Back Street Heroes January 2023

Sod what Sean Bean, as Ned Stark, may’ve said in Game of Thrones, winter isn’t coming – it’s already here. Hopefully that doesn’t mean we’re about to be overrun by hordes of incoherent reanimated dead running amok (although, it has to be said, the Christmas shopping rush isn’t that far away and you can definitely see the parallels…), or that so much snow’s going to fall that polar bears’ll be seen wandering the aisles of Aldi (other supermarkets selling useless shite’re available) trying to decide between fruit jellies or salted seal meat, but it is damn cold out there if you venture out on two wheels. Me, I’m back to thermals and electrickery, and getting a face full of road kak every time I take to the highways… I really…

It’s a 1340cc (80 cubic inch) Flathead Harley, based around a 1200cc (74 cubic inch) 1941 Model U engine in a 1936 rigid frame, and it’s a bike that, as a chop, has been around a fair while – it was originally built by his stepfather back in 1982, and won at all the big shows (Kent, the South & West, etc.) back then, and was actually the first British-built chopper to be featured in Easyriders back in 1984 (Dec ’84 if you want to look it up). Vince was, at the time, knee-high to a midget, and just about remembers the bike, but his mother and stepfather split up at some point in his early life, and he wasn’t to see the Flattie again for the best part of…

However, with the influx of the next generation, there’s more and more of a trend towards specialised gatherings, catering for ‘60s and ‘70s-style chops brought up-to-date with next generation styling. There’re a few of these gatherings about now, mainly in Europe and beyond, such as the Pre Evo gathering (the name speaks for itself really, nothing newer than a Shovelhead), and the now defunct Flanders Chopper Bash, but we do have a couple of homegrown ones, too: The Hook Up Chopper Show, and The Trip Out. They’re growing in popularity and, I must admit, I really, really like being surrounded by kick-start choppers, people telling their stories of breakdowns en route, and a substantial amount of spannering going on. Things shake loose on hardtails, and constantly need checking and adjusting…

IT refers, y’see, to the ancient belief that swans sing a beautiful song just before their death, since they’ve been silent for most of their lifetime, and it’s come, all these years later, to refer, often, not to the last warblings of particularly musical cygnus, but to the last significant thing someone does in their chosen career or life path. This motorcycle, the one wot you see here, is an example of that. Harvey Cooper, the owner and builder of this 1980 T140 Bonneville-based chop, has built, over his long years in the bike scene, several bikes, mostly based around motors of British extraction, and while he has no plans to give up riding any time soon, he reckons this ’ere long-fork Triumph’s the last one he’s going to build…

HE passed away doing what he loved, riding his motorcycle, in 2004, but his legacy lives on nearly twenty years later as his philosophy of life, his there think, too, and his trademark question mark symbol’s been used on bikes, and in tattoos, as a kind of badge, an emblem, for those who think the same way he did. Dave Addis, the famous Midlands-based custom painter Flakey Dave, is one of them. Back in 2003 he, like the rest of us really, was an avid watcher of the Biker Build-Offs and, watching the one where a relatively unknown Larry was up against the more established Paul Yaffe, he got to thinking. He really liked Larry’s attitude, his obsession with attention to detail, and the paint on the bike he built…

After many years of thinking, I decided the time’d come to take the plunge, so I built a shed, and enrolled on a TIG-welding course – the first of many new skills I’d have to learn. I’ve never worked in engineering, but I’m a joiner by trade so joints and angles, etc., are things I know well. I also have a couple of excellent mates, one a professional welder, the other who really knows his way around bikes. I had planned to build an XS650 bobber as I like the style and simple look, and came across a frame kit online – all the bends done, you had to do the joints and welding. This set me off thinking, as I looked at the pic’ of the pile of pre-bent…