MANAGER:

DAVE MANNING

MARKETING MANAGER:

EDITOR:

nik@backstreetheroes.com

SUE KEILY

STEVE O’HARA

STAFF WRITER:

dave@backstreetheroes.com

CHARLOTTE PARK

DESIGN:

PUBLISHING DIRECTOR:

PUBLISHER:

COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR:

GARETH WILLIAMS TIM HARTLEY

DAN SAVAGE NIGEL HOLE

DIVISIONAL AD MANAGER:

BILLIE MANNING

bmanning@mortons.co.uk OFFICE HOURS: 9-5PM 01507 OUT OF HOURS: 07775

529414 753966

As this is the first issue of 2021, we’ve had a bit of a magazine shake-up, and moved a few things around. The News, Products and Letters’re now towards the back of the magazine so as to bring the bikes that you buy the magazine for a little more prominence, and to make that usually advert-heavy area a little more readable, y’know? Tell us what you think – whether you like it (them) there or not? Feedback’s always good as it helps us to keep the magazine on track in these troubled times.

Right, that’s it, I’m off to try and avoid a mince pie-induced diabetic coma, and eat my own bodyweight in pigs-inblankets… look, I told you I was the ghost of Christmas past, didn’t I? Charles Dickens? Never ‘eard o’ her.

FREELANCE CONTRIBUTORS:

DAVE BATCHELAR, DEL HICKEY, BOSUN, WHYNO GRAHAM, GARRY STUART, GIBBY, BRIZ, BILL BUTLER, SIMON EVERETT, EMMA TANEY, MR BRIDGES, THE LATE JIM FOGG RIP, LOUISE LIMB, SELINA LAVENDER, RICK HULSE

NIK

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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.

The publishers accept no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts or photographs. If you send material to us for publication, you are strongly advised to make copies and to include an SAE. Original material must be submitted and will be accepted solely on the basis that the author accepts the assessment of the publisher as to its commercial value. BSH UK subscriptions £45.00, European subs £55.89, all other countries £67.89, from BSH Subs, Mortons Media Ltd, PO Box 99, Horncastle LN9 6LZ. USA subs $60 per annum from Motorsport, 31757 Honey Locust Road, Jonesburg, MO 63351-9600 and additional mailing offices. Periodicals postage is paid at Jonesburg, Missouri, USA. Postmaster: send USA address changes to BSH, Motorsport, 550 Honey Locust Road, Jonesburg, MO 63351-9600.

**Yes, I do spend a lot of time looking at memes on social media, how can you tell?

*There may’ve been alcohol involved too…

PIC: CHRIS GRAVES

So that was 2020, was it? Hmm, 3/10…

I think, on the whole, that most of us’ll be glad to see the back of it, don’t you?

It was, as I predicted (if that’s the right word), The Year Without A Summer – a year without the bike events we so dearly love, a year during which most of us didn’t quite know what to do with ourselves. Us bikers are, as I’m sure you know, a sociable bunch, and we live for getting out on our bikes and meeting up with like-minded folk, be it at shows, rallies, race events, whatever, and the wholesale cancellation of pretty much everything this year’s put a massive dent in our collective psyche. Even I, who suffers (again, if that’s the right word) from a distinct camping disillusionment (I’ve just done so many nights in tents, y’know? In the mid-Nineties I did so many rallies I used to wake up of a Saturday morning, look out at a sea of tents, and think, ‘Nope, I have absolutely no idea where I am’,* and then have to mentally work backwards to somewhere I do remember being, and then go forwards from that to work out where I was now), have found myself missing the flap of canvas, the (extremely) early tweeting of birdies, and the pre-dawn sound of retching from nearby… and this despite the fact that my only night under canvas in 2020 was spent huddled in a blanket on a plastic chair in the marquee at the Dragon Rally after Storm Blowy Bastard (or Ciara as I believe it was called by weather forecasting types) wrecked my tent and most of the kit in it. Jeez, I must have it bad if I’m looking back at that with something approaching fondness…

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all of those who put on bike nights throughout 2020, for providing what was for many of us I suspect a lifeline – somewhere to go to be around our own, and stop us from going (any more) crazy. My local ones, Old Buckenham and Stonham Barns, did provide me and many others with enough of our biking fix to stop us going completely cold turkey, and for that I’m eternally grateful.

Thanks ladies an’ gents, see you at them again in a few months!

So what’s 2021 looking to be? Well, the news that there will be vaccines for all that want them’s provided a bit of a spark, and in the last week or so (I’m writing this on 15th Dec… yep, I am a voice from the past, spooky eh?) I’ve seen a flurry of event ads appearing as folk try to give this year a little more normality, and that’s encouraging. As I’ve said before, I’d like to go to Faro this year, as it’s their 40th, and I’m hoping to have the Katana and my Harris Magnum on the road come Spring so it’d be nice to have somewhere to take them to, y’know? Oh, and to actually ride the 45 to a show too. I’d also like to try and get the series of BSH custom shows that I had planned for last year held this… and, well, just try and get back to as close to ‘normal’ as it’s possible to.

Not having to keep saying ‘what?’ and ‘sorry?’ because you haven’t quite caught what someone’s saying through their voicemuffling mask’d be nice too...

So, I know it’s barely January, and bike events, in the main, don’t start until April, and we still have cold, blowy, and occasionally snowy February and March to get through yet, but there is now, it seems, light at the end of the tunnel… and it isn’t, as it seems to’ve been throughout 2020, Darth Vader’s feckin’ lightsabre for a change!** Ahh, bless, Nik when he was 16 on his ‘ped

HAPPY NEW YEAR (GIVE OR TAKE A FEW DAYS, DEPENDING ON WHETHER YOU’RE READING THIS ON SUBSCRIPTION OR FROM A SHOP)!

PART 2 LAST ISSUE WE SHOWED YOU THE FIRST BATCH OF PICS FROM WAY BACK WHEN SENT IN BY Mr DAVID BATCHELAR ESQUIRE OF P&D CUSTOM BIKES (01403 791038 OR FACEBOOK), CUSTOM BIKE BUILDER EXTRAORDINAIRE AND ALL ROUND GOOD EGG. This, then, is the second lot. Once again they’re just old pics from his collection and so, once again, there’s no overwhelming reason behind their taking – they were just machines he liked, so he took pictures of them, y’know?

FEBRUARY 2021

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FEBRUARY 2021

NEXT MUNF: THE LAST FEW (BOO!) 10

FEBRUARY 202 21

THERE’S LITTLE DOUBT THAT 2020 DIDN’T REALLY TURN OUT THE WAY THAT ANY OF US EXPECTED, OR HOPED, IT WOULD. MIND YOU, I DID WONDER IF THE GLOBAL PANDEMIC MIGHT’VE INFLUENCED BIKE BUILDERS IN A MORE VISIBLE WAY THAN IT SEEMS TO HAVE, AND EXPECTED A RESURGENCE IN THE BUILDING OF ‘SURVIVAL BIKES’.

WORDS & PICS: DAVE MANNING

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#48

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Forty-eight Autumn 2018

OCTOBER 2018

No. 330 October 2018 £4.30 UK Off-sale date 31/10/2018

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