Back Street Heroes April 2024

Anyway, welcome to this 480th issue of Britain’s oldest and longest-running custom bike magazine (we may be Europe’s oldest and longest-running, too, I’m not sure – since the pandemic and the various lockdowns a fair few custom bike mags’ve gone to the wall, and information on who’s still going and who’s now online only is a bit sketchy, y’know?). This issue, and the next one or two, too, we’re trying to clear out a backlog of features, bikes and events from 2023 so as we can start, very soon, to bring you the best of 2024. With the biking season soon to be starting, and a host of new bikes hitting the scene (and, hopefully, a fair few of the ones from last year our frankly crappy summer prevented us…

This year’s event kicked off with a mix of old and, not so old, school tribute bands. Fleetwood Shack, Guns N Yorkshire Roses, and the Really Hot Chilli Peppers set the bar very high for the rest of the weekend on Thursday night, while Friday was gloriously hot and though no one dared hope it’d last all weekend, it was there to be enjoyed. The new open-plan layout, with a show ring in the centre, made the venue feel bigger, and many people commented on it being an improvement, feeling more ‘airy’ (which’s hard to imagine when you’re in a field, but that’s what was said). Dozens of trade stands formed an outer ring, along with food vans, the main marquee, and the custom show, while the centre of the…

“I like to build bikes, always have, always will. I don’t build them to sell – they’re just for me. I’m a lover of JAP engines, and other marques of yesteryear, and now have quite the collection which I’ve used to build my eclectic collection of bikes, and I have more for future projects. They’re all not shiny, far from it, and they’re not something someone’ll pull alongside and say: ‘I’ve got one of those’ – they’re unique to me, my style, and I love them. It’s also nice when other people appreciate them, too. The bike before you’s only recently been finished, and has a beautiful (to me anyway) VW Beetle engine at its core. The project started with the purchase of a £300 Beetle engine, a 1200, from…

The Hook Up, as we’ll call it to save me typing out its full title every time, was, you see, one of those traditionally covered by the late, lamented Garry Stuart, along with The Trip Out (which you’ll see coverage of next issue) but, as I’m sure you know, the poor bugger passed away last year so, for 2023, meself and the lil’ Harley made the long haul across from East Anglia to the site not far from the small Monmouthshire town of Usk… in the van, naturally. Look, Chez ‘Ere to Usk’s in excess of 200 miles each way and, at 45 speeds, that’s six or seven hours a trip, assuming nothing breaks, on an 81-year-old motorcycle – something I don’t think either of us’re up to these days.…

Patrick ‘Patsy’ McArdle’s Ultima-engined ‘Ruby’ was featured way back in 2015, nearly ten years ago, and it was a pretty damn impressive bit o’ kit back then. Having finished it, he rode it around for a couple of thousand miles or so, taking it to various rallies and shows across his native Ireland – no mean feat on a bike with a big motor, springers and a hardtail on the notoriously rough Irish roads. He says himself: “It wasn’t comfortable to ride, and handled like a banana behind a jet ski.” It never let him down, though, always getting him to wherever he was going, and it definitely got noticed everywhere it went, racking up a number of trophies, making the sore arse and aching back a price worth paying,…

This year I was on me way back from the Hook Up (as detailed on pages 18-22 this issue), in the van, with the 45 in the back (as I said earlier, it’s 200-plus miles each way from Chez Samson, and that’s far too far to ride a motorcycle with an 82-year-old-engine), but I still managed to get there just before the show opened (yes, I did get up bl**dy early), unloaded the chop (the club asked me to before you start), and set about hunting down a cup o’ tea. Bikes’d already started to trickle in, but very soon that trickle turned into a veritable flood, and both the area outside the Cruik Barn (at Bradwell Abbey in Milton Keynes) itself, and the car (bike, surely?) park 50 yards…