Back Street Heroes - October 2020

ISSUE 438

OCTOBER 2020

£4.40

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12: BSH VIRTUAL CUSTOM BIKE CH HAMPS, ROUND 3 – THE WINNERS OF THE E THIRD ROUND OF F OUR VIRTUAL BIKE SHO OW 18: SPORTSTER TRIKE – NO, IT IS A SPORT TSTER… I KNOW IT DOESN N’T LOOK LIKE ONE, BUT IT IS, HONEST! 22: WIDE-FRONT FJ1200 – GET IN YOUR TIME MACHINE AND GO BACK TO THE EIGHTIES/ NINETIES 26: GS550 SUZOOK – COOL BUDGET CHOP FROM THAT LONDON

38: EVO ‘ARLEY – CLASSIC-LOOKING BOBBER 44: LONG-FORK SPORTY – LONG, LOW, AND PERFECTLY SCULPTED 54: GLOUCS/HEREFORD RUN – A GATHERING OF THE CLAN IN THE WEST COUNTRY

30: Z750 KWAK – NOT ALL JAPANESE PARALLEL TWINS ARE XS650S…

60: 400 SUPER DREAM – PROOF THAT YOU CAN CREATE A GROOVY CUSTOM OUT OF ANYTHING!

34: BANDIT 1200 CHOP THE IDEAL CUSTOM FOR THE NATION’S CAPITAL?

64: 1983 ARTICLE – THE FIRST TIME BSH MET THE NCC!

74: MR BRIDGES THE GURU IMPARTS MORE OF HIS KNOWLEDGE OF MECHANICS 6: NEWS ALL THAT’S NEW AND HAPPENING IN THE CUSTOM BIKE WORLD 8: PRODUCTS LOADS OF GOOD STUFF FOR YOU TO SPEND YOUR HARD-EARNED ON 10: LETTERS SOUND OFF, ONE, TWO, SOUND OFF, THREE, FOUR! 50: CENTRE SPREAD AN ARTISTIC POSTER FOR YOU TO PUT ON YER WALL 52: SUBSCRIBE TO BSH SEE HERE FOR THE BEST SUBSCRIPTION OFFERS 70: LONG-TERMER ACTUALLY GETTING OUT AND RIDING IT!

78: JIM FOGG FICTION THINK YOU’RE HAVING A BAD DAY? 83: READERS’ LIVES YOUR PICS, OUR CAPTIONS… YEAH, SORRY ABOUT THAT 90: MAG NEWS OUR REGULAR COLUMN

BY THE MAG CHAIRNON GENDERSPECIFIC PERSON 96: SMALLS SELL YOUR BIKE HERE FOR FREE! 97: NEXT MONTH JUST TO WHET YOUR APPETITE… 98: RICK HULSE THE MUSINGS OF ONE OF THE MOST ELOQUENT THINKERS IN BIKERDOM

PIC: IAN EVANS

Unless… no, actually, I can’t think of a reason, given that there’s an NCC logo on the bike tank on the cover, along with the words ‘National Chopper Club issue’, that you might be surprised that this issue, the fourhundred-and-thirty-eighth since we started way back in 1983, is dedicated to the guys who are probably the folk most devoted to custom bikes in this Sceptred Isle.

The Chopper Club, as I’m sure you know, was formed back in 1973 and, nearly fifty years later, has expanded from being just an English thing to taking over Europe, too – they now have a presence in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Belgium, Eire, Holland, Germany, Norway and Macedonia (in the very end of south-eastern Europe, right down by Greece… I had to look it up, too), as well as in most counties in England (45 out of the 48 there are!).

They’re good guys, too. I’ve been to a fair few Club events over the years, including their amazing 40th anniversary bash that totally blew my mind, and I’m proud to say that my bikes’ve picked up trophies at a few, too – to win a pot at an NCC event, as I’ve long said, is a real achievement because not only do these guys build and run some top-class customs, the chaps who do the judging also really know what they’re looking at, and have very high standards.

In this issue we have eight Club bikes, and one event from last year that really shows the quality of the bikes you see at one of their runs; the bikes featured perhaps aren’t quite as bling as you might expect, not as out-and-out chromed/ polished/painted/preened over as some, but there’s a reason for that – Club bikes, as has been said many times during BSH’s involvement with the Club, are built to ride, and to be ridden.

They rack up the miles each and every Bank Holiday, and so

EDITOR:

NIK SAMSON

GROUP ADVERTISING MANAGER:

their machines have to be capable of dealing with long, fast days racking up hundreds of miles at a time on a run – just looking pretty doesn’t cut it, y’know. Not one of them you’ll see here doesn’t deserve its place in the mag though, and not one of them’d be ignored in a pub car park, and the fact that they look as cool as hell, and’re capable of doing the distance when needed, well… isn’t that what it’s all about when it comes down to it? ✱✱✱✱✱✱✱✱✱✱✱✱✱✱✱

Speaking of doing the miles, you can’t’ve failed to notice that, slowly but inexorably, bike events’re starting to come back. Round my way they are, it has to be said, mostly just bike nights, and the odd one-day custom show, no rallies as of yet, but at the time of writing (two weeks before the weekend that the Yorkshire Pudding’s due to be held), the Farmyard Party’s still looking as though it’s on, and there are a couple of other ‘old school camping’ bashes still going ahead, too.

If you’re thinking of going to one, then don’t let me stop you, but just a word of warning that you can listen to or ignore at your own choice – if you have any underlying health conditions (heart problems, COPD, diabetes, etc.) then it might be worth having a rethink. According to the latest thinking, these conditions do put sufferers in a more vulnerable position, and so going to somewhere that has a marquee, alcohol and loud music, where people’re packed in closer together, and have to shout to be heard, means that the chances of transmission, heaven forbid, are higher.

Like I said, don’t let the words of some dreadlocked scruff who writes arse in bike mags stop you doing what you want to do, but be careful, eh! There aren’t as many of us out there these days as there once were, and it’d be a pisser if this bastard virus reduced our numbers still further. Me, I’m good with going to one-dayers, or bike nights, events that’re held outside, but I suspect that my next rally’s going to be well into the Spring of next year. I mean, I’m dying to go to a rally, but I’d rather not die because I went to one, y’know?

FREELANCE CONTRIBUTORS:

TONY SMITH, SIMON EVERETT, CIRCULATION MANAGER: 07884 052003 JIMY (NCC LONDON), STEVE O’HARA STAFF WRITER: DEL HICKEY, JOE (NCC MARKETING MANAGER: DAVE MANNING dave@backstreetheroes.com CHARLOTTE PARK STAFFS), JIM ORD, PUBLISHING DIRECTOR: DESIGN: LIAM (NCC KERNOW), DAN SAVAGE GARETH WILLIAMS TIM BEAUMONT FROM COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR: PUBLISHER: YEARS AGO, TIM HARTLEY NIGEL HOLE MR BRIDGES, DIVISIONAL AD MANAGER: THE LATE JIM FOGG BILLIE MANNING RIP, LOUISE LIMB, bmanning@mortons.co.uk SELINA LAVENDER, OFFICE HOURS: 9-5PM 01507 529414 RICK HULSE OUT OF HOURS: 07775 753966 nik@backstreetheroes.com

SUE KEILY

NIK

EDITORIAL ADDRESS:

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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 2020 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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AFTER MESSING ABOUT WITH MOTORCYCLES FOR AS LONG AS I CAN REMEMBER, I DECIDED IT WAS TIME TO ADD LOADS OF STRESS TO MY LIFE BY BUILDING MY OWN SO, ARMED WITH A DISC-CUTTER, A LARGE HAMMER, AND A LITTLE KNOWLEDGE, THE PROJECT BEGAN….

WORDS: JIMY, NCC LONDON PICS:: SIMON EVERETT

ooking back on it, I really should’ve bought a donor bike, and used that as a base, but I didn’t… hence the saying, y g ‘We live and learn’. I found an old hardtail frame for sale on a popular auction site for just forty quid, but it really wasn’t great – the chap I got it from’d left it outside for years, and it’d been covered in some form of hard-coated plastic at some point in its life. It was pretty nasty, and the gentleman didn’t have a clue who’d built it originally or for what engine it was for – all he knew was that it was from back in the 1970s (and it was only £40!). I wasn’t really too worried as I was confident I could make this battered mess into some form of motorcycle.

L

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