Back Street Heroes April 2023

It’s Spring, or very nearly, and the sap rising in me (steady…) has brought out me inner poet but, as my poetry’s on a par with yer average Vogon (and very nearly as bad as that of Paula Nancy Millstone Jennings*), I’ll let a profeshneul do it ‘cos… well, he’s better at it than me. ‘I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o’er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils…’ Like the esteemed Mr WW, I, too, love the Spring; the weather gets warmer, the roads get drier, and the need for umpteen layers of clothing, or the donning of ‘lectric garments, lessens. All around us old Ma Nature’s showing her face with flowers starting to appear, lambs…

WE had, of course, no idea if anyone’d turn up, being our first foray into anything like this, and were made up when a whole host of folk did. Among them were two trikes: a Z1300 belonging to the late and much missed Pete Hicks, all the way from Wales (incidentally, later, the very first bike I ever wrote up for BSH), and a lovely purple Shovelhead Harley owned by Mick Howard (who, for some reason, I was convinced was called Bear…). The pair of them won, if I remember rightly, Best in Show and Best Trike respectively, and I later photographed Mick (not Bear…) and his trike as one of my first freelance jobs for BSH, and it appeared, I think, in the mag’ in 1994. Fast forward… umm, nearly…

IT was held in the Pallant Centre in Havant (basically a large church hall), and the invited competition bikes were all set up inside, alongside a few Daniel pulled in from the car park (including one which’d be an eventual winner). Many of them he’d had a hand in tweaking or working on as well. With over nine months of planning, I knew it’d be good. There was serious sponsorship from Dunlop, and several local stalls, too, including the rather good food van it has at its monthly meets, and JAA Paints also was doing an exhibition of his airbrush skills. Arriving at what I thought was early, I found Daniel putting out (very useful) signs, and managed to find a space in a rapidly filling bike park. In the hall…

IT was my first time in that neck of the woods so I was unfamiliar with the area, but my sat-nav directed me to the dockland area of Vauxhall, past the still-under-construction new Everton Stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock. This dead-straight dockland road alongside the Mersey goes on for miles and is, of course, a highly industrial area with many historic buildings perfect for photographing feature bikes and cars. Soon I saw a group of prospects directing the show traffic into the side road where the clubhouse was situated. As usual I’d arrived early, and it was mostly club bikes present but, as 11am passed, a constant rumble of engines could be heard, and the street very quickly filled up on both sides. Soon a blue haze rose above the outdoor barbecue,…

There’re very definite styles of bike building, I’m sure you’ll agree, and bikes built in these styles, when done well, are very nice indeed, but for some folk just having a bike that looks a little like other people’s isn’t the way they want to go. No, they want to be a little different. Rusty, who designed and built this’ ard-as-nails Sporty, when he started it, very consciously had no plans or drawings or owt – he wanted to ‘freestyle’ the build, and see what he came out with. Now, as I’m sure you’re only too aware, this approach can end up with something resembling a mechanised dog’s breakfast, but not this time as you can see. He is, by trade, a commercial fabricator, and this isn’t his first build,…

I’ve been, one way or another, to almost all of their soirees over the I years, and I really liked the new location for this event – the Queens Regiment Riders Association (QRRA) clubhouse. It’s hoped it’s found a new spiritual home at last, as I know the ladies of Medusa were desperately trying to find one. Camping was available (including a free breakfast), and lots of loos, so some folk’d already got seriously into chill-out mode, and it was almost a mini rally rather than a one-day show. Down the dusty track more and more bikes and trikes appeared, reminiscent of an old Western movie’s cavalry coming over the hill. The hill did bring its own parking challenges, it has to be said, as a hell of a lot…