Back Street Heroes August 2023

AS I’m sure you’ve noticed (and if you haven’t, really? What’s the name of your dealer, ‘cos that must be some good weed?), it’s the height of summer – the best time for riding bikes (although not such a good time for building ‘em in hot n’ sweaty workshops perhaps). I hope you’ve had a chance to get out on yours? Over ‘ere in the east the skies’ve been blue and cloudless for what feels like weeks now, and the only real hassle about going out for a potter about is what to wear to ensure you don’t melt. Me, I’m not very good at looking cool out on the bike (or any other time either actually), but some folk pull it off effortlessly. I was down at the local…

Kind o’ obviously, the term’s a combination of the phrase ‘kick the bucket’ (die) and the word ‘list’, hence a ‘list of things to do before you die’, but did you know that it wasn’t coined until 1999 when American screenwriter Justin Zackham made it up for his screenplay for the 2007 film The Bucket List? He’d created his own list called ‘Justin’s List of Things to Do Before I Kick the Bucket’, which he then shortened to ‘Justin’s Bucket List’, and the first item on said list was to have a screenplay produced at a major Hollywood studio. After a while, it occurred to him that the idea of a ‘bucket list’ could, itself, be the basis for a film, so he wrote a screenplay about two dying men…

Held at Driffield Showground about 20 klicks from Bridlington, it’s not a major distance from York and, once you’ve put the A64 behind you, good roads take you straight through to Driffield, or you can take various diversions through what the Tourist Board’d no doubt call ‘unspoilt villages’ if you like that sort of thing. It can be a bit daunting turning up at an event where you’re pretty sure you’re not going to know anyone, but this is one of those weekends where the right people’re doing the right jobs so, from the minute you arrive, you feel a bit like an old mate they haven’t seen for a while. The site itself is huge and well laid out, with Tarmac roadways and plenty of space for camping which…

Like his Bonnie, it’s not a ground-upwards build ’cos he doesn’t have a workshop equipped for that; it was bought from a guy called Mike Noble who was selling it on behalf of his mate Guy Wood, and was originally, apparently, a Boneshaker Choppers build. The guys were reputable; the engine’d recently been rebuilt, and it was a great base for him to get busy on. As with the Triumph, he likes that old school look – simple, solid, honest choppers, and does all the work he can with just bench tools, nothing industrial, putting his mark on as much of the bike as possible. He’s not a Harley nut as such, but is firmly of the opinion that if it looks killer, do it – no approval’s needed. What…

A three-hour journey over the Pennines, and it was looking promising – it wasn’t even raining in Rochdale! Then, bowling along the A616, I couldn’t help but notice the steady stream of bikes, trailered hot rods and classic cars going in the opposite direction. After convincing myself that I hadn’t got the wrong day and that Race The Waves definitely hadn’t been cancelled, I ploughed on under skies that got increasingly darker, and the spitting of rain that got heavier with every mile under the tyres. Although the Yorkshire coast has a long history of beach racing, Brid’ was always more associated with the scooter riding fraternity so, when Paul Garbutt of Backfire Promotions was approached to organise a motorcycle show in this rather genteel, Victorian resort, he probably never…

It’s the style of the bike – what I was then, and you are now, looking at is that rarest of custom styles: the cowboy bike. Never heard of them? No, you probably wouldn’t’ve done, or you may know the style, not that there was a particular name for them. Cowboy bikes were built at the end of the Sixties/beginning of the Seventies, just after Easy Rider made its celluloid way to the shores of our isle, for just a couple o’ three years (tops) when no one really knew how to ‘chop’ a frame. They were, essentially, a stock bike dressed up in a chopper-style, mostly old Brit twins and singles, and they had higher ’bars, smaller tanks and headlights, lairy paint, and chopper-style exhausts, and they were soon…