Back Street Heroes July 2016

ISSUE 387 JULY 2016 £3.99

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COVER BIKE

new wave old-skool Triumph

20 INK & IRON

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ROUTE 66

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SPORTSTER BOBBER

into California and journey’s end!

low, lean, mean and dirty!

where they all speak loike that, yow know…

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V12 TRIKE (pictured)

SCRAMBLER

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KICKBACK

22 HARLEY STREET not all show and no go!

28 TRIUMPH

BONNIE CHOP

and the award for the coolest photos this issue goes to…

the first of the three gatherings this year

a tale of love at first sight

30 REVOLUTION

the new cool show in Hastings

36 GSX-R

fast-arsed and fookin’ quick!

42 BUM IN THE MUD even rain didn’t stop play!

50 INTO T’VALLEY well, it is a Yorkshire event, isn’t it?

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ET TO G ITAL IG IMPLY D E TH APP, S ACK R ‘B HE IONS EDIT RCH FO ES’ IN T AD A SE T HERO E FOR IP Y OR EE STR APP ST GLE PLA O E L O APP R ON G NDROID OK PAGE A O FOR BSH FACEERBOOES) P U HE E ET H GRO UT T R OOKOES – C K O K ST CEB CHE (BAC H FAEET HER UP S B TR TH E GRO ANDT BACK SFFICIAL A O THE

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SO WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT STREET SCRAMBLERS THEN? NOT MUCH? OKAY, I SHALL ENLIGHTEN YOU – READ CAREFULLY, THERE’LL BE A TEST LATER.

words & pics: NIK

T

he scrambler’s roots lie back in the late 1920s, in the form of point-topoint races that favoured speed over rules. Competitors had to race from point A to point B in the shortest time possible to win, conquering whatever terrain was in their way to shave off precious

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seconds. Now because this was in the days before mass-produced dirt bikes, riders would have to convert their everyday road bikes into grass-tearing, hill-blasting beasts that could handle themselves on any surface – the rougher the better.

Before long these ‘scramble’ races, as they became called, developed into different disciplines; trials, what we now

call motocross but was for years known as ‘scrambling’, and in the US, desert racing. By the mid 1960s manufacturers started to offer purposedesigned machines more closely resembling the dirt bikes we see today, and the original concept of the scrambler faded into the background.

That was until recently anyway. A few years back, someone resurrected the idea and folk began to off-roaderise (yes, I did just make that word up) modern roads bikes, mostly singles, parallel twins and, of course, vee-twins. Yes, I know some damn fools have done fours and even sixes too, but we’ll ignore those for the moment, okay?

As what generally characterises a scrambler is the adaptation of a road bike into an allterrain ride, to make them capable (if only theoretically) of crossing a stream to climbing a muddy hill, it’s important that they should be as light, as powerful, and as reliable as possible. That means that, in an ideal world, they should have a higher-mounted exhaust for extra ground clearance, a shorter, padded seat, lowdown torque rather than top-end power, a certain visual simplicity, lighter components, smaller fuel tanks, smaller gauges and tucked-in lights, and of course, chunky off-road tyres with spoked wheels (although that’s not quite so essential these days).

And it’s important to remember if you’re building one that, visually, the goal is to make the bike appear as though all unnecessary components’ve been removed to make the bikes lighter and faster across the rough stuff. And, interestingly, as you’ll often see when stripping a bike down, is that the more minimal it gets, the more aesthetically pleasing it becomes – which is kinda the whole point of building a custom bike in the first place, isn’t it?

When Danny and Mark at Fastec Custom Racing in Newmarket in Suffolk decided to build another bike to showcase their products and services, and complement their GS750 cafe racer (as featured in the cafe racer JULY 2016 BACK STREET HEROES

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ARCEY IK os: N phot

words: M

THE FIRST TIME I SAW THIS BIKE OUTSIDE THE BEDS NCC CLU HOUSE, I SAID TO PORKY, THE BUILDER: “ONE DAY THAT BIKE WILL BE MINE.” OH HOW WE LAUGHED, BUT I WAS SERIOUS – EVERYTHING ABOUT IT WAS ME AND WHAT I WANTED.

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rom that point on, every time we saw each other, I’d ask if he was looking after my bike. Then, two years ago, Porky asked if I’d like to have a go on it, just across the field. “Hell yeah,” I thought, so on I get and give it a handful across the field. Note to self: wear a better bra.

Then at the Somerset run last year came the best question: “Do you want to buy the

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Triumph?” Oh my days! See, I knew it would be mine! After a chat, and a ding-dong ride around Norway, we (me and Andy) went to Porky’s to take it for a proper test ride. Talk about grin factor 10! It was love at first sight!

I was a bit wobbly at first, as I wasn’t used to hardtails, but soon got the hang of it and, after going for a meal, hands were shaken and the bike was mine.

SPEC:

BODYWORK:

I picked it up the following ENGINE: week, and no 2007 Triumph sooner had I T100 Bonneville stopped at a Scrambler, K&N air-filters on garage to put velocity stacks, fuel in, but Stage 3 Dynojet a lady came kit, modified fuelup to tell injected Triumph Bonneville headers ELECTRICS: me she’s a Modified stock & exhausts beauty. Yeah, loom, stock FRAME: 2007 headlight, Sparto and she’s tail-light, bullet Triumph T100 mine! Mind mini indicators Bonneville you, the love Scrambler, affair did hit hardtailed by Woolf, PAINT: Retro ‘70s blue & white with stock foot-rests & a rocky patch pin-stripe by Ted controls when I hit a NCC Ribble Valley FRONT END: mahooosive Stock wheel/brakes/ POWDER bump COATING: Triple forks (shortened by S Coatings, Bingley coming off 1.5”)/yokes/’bars the M25 at (widened 2”)/ ENGINEERING: switchgear/clocks, Chorleywood Nige Bamber, D&N one-off ignition Engineering – the first of housing, Goodridge many! braided brake lines, THANKS TO: Porky, NCC unknown brake In the Honorary Member master-cylinder future I for selling me sourced by Nige might look the bike; Nige Bamber Bamber at D&N at changing REAR END: Engineering; the stock Plasma cut struts Will Burrows Triumph

by Nige Bamber, at Will Burrows stock wheel/brake, wheels to Motorcycles; Ted one-off chain guard NCC Ribble Valley; Talon spoked with incorporated Triple S Coatings; & tubeless rims Andy…” engine breather with black hubs and rims finished with stainless spokes, but apart from that I’m just going to ride it and ride it and ride it.

I love it, absolutely love it, and it’s mine!

Stock front mudguard/tank (mounts modified to sit lower), solo leather seat with mountain bike shocks fitted with Porsche 911 valve springs, repro’ ribbed rear mudguard, oneoff battery & electrics boxes

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I DON’T KNOW IF SIR MIX-A-LOT IS A FAN OF FAT-WHEELED CHOPPERS, BUT MATT BURBERRY, THE OWNER OF THIS ‘ERE BIKE, DEFINITELY IS.

HE

bought his 1100 Gixer-engined Hard Up Choppers rigid as an unfinished build and soon found, as many who take on such projects do, that there’s usually a reason that people don’t finish what they started.

It’s something those that’ve built a chopper know only too well; the first two-thirds of a build are relatively easy, it’s the last third that people fall at. Getting a bike up on its wheels, with the big lumps of fabrication work done, is quite straightforward – it’s the finishing, the wiring, the lining up of important bits, the fettling, that takes the time.

ETT VER words: NIK IMON E os: S phot

JULY 2016 BACK STREET HEROES

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YOU’VE BEEN NABBED MUSOS ON BIKES

RACE, ROCK & RIDE RAT & SURVIVAL