Back Street Heroes Sept 2016 preview

ISSUE 389 SEPT 2016 £3.99

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INDIAN BOBBER

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DOWN & OUT CAFE RACERS’ OPEN DAY

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the best Indian in the land?

sunshine, cool kids and cool bikes

H-D SPORTSTER sunning in the sunshine by the sea

HYBRID TRIUMPH

the cover bike in all its glory

BIKE SHED LONDON

the big bunfight at Tobacco Dock

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1450 S&S

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SPILSBY BIKE NIGHT

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stunning No Nonsense monster chopper

smaller than Barton and Boston, but still a good craic

IRELAND BIKE FEST

a bike festival in Killarney, to be sure!

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H-D PANHEAD

built by a scooterist?

Really? (pictured)

TRIUMPH BONNEVILLE

a friend of Lucifer’s, not quite the same as a friend of Dorothy’s…

WHEELS & WAVES

sunshine and sexiness in Biarritz

SR250 & XV535 YAMS

budget built bikes from the land of sun, sea and Sagres

6OPENFACED

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

12LETTERS SUBSCRIBE TO 34BS H – have your say about ... well, owt really!

– see here for the best subscription offers

(ALMOST A) 44RO AD TEST

– Victory’s entry-level big bobber, the Gunner

PROJECT RAT 84RO D MR BRIDGES’ 8 8 MOTORCYCLE DIARIES ‘bars n’ stuff!

– forks n’

– an idiot’s guide to idiot lights

92PROJECT DESERT 96EVENTS RACER – making the front numberboard

–our guide to the best rallies, shows, parties and run s!

READERS’ 102LIV ES

– four pages of your pictures and silly captions ... yeah, sor our ry about that.

78 PROJECT STREET 106SMALLS 80MU TANT 113NEXT MONTH MAG NEWS – our regular

column by the MAG cha

irman

– part two of our new Yamaha XSR 900 project

for free!

– sell your bike here

–what’s in the ma next month … obviously! g

114RICK HULSE

the musings of one of the most eloquent thin kers in bikerdom!

TO GET TH EDITIO E DIGITAL NS APP SEA , SIM STREERCH FOR ‘BAPLY T H EROES CK APPLE AP ’ IN OR ON P STORE FOR THE GOOGL IPAD EP FOR AN CHECK DROID LAY OUT TH E B SH (BACK STREE FACEBOOK AND TH T HE R E OES) PAGE AT BACBSH FACEB OO K THE O STREET HERK GROUP FFICIA L GRO OES – UP

WORDS:

JOE WH ITE , FE N L AND CH PHOTOS O PPE R S : G A RRY S T UA R T

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WORDS:

NIK K S: CLIN PHOTO

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that’s not what they’re for, is it? They’re choppers – if you want a touring bike, f**k off and buy a BMW. As with everything, though, there are always exceptions to the rule, and the motorcycle you see here in front of you is just such a beast. Yes, it’s a properly radical bike, and, yes, it’ proven show winner, b ’s al made the (very) long h from Galash tland t o uga , e

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BACK STREET HEROES SEPTEMBER 2016

around Spain and France on the way. Honestly, this thing, and others from the No Nonsense Choppers stable, have probably racked up more Continental riding miles than a lot of proper touring bikes have.

Originally built by No Nonsense’s head honcho Charlie Beaton for is sister Helen m com Si ’

years ago to a gentleman by the name of Keith Turner who, almost immediately, took it to that specialist in massive, longfork chops, Mr Shaun Barley, to get him to do a few needed modifications and give it a top-to-toe rebuild while he was at it.

One of the first jobs was to replace the Plexiglas wheel centres that the bike’d been built with as one of them’d cracked at some point. Shaun machined up some new billet centres to replace them, mirrorpolished them, and matched them up with the oneoff discs from the US, and at the front calipers ” f ,

IRELAND BIKE FEST THE IDEA FOR A BIKER FESTIVAL IN KILLARNEY WAS SPARKED BY THE HARLEY OWNERS GROUP, HOG, WHICH STAGED A EUROPEAN RALLY FOR MEMBERS IN THE TOWN IN 2006.

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illarney is an important tourist destination located, as it is, in the oldest National Park in Ireland, and the town is well known for its many festivals. The invasion by thousands of Harley-mounted bikers went down very well with the famously friendly and hospitable locals, and the town council and tourism officials got together with the management team of the large Gleneagles Hotel complex, and the concept of Ireland Bike Fest was formed. The key thing about IBF is that it’s a free festival, no wristbands required. Access all areas, free, no money required, nada dinero! While IBF is not an official HOG event it does benefit from a great deal of support and sponsorship from Harley-Davidson and their Irish dealerships, and the Harley road test demo fleet were in attendance with a large selection of bikes available for free test rides. Rally headquarters was the area in between two big hotels, The Brehun and The Gleneagles, where all of the traders and food vendors were situated. A large marquee called the Harley bar dispensed huge amounts of beer and provided a stage for live music in the evenings, and the whole area was open to the public and it was great to see the general public, locals and tourists mingling and sitting with bikers from all over Europe. All of the

WORDS & PHOTOS: GARRY STUART

various restaurants and bars of the hotel complex were open to everyone, and the area is well geared for camping and B&Bs as well as the various hotels. Some kept costs down by camping on roundabouts and grass verges and appeared to be untroubled by the Garda.

A quirky aspect of the rally is the Novelty Dog Show, which is very popular with the bikers and locals alike. Many of the participating dogs were decked out in bandanas with the odd Chihuahua in leather vest – Dogs Of Anarchy? And Sunday morning’s Parade Day is much anticipated by the local people and tourists alike as the procession of

every type of motorcycle you can imagine passes by. Sunday afternoon’s Custom Bike Show takes place on the manicured lawns of the Brehun Hotel, and custom and classic bikes of all makes lined up within the various categories. Best Radical and also Best in Show was a futuristic electric bike hand built by Noel Connolly called the STROM. Muscular Dystrophy Ireland is IBF’s chosen charity and a Harley-Davidson Street was raffled off and volunteers ensured that many buckets of cash were filled over the weekend. The David Bowie song Memory of a Free Festival ends with the words “The sun machine is coming down, and we’re gonna have a party” and that’s what went down in Killarney at the beginning of June. Did I mention that it was free?

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Seat, rear light cluster and front mudguard off – looks better already, doesn’t it?

The basis… and the correct tools for a bike build

, SPA

UE E S A XSR90 WERE PL THE PRO UAL ANGER All this has to be relocated… e ’s high

cu be s

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Wooden template for the new subframe rails

Offered up – looks good, doesn’t it?

lo

es. e ketry ing

s

ere

WORDS & PICS: PHWF

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PART TWO

WHEN I STRIPPED THE HERALD, THERE WERE A LOT OF DANGLY WIRES AT THE FRONT (FIG.1). THE VAST MAJ RCYCLES WILL HAVE A MASS OF B HT, T WI

FIG.2

FIG.1

nd t oth ld essy all ear w m lo

a

motorcycle. Styl going to need yet race plate is going need to be fairly a business was to ha the front of the mot and a tape. The ea front look unclutter so I measured the and the width of th he size of the race had a look for suitabl d decided that the thr s eedo on t h ade (Fig.2), nti a high level rail-s bottom yok , w e wa o m

ri i

FIG.3

FIG.4

r

words & pics: MR BRIDGES

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PART FOUR

R KE, YOUR LADY, YOUBO BI R U YO OF CS PI D N SE IS ISN’T FACE OK) TO TH , ER N N DI R U YO OT BLOKE (BUT N EROES.COM NIK@ BACKSTREETH

Ace old Farmyard Party pic from Mr Peter Walker.

ABOVE: Mark Bellhouse’s 2010 Harley Wide Glide, named Winter Is Coming; paintwork by Keith at PPP, stripped and rebuilt by Peter Searle.

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RIGHT: Waldemar Debowski’s daughter Marcelina was born on 27th December last year – he says she’s the new HOG in town.

BACK STREET HEROES september 2016

NEXT MONTH:

YOUNG BLOOD CHOPPER BUILDERS AREN’T ALL OLD GITS!

FARMYARD PARTY|BIG BIKE SUNDAY|DIAMOND DAY|NCC SUFFOLK|ROCK & BIKE FEST|BULLFROG BASH