Back Street Heroes December 2017

ISSUE 404 DEC 2017 £4.10

HELLO, AND WELCOME TO THIS, THE LATEST EDITION OF BACK STREET HEROES!

editor:

NIK SAMSON

nik@backstreetheroes.com 07884 052003 design:

GARETH WILLIAMS publisher:

TIM HARTLEY advertising contact:

RICK NICHOLS

rnichols@mortons.co.uk 01507 529357 divisional ad manager:

BILLY MANNING

bmanning@mortons.co.uk subscription manager:

PAUL DEACON circulation manager:

STEVE O’HARA marketing manager:

CHARLOTTE PARK publishing director:

DAN SAVAGE

commercial director:

NIGEL HOLE

freelance contributors: ROY & DAVE, SIMON EVERETT, FAZERDAZE, LOUISE LIMB, GARRY STUART, MR BRIDGES, SELINA LAVENDER, RICK HULSE, CHARLEY CHARLES, FAGIN, NICKI DOUGLAS-LEE editorial address:

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ou will have noticed (or at least I hope you will have noticed) that one of the cover lines on the front of this issue says ‘Custom 125s’? If you turn to page 38 of this august (august? It’s November!) tome, you will indeed see a feature on a whole ruck of 125cc and below custom bikes that you lot out there have either built yourselves or for your kids.

We actually had so many people send in pics of their bikes when we put a request for them in the mag and on the BSH Facebook group that we couldn’t actually get them all in so, if you sent in a photo of your build and it doesn’t appear here, then don’t fret – I’ll get them in the mag in a forthcoming issue. Those who do, thanks for sending them in – it was a real pleasure seeing all the different takes on the custom world that you lot’ve come up with. It was also very reassuring to see that there are that many young folk (gawd, I sound old!) out there who are as into custom biking as us old fu… sorry, sorry, farts.

And as well as the ones who’ve had it happen to them, I’ve also heard young riders who’ve never been to a rally talking among themselves, saying that they’re not going to go to them because they’ve heard, and seen in magazines and on the internet, what gets done to you when you do.

That’s not a great thing either.

Now I’m aware that there will be a lot of people out there, age-hardened hard-core bikers, who will just dismiss this, saying something along the lines of “what a load of bollocks, I was a rally virgin years ago and it didn’t put me off”, but I think that people of our generation and the young folk of today have two very different mentalities. Most of us oldies grew up in the days of full employment and we left school and went off to work, many of us already having had jobs before we left school. We started off needing a bike to get to work or college/uni’ And that, and the fact that I’ve been to a fair few rallies because, back then, bikes were still cheap, working that seem to take a particular, almost spiteful, glee in man’s transport and, as such, they were looked utterly humiliating young people at their first events, down on by polite society. This kind o’ appealed to has got me thinking. Instead of covering ‘rally virgins’ in our teenage need for rebellion, and we took it as substances so stinking and unpleasant that they seriously a kind of a badge of honour that we were different have second thoughts at ever turning up at another one, from the ‘straights’. We met other young ’uns with shouldn’t we be doing something to welcome them? bikes and became mates with them through shared Yes, I’m aware that the tradition of ‘rally virgins’ is experiences, and there were still proper bikers’ pubs an ancient biker one and, indeed, I myself got done back then, places where a young and rebellious many years ago at the MAGna Carta the year it was teenager with a ’ped could go and hang out with ‘real held just outside Stretham in Cambridgeshire (anyone bikers’. We went along, and we found kindred souls, remember that?). I had a rope tied around me feet and for a lot of us that’s how we took our first steps and was towed around a particularly muddy rally field on to the steep and slippery slope that’s led us to behind a Z1100, covering me from head to toe in mud, being the proud and scruffy ’erberts we are today. but somehow that doesn’t seem anywhere near as These days, though, the world is a different place. bad as the shite (not literally, one hopes) that seems Many young people can’t afford to go to university to get dumped over the heads of rally virgins these since the imposition of fees, and high levels of days. Now you may be thinking “bugger off, Samson, unemployment among the young means that a lot it’s all good clean fun… well, okay, maybe not clean, are really struggling to get jobs. Without jobs, and but…”, and, yes, a lot of the participants do treat it therefore money, they can’t afford bikes in the same like that, but not all of them… number as us lot did back in the day (and if they can, Because these days I generally end up covering two they’re often cheap plastic scooters that don’t engender events a weekend, I have to stay sober at rallies carrying on to ride bigger bikes), and biker pubs, proper (boo!) and so I tend to hear things that other folk biker pubs, have gone the way of the dinosaur, the dodo who are there to party like it’s… well, 2017 really and Watney’s Red Barrel. Teenagers no longer seem to perhaps don’t. And what I’ve heard time after look forward to moving out and getting their own places time after time, among young riders, is something and, thanks to the advent of technology and social media, along the lines of “expletive deleted, I’m not doing don’t need to leave their parents’ houses to converse with this again”. Teenagers, as anyone who has one or their friends. They’re not getting the same experiences of more of these strange and fey creatures knows, life, and they seem to be a lot more fragile, both mentally are notoriously self-conscious, deeply concerned and physically, than we were back in the day. about what other people, especially in their So, just a suggestion; given that the number of ‘hairy’ peer group, think of them. For every one who’s bikers (i.e. us lot) are dropping year on year as injury or confident and outgoing there are ten who are the tall, cowled bloke with the scythe takes us off the quiet and unsure of themselves, and I’m not sure road, shouldn’t we be doing things to encourage young that almost drowning them in semi-solid liquids folk over to our dark side, not things that actively drive that smell so bad they make you retch from 100 them away? yards away is necessarily the correct way to introduce them to our lifestyle.

NIK

Di t ib ti b Distribution

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by Willi William Gibb Gibbons and d SSons, W Wolverhampton. l h t ISSN: 02679841. BSH is copyright to Mortons Media Ltd 2017 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 £40.00, 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.

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DECEMBER 2017

16 22

S&S COVER BIKE

90% motorcycle, 10% lawnmower

ROCK & BLUES OLD SCHOOL WEEKENDER

eee, it were a bit damp this year!

28 34

W650 CAFE RACER

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ASSEMBLY CHOPPER SHOW

68 74 80

CUSTOM 125s

you don’t have to have a big engine to have a custom!

WIKINGS

no, we haven’t spelt ‘Vikings’ wrong…

6 OPENFACED

EXILE PURE SEX DRAGSTER (pictured)

8 PRODUCTS

one of the most glorious bikes in the land!

out-Britting the Brit bikes…

the new-school chopper culture comes to That London

38

46

XS650 STREETTRACKER

loads of good stuff for you to spend your hard-earned on

12 SUBSCRIBE TO BSH

see here for the best subscription offers

steampunk meets sideways

14 LETTERS

BONNIE CHOP

58 CENTRESPREAD

all the way from America…

WORLD’S LARGEST FEMALE BIKE MEET

a record-breaking gathering!

82

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

CALNE BIKE MEET another of those cracking events that no one’s ever heard of!

sound off, one, two, sound off three, four!

Louise Limb’s latest artistic offering

62 (ALMOST) A ROADTEST

the new 2018 H-D Breakout and Heritage Classic

84 XSR EVOLUTION what it’s like to live with a custom bike long-term

86 PROJECT BUILD part nine of our new project bike build

90 MR BRIDGES’ MOTORCYCLE DIARIES

wheel swaps and how to do them

94 MAG NEWS

our regular column by the MAG chairnongenderspecificperson

96 EVENTS

the fullest listings of the best summer rallies, shows and parties anywhere!

100 READERS’ LIVES your pictures and our silly captions... yeah, sorry about that

104 SMALLS

sell your bike here for free

114 RICK HULSE

the musings of one of the most eloquent thinkers in bikerdom!

DECEMBER 2017

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With less than three weeks to go until Motorcycle Live, the UK’s biggest bike show at the NEC, Birmingham from 18-26th November, we can announce that the line-up for the BSH Custom Xtreme stand is an absolute cracker!

We will have (deep breath) Mooster’s two mega rats Genocide and Fugly, Burtz’ Bonneville bobber (issue 401), Outlaw Customs’ shotgun-framed Harley (yes, really), APE 7/11’s incredible Vincent cafe racer, the BSH project bike that Mr Bridges has been building in his project articles, Destiny Cycles’ stunning Gold Rush, pictured below (that you can see in the mag next month), Grub’s BSH Build-Off bike (issue 402), Shaun Barley’s new Brightona-winning cafe racer, and a stonking little bobber from Sledhead Bobbers.

As well as that there will be the five winners of the BSH Bike Building Champs, and the lovely little Herald 250 that we built last year and Herald donated to the NABD (National Association of Bikers with a Disability) which is being raffled off to raise money for the charity – tickets cost just £1 and you can buy them at the show.

Advance tickets cost just £19.50 adults (£12 seniors, £1 for 11-16 year olds, FREE for children aged ten and under), or there’s also a £25 advance ticket, which includes entry to the show and a Spada bag worth £29.99. And visitors who buy on-site car parking in advance will receive a voucher for half-price admission to the National Motorcycle Museum, which is adjacent to the NEC. To book call 0844 581 2345 or visit www.motorcyclelive.co.uk.

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DECEMBER 2017

September marked the 45th anniversary of Norman Hyde’s World Sidecar Land Speed Record – a record that remained unbeaten for more than 30 years.

It was on 24th September 1972 that Hyde, the Warwickshire Wizard, drove his home-built Roadrunner III outfit to an average speed of 161.8mph at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire.

“It was deafeningly noisy inside the aluminium body, and without ventilation it was incredibly hot too, and very jittery – the front wheel lifted at 170mph. It was all untested at those speeds,” he recalls.

Roadrunner III was added to the National Motorcycle Museum’s

collection in the 1980s, but was one of the 380 machines that were severely damaged when fire tore through the building in September 2003. Painstakingly restored by John Woodward, whose late brother Don made the original bodywork by hand, Roadrunner III was returned to the Motorcycle Museum in November 2013.

Norman remains a committed motorcyclist – he recently took delivery of a new 1200cc Triumph Bonneville T120 – and the company that bears his name continues to supply performance and styling products for Triumph motorcycles. Visit www. normanhyde.co.uk for details.

WEMOTO CHARITY T-SHIRT Buy a 2017 Jurby T-shirt, Today We Do The Ton, and help support the Manx Grand Prix Supporters’ Club injured riders and helicopter fund.

Over the past two years, Wemoto has raised more than £26,000 for them through the sale of its Festival of Jurby T-shirts.

This year marks the 60th anniversary of Bob McIntyre becoming the first person ever to lap the 37.73-mile Mountain Course on the Isle of Man at more than 100mph, and this year’s T-shirt design celebrates his achievement.

All profits raised from the sale of the T-shirts go to the MGP Supporters’ Club, a charity that helps to fund the MGP’s life-saving helicopter ambulances on practice and race days during the Manx Grand Prix. The charity also supports injured MGP riders and their families, as well as donating funds to help with

medical equipment such as new stretchers and a new ambulance which will support all motorsports on the island.

They’re endorsed by Guy Martin, Jamie Whitham, ‘Fast’ Freddie Spencer and John McGuinness and others, and are available to buy for just £10 at wemoto.com

ISLE OF MAN MOTOR MUSEUM

The Isle of Man Motor Museum has announced that an Isle of Man TT Races Museum will be opening within the Isle of Man Motor Museum in Jurby in time for TT 2018.

As part of this new museum, the team

will be creating a ‘Wall of Bikes’ that will illustrate the TT’s inextricable links to the development and growth of the motorcycle industry in its 110-year history, from the early British marques to the later dominance of the Japanese manufacturers.

The initiative will increase the number of bikes on display in the museum to more than 400 machines, and there will be an original version of the iconic Glencrutchery Road start line gantry, which will give visitors a unique photo opportunity.

For more info check out the museum’s website at www.isleof manmotormuseum.com

The new Triumph Bonneville Speedmaster, the latest addition to the Bonneville range, is for all intents and purposes a Bobber with two seats, and is something that a lot of folk have been waiting for ever since the launch of the original single-seat Bobber last year.

The new Speedmaster has all the Bobber’s attitude and style, the same hardtail-style rear suspension, the same stripped down, laid-back attitude, but it allows you to now take a pillion with you on your adventures.

It runs the same 1200cc HT (High Torque) engine with 106Nm at 4,000rpm of torque and 77PS at 6,100rpm power, the same distinctive rich and raw exhaust

BONNEVILLE BOBBER BLACK

Following the overwhelming success of the Triumph Bonneville Bobber – the fastestselling motorcycle in Triumph’s 115year history – the company has taken the model to new heights for the 2018 model year, with the darker, meaner and stronger Bonneville Bobber Black.

The new bike is a blacked-out Bobber with new fat 16-inch front wheel, chunkier, higher-spec 47mm front forks, a higher-

specification full LED headlight with distinctive daytime running light, single button cruise control, and blacked-out style, detailing and finish across the whole bike. The rest is the same high-quality 1200cc Bonnie Bobber that we’ve come to know and love.

At the time of writing no price has been announced, but you can get more info from your local Triumph dealer or www.triumphmotorcycles.co.uk

note, the same state-of-the-art, ride-by-wire throttle with two riding modes (Road and Rain), the same latest generation ABS and switchable traction control, the same torque assist clutch and single-button cruise control.

Designed to be customised, there are two ‘inspiration kits’ and more than 130 custom accessories. The Highway kit includes a full soft luggage pannier set, and the Maverick kit goes for a stripped back, mean attitude, and includes a single seat and raked-out ’bars.

For more info go to your local Triumph dealer or www. triumphmotorcycles.co.uk

dguard is the world’s first aftermarket emergency eCall system for motorcycles.

It’s suitable for all types of motorcycle with ignition and 12v electrics, and can be exclusively fitted via an authorised installer.

The handlebar-mounted SOS button allows the rider to manually trigger a call as a first responder, although the system automatically tracks the motorcycle via an integral GPS/GSM SIM and a user-friendly mobile phone app too. And, should the bike be involved in a theft, the unit will immediately alert the rider via a text message and provide ‘live’ updates as to the exact whereabouts of the motorcycle.

Available from a nationwide authorised dealer and mobile installer network, dguard is now available for £499 from authorised dealers (plus fitting), and comes complete with 24 months of SIM subscription, and comprises a module, a sensor, SOS button and an app for the configuration of the system. Go to www.bikeittrade.com/dguard/ dguard for more info.

DECEMBER 2017

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The new Crusher Revolt Air Cleaner is styled like old-school velocity stack intakes, but features the added security of an integrated stainless steel mesh insert and high-flow washable/reusable K&N filter to eliminate debris or moisture from entering the throttle body. Constructed from quality A380 aluminium, they’re available in chrome or satin black, and are available for HarleyDavidson Twin Cam and Evo Dyna, Softail and Touring models, as well as

Frank Melling is the one motorcycling journalist who has every T-shirt in the biking world. From riding the latest retro bikes to throwing a leg over the legendary eightcylinder Moto Guzzi GP racer or being there the day the gates were closed at BSA, he has always had a knack of being at the very centre of the action.

Now he’s telling those tales, and many more, in 17 beautifully illustrated chapters running to 132 A4 pages. It’s a publication you just won’t want to put down.

Ride of My Life is on sale at www. classicmagazines.co.uk, WH Smiths and other national retailers, and retails at £7.99.

BILTWELL HEADGEAR Show your allegiance to one of the coolest brands about with this new range of headgear from Biltwell.

Choose from the Script 2, Swingarm or Patrol truckerr cap, or the Camper (olive), Shield (black) or Patch (orange) beanies.

Get yours from anywhere that stocks the Custom Chrome Europe range – check out www.customchrome-europe.com to find your closest retailer.

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DECEMBER 2017 2

XL Sportsters. They’re also available for custom applications too.

Prices start at £237 from anywhere that sells the MAG Europe range or www.mag europe.eu

The new catalogue from ubercool clothing company Icon is out now. Crammed full of some of the best looking, best made and coolest bike clothing on the market, it features Icon’s huge range of helmets, jackets, trousers, gloves, boots, protective armour and casual gear that’s tried and tested by some of the hardest-riding testers on the planet.

Get yours from anywhere that stocks the Icon range – check out www.partseurope.eu to find your closest l t stockist. t ki

CARPENTERS WOODEN HANDLEBAR GRIPS These universal handlebar grips are made from naturally dried wood, are available in eight different designs, and will make your bike really stand apart.

They’re sold in sets for left and right (throttle sleeves must be ordered separately), and you can get them from anywhere that stocks the Zodiac range – got to www. zodiac.nl to find your nearest dealer.

This narrowed and tapered version of Zodiac’s popular Legacy fuel tank is a peanut with an attitude, and they fit 1983-2003 and 2004-2006 H-D Sportster (also available for custom applications with no mounts fitted and three-piece weld-on mounting bracket and bushing kits).

They’re nine inches (23cm) wide in the front and only 3.5 inches (9cm) wide in the rear, and hold approximately ten litres. They take stock style screw-in gas caps, and to add a real classic look, there are rubber kneepads available too.

They come with a two-year warranty, and you can get them from anywhere that stocks the Zodiac range – go to www.zodiac.nl to find your nearest dealer.

BURLY RLY FOOTPEG EGS

These ve ery clever, electronically switchable exhausts for Harley-Davidson’s Night Rod are available in a range of styles to suit your persona al taste, but all offer reduced (or

increased, depending which way you look at it) exhaust noise at the push of a handlebar-mounted button – ideal for those who live in busy, built-up areas who don’t want to piss off their neighbours (or areas with over-zealous coppers).

Get more info, and a list of UK stockists, from www.jekillandhyde.com

These new footpegs by Burly fit most H-D clevis mounts, and are made in 6061 T6 aluminium. They come in three styles; Razorbacks (in black), Havo oc (silver or black), and Stash (silver or black), and you can get them from anywhere that stocks the Custom Chrome Europe range – check out www. custom-chromeeurope.com to find your closestt retailer.

WATSONIAN FLIGHT SIDECAR R

Designed to suit contemporary motorcycles, the Flight is a single-seat sports sidecar with clean modern lines, a 15-inch alloy wheel and advanced suspension. The fibreglass body shell has a durable and low-maintenance polished gelcoat finish, and there’s a fully upholstered seat, a wide acrylic screen, and generous legroom and luggage space behind the seat. Indicators, front marker light and tail-light are all maintenance-free LEDs, and Watsonian developed a totally new chassis for the Flight, fabricated from powdercoated fully welded steel, with a hydraulic shock absorber mounted on a transverse swinging arm and braced by a torsion bar, with rose joint linkage.

Made in Watsonian’s factory in the Cotswolds, prices for the Flight start at £5,195, and you can get more information from 01386 700907 or www.watsonian-squire.com

DECEMBER 2017

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Goodridge have recently launched a new range of braided brake line kits suitable for motorcycles with ABS. Advantages include greater braking efficiency, elimination of sponginess under heavy braking, added reliability, greater resistance to abrasion and corrosion, added aesthetics (choice of 14 colours) and of course the renowned Goodridge Life Time Guarantee for as long as you own the motorcycle.

The new range currently caters for more than 60 models, and front and rear line kits can be purchased separately.

Check out www.goodridge.co.uk for more information.

New from Draggin, these Revz jeans are made from a smooth, stretch light blue denim that moulds to the rider’s shape over time, creating a distinctive distressed look, tailored to the individual.

With a slim leg and low-rise waistband at the front that’s higher at the rear for protection, Revz feature a silicone coating that allows them to ‘wear in’ over time to create distinctive curves and creases unique to the rider, and the stretch properties allow them to be worn either outside or inside boots. There are no visible panels or external seams, a soft sports liner draws perspiration away from the skin to the breathable outer layer, and the Roomoto MR7+ fabric makes them among the most protective motorcycle jeans on the market. CE-approved armour can easily be fitted to the knees and hips for additional impact protection too, if required.

Revz jeans are available now in a full range of men’s sizes,, and cost £219.99 £219 99 ffrom Th Key Collection at The www.thekey collection. co.uk

Engineered to fuel your room, Wallsauce.com create high-quality, made-to-measure wall murals for interior spaces. They have access to a huge range of images or you can upload your own image and transform

BULL-IT ENVY Y LEGGINGS These ladies Envy leggings are armoured with Covec’s all-new Webtech liner, r, an and have high abrasive protection ection. They’re Th jet-b black leggingss with a four-way f stretch outer for optimal o comfort on and off the bike, reinfo orced stretch h knee panels with pockets forr optional armour, and black high-vis reflective side sea ams.

Available in thrree leg lengths (short, re egular and a long), and in size es 4-22 2, they cost £149.99 fro om anywhere that stoccks the Bull-It ran nge – check out w www w. oxfordprod du ucts. com for yo ou ur nearest pllace. l

OXFORD HARDY WAX JACKET ut wax cotton This new shor t-c microjacket has a fixed ing and lin le mesh breathab shable wa d an le a removab n, te wa r repellent thermal liner, is e s ld in the shou er and has armour or rio te ex ul usef and elbows, two s, et ck po r pockets, interio dge patch, a removable ba d cuffs and properly secure

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collar, and a storm flap to keep the weather out.

Available in a choice of black or olive, it costs £189.99 from anywhere that stocks the Oxford Products range – check out www. oxfordproducts.com for your nearest place.

DECEMBER 2017

your photo or artwork into your very own wallpaper.

All wall murals are available for order on to a selection of wallpapers including paste-the-wall and peel and stick (great for rented accommodation), and installation is as simple as wallpapering as all murals are supplied in p panels.

Prices star t from ass little as £26/ m², and you can get more info from their website at www. wallsauce. com

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