Back Street Heroes May 2024

I’m sitting here staring out of the window at, how unusual, grey skies – not a Good Thing when I have a bike to photograph for this very issue today… still, it’s only early (8.29am to be precise), and the day’s still young so fingers crossed. It is warmer, though, than it has been of late; they’re forecasting fifteen or sixteen degrees (Celsius, not Fahrenheit, thank gawd) for the next few days ‘ere… Sod’s Law, though, that I’m away to Ediburgh for the Scottish Motorcycle Show tomorrow where it definitely isn’t, eh? Spring could be, finally, on its way and, honestly, it can’t come soon enough for me – this winter’s been really long, hasn’t it? My travels up and down the land’ve started early again this year (they seem…

This year, however, I’d decided to make the effort and go, and I’m so glad I did as it turned out to be one hell of a weekend. The event itself was held at Euston Park, near Thetford, home to the Dukes of Grafton for over 350 years, and built in 1666 in 10,500 acres of land. Arriving at the gates and booking in, I asked where I could pitch my tent? A helpful show person waved her arm in the general direction of the huge area that disappeared in the distance down a dusty trackway. “There’s a bike camping area to the right, and all other vehicles, pretty much where you like, first-come, first-served.” So, after making myself at home for the weekend, time to have a nose around.…

Fairly recently, though, Hip retired (he’s been building chops since the 1970s and, just like the rest of us, he’s not getting any younger), and the mantle was transferred to Jay’s shoulders. This bike came about when, a few years back, Johan from Belgium got in contact with So Low about a CB900 chopper he had that wanted revamping by them as he’d seen a few of their bikes and loved their workmanship and styling. The plan was to replace the later CB900 DOHC motor with an earlier, and much more stylistically correct, SOHC CB750 motor he’d sourced to give it a classic look, and to give the whole bike a complete makeover. Jay and Jonny stripped down the original bike and really only kept the frame and the twincap…

The forecast for that weekend was for sun, sun, and more sun, and so folk’d turned out in number. The fields were full, absolutely heaving, and it took me a wee while to find the environs of Carry Nowt Camping, whose services I’d be partaking of as you can’t really strap luggage to brand-new press bikes (a Royal Enfield Super Meteor) for fear of scratching ‘em. It’s the first time I’ve used the hospitality of Carry Nowt, but I was very satisfied with what I got for me money, so I doubt it’ll be the last – not having to carry all the usual crap (tent, airbed, doss-bag, bag o’ stuff, and camera bag, too) was liberating. Stormin’s one of MAG’s biggest fundraising events these days, that and The Farmyard,…

The Barrel Bikers MCC’s Firkin o’ Bitter Rally is their trad’ winter rally in the truest sense of the word: a field at the back of a pub; a weekend-long fire; beer; basic but excellent food; traditional biker silly games. There’re no bands, no live music, no entertainment of any kind other than that you make for yourself – it’s just a gathering of the like-minded; those for whom a bit o’ wintertide cold and damp isn’t any barrier to camping and socialising. It’s in its thirty-fifth year now, and while it’s not a big rally, like most winter rallies aren’t, it’s well attended by the hardiest of folk and highly regarded. It’s held at the historic 15th Century Shoulder of Mutton in Little Horwood, just to the west of…

His bikes’ve been featured in magazines around the world, and on numerous internet sites, too, and he’s held in very high esteem in the international biking world, up there with the likes of Roland Sands and, having met him a couple of times over the years (he’s often at the Bike Shed Show in London), he’s a nice guy, too. “I’m a huge fan of the bikes from the ’90s/2000s chopper era; West Coast Choppers, Motorcycle Mania, the guys from the Biker Build-Off, etc., were all my heroes when I was still in school, and I really like the wild, fat rear tyre/high handlebar/’Frisco tank, etc., bikes they built – they’re the very pinnacle of badassness in my idea of custom bikes. A guy came into my shop the other…