Indholdsfortegnelse for September 2023 i Back Street Heroes

Paul Waldron is a name some of you may be familiar with, especially if you lived in the Manchester/Stockport area back in the 1990s. He had a shop on the A6, Waldron Motorcycles, and was well into his streetfighters – he built a quite stunning 7/11 GSX-R with a one-piece body kit (well, a one-piece tank and seat unit, the front mudguard was separate, obviously) called Obsession, painted by the legendary Geoff Ridgway, and featuring glamour-girl portraits, and another called Alien, too, with suitably HR Gigeresque organic-looking body and paint. He was, and still is, quite handy with all forms of engineering, but was particularly good with fibreglass (hence the one-piece body kits), and for a while did a limited run of very Simpsonesque streetfighter helmets called War Bonnets, too…

“This old (1975) FX Shovel was my first experience of being involved in a build from start to finish, and the first edition of it was the result of a lot of ideas that’d never been put into practice; a concept I’d sketched out on a torn piece of paper that, thankfully, Chris had the skills to make a reality. It was a hardtail, of course, but it originally had huge exhausts that followed the sissy-bar up to the sky; long and narrow pulled-back bunny bars; a suicide shift; and six-inch over forks that were just long enough to give it a classic ’70s chopper stance, but not too long for these twisty Welsh mountain roads. I did run a front brake – aesthetically not great, but I needed it…

Mind you, the forecasts were dismal for this year’s Stonham Barns bike show but, having pre-booked entries, we decided to risk it. An overcast morning did see numbers down a bit on previous years, but things improved dramatically as the day progressed – plenty of afternoon sunshine saw numbers rocket. This show really does cover a lot of bases, with an autojumble, club stands, trade stalls, stunt displays, the ever-popular Wall of Death, and more, and the Panther Owners Club and the VJMC stands were particularly well attended (big thanks to the VJMC boys for helping push our Transit out of the mud). There was a good showing of trikes, and a few very tidy customs – a two-litre S&S, a hardtail Suzuki, and a radical Honda Zoomer all stood…

“IF YOU WANT A PICTURE OF THE FUTURE, IMAGINE A BOOT STAMPING ON A HUMAN FACE - FOREVER.”GEORGE ORWELL, 1984. Ross Clark has the distinction of having written three of the most important books of the last decade. His most recent is ‘Not Zero: How an Irrational Target Will Impoverish You, Help China (and Won’t Even Save the Planet)’ is a satirical novel of climate change which he wrote in 2020, and is the ‘1984’ of the 21st century. I presented a copy to Transport Minister Jesse Norman MP at our recent meeting. Mr. Clark first came to my attention, though, in 2018 when the Financial Times asked me to review his book ‘The War Against Cash’. In it he exposes how the European Commission, the UN, national governments, the…

After much badgering eventually I watched the Biker Build-Off series on TV and was hooked, most notably on the bikes of Billy Lane and Indian Larry whose attitude towards life and the whole chopper scene, especially the zen approach of Larry, struck a chord so deep it still resonates to this day. Fast forward to 2017, and times’d changed. I was riding choppers now (bought ones), and made my first visit to The Trip Out (after reading about it in BSH), and decided I was going to attempt my first build. First though, I had to learn to weld… I signed up to a welding course, and got my Level I and II TIG, bought a jig from eBay, got the Ron Covell ‘How to Build a Chopper Chassis’, and…

Even a different venue in the middle of what felt like monsoon season didn’t stop people turning out on their pimped-up rides and the Pigs did us all proud. Traditionally held at a, now closed-down, biker pub in Newcastle-under-Lyme, the show took place at a fairly new rock music venue about a mile up the A34 but, while we were there, we found out the licensees’d just been beaten in the tendering process by a company who wanted to use it as a wedding venue… so it’ll be yet another new venue next year then. In spite of the downpours, people still rode in from all over Staffordshire, and further afield, because this’s a proper old-fashioned MCC bike show that raises money for the Pigs’ chosen charities each year. Cheap…

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SYKES H-D WIN TRAILBLAZERS! Harley-Davidson UK recently ran one of their famed dealer competitions (where selected dealers customise a particular model from the H-D range), called Trailblazers, where the bike to be given a make-over was the Pan American 1250 adventure bike. Six dealers entered, and the winner was Sykes Harley-Davidson’s custom arm – Speed & Custom, headed up by Neil Sefton. MT2, as the bike’s called, was designed to be as if Harley were to build a Paris-Dakar rally bike, and features a lighter Akrapovic exhaust; a custom front end with one-off yokes; Ohlins forks originally intended for a Honda Africa Twin; an Ohlins rear shock; a one-off fairing and Softail headlight (both with custom bracketry); a new subframe and seat; and a host of smaller touches, too, and…

The youth leaders felt that this was the normal press sensationalism, and decided the trip should go ahead. Me and my mate Archie were thrilled as, although we’d often ride pillion around town, we were never allowed a ride on the Bank Holiday runs as then the precious pillion was reserved either for ‘the bird’ or an older mate whose own bike was off the road (and was more useful in a fight). At 7.30am a host of young teenagers boarded the coach. For nearly all of us this’d be our first outing away from the town without an older adult watching over us –in 1964 it was a very big occasion indeed and, virtually as soon as the bus’d left the High Street, the youth leaders settled down in…

There’re many examples of this, of course, and one of the most famous, coined by no less a personage than Jonathan Swift, writer of Gulliver’s Travels, is ‘You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear’, meaning being unable to turn something ugly or inferior into something attractive or of value. The thing is, as with most things related to received wisdom, it’s not actually true – something that’s been evidenced in this ’ere magazine many, many times over the years; bikers, BSH bikers in particular, have been turning ugly or inferior things into attractive, valuable things for, just about, ever. Take the motorcycle you see here in front of you as an example; Jim Hill’s absolutely corking 5TA Triumph. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not calling…

With Doris, my faithful steed, feeling poorly, I adapted the 180-mile plus plans for the day, and headed locally to Redhill and the Garland Bike show, on my new scooter (named Po because she’s red with a cute bum, like the Tellytubby*). Holding a bike show at the Garland pub may seem an odd location, right on the edge of town, with a limited car park, but it works and’s now in its fourth year. The wide pavement opposite is the perfect parking space for visiting bikes, while the pub’s land itself was just for the show bikes. For many local clubs it was the perfect mid-stop on a May Day Run, and bikes came and went all day. The pub’s also like a TARDIS – it looks small from…

For 2023, there’re seven rounds (three online, and four real-world), and the real-world ones are: THE SCOTTISH MOTORCYCLE SHOW (ALREADY BEEN) THE NCC LONDON DIAMOND DAY AT THE ACE CAFÉ, LONDON (ALREADY BEEN) THE ROCK & BLUES, DERBYSHIRE (ALREADY BEEN) NE MAG’S STORMIN’ THE CASTLE, WITTON-LE-WEAR, COUNTY DURHAM (1-3 SEPTEMBER) To enter, simply turn up at any, or all, of those events, pay the required event fee (if there is one), and put your bike in their show – simple as that! The online rounds are: JUNE (ALREADY BEEN) JULY (ALREADY BEEN) AUGUST To enter, simply go to the BSH Facebook page or group, find the relevant thread, and post a picture of your bike on it – it really is as easy as that! You can do it each month…

Back in May, to this end I spoke to Nick Maybury, who built the rather nice purple Sportster chop that graced the cover of issue 471, from Dragon Soul Projects in Telford – specialists in the manufacture and fitting of top-quality springers and, a day or two before the NABD Rally, trucked the bike up to their Shropshire workshop. We’d spoken previously about lengths and colours, and’d decided on a set of their black, stock length (as in stock length for a standard 45) classic oval-leg springers, and he promised to have them ready in time for me to go, once I’d had a couple of days of getting used to them, to the South-West Chopper Fest – no mean feat considering that meant they hadn’t very long to get…

AXXIS WOLF DS HELMET The Axxis Wolf DS is a cool-looking, light touring/dual-sport helmet that combines the protection of a full-face with the looks of an adventure helmet. The external Pinlock visor is scratch-resistant optical polycarbonate, and there’s a drop-down inner dark visor, too; a quick-release micrometric buckle; a chin curtain to reduce drafts; and ear pockets for headphones/communications speakers (which, if you haven’t got ‘em fitted, does make it quite noisy so you may need ear plugs). Available in a vast range of colours, and in sizes XS to 2XL, it costs £149.99 from anywhere that stocks the Axxis range or www.bickers-online.co.uk DAKOTA DIGITAL INFORMATION CENTRE These Dakota Digital bar-mounted instrument systems’re loaded with features, and the ability to customise to your liking. Integrated push-button switches allow for accessible operation,…

Tatts Gibby’s GIBBY SENDS IN SO MANY COOL PICS WE’RE STRUGGLING TO GET THROUGH ‘EM, SO HERE’S FIVE AT ONCE) Trikes Send pics of your bike, your lady, your bloke (but not your dinner, this isn’t Facebook) to nik@backstreetheroes.com 01406 221110 Email: info@rhino-trikes.co.uk www.rhino-trikes.co.uk…