Back Street Heroes September 2024

Those of you who actually read the drivel I spout here will’ve noticed a slightly recurring theme… okay, okay, so perhaps ‘slightly’ isn’t the word as I’ve probably talked about it every issue for the last ten years or so, and before that in another magazine, too, and that’s The Weather. There is a good reason for this… well, a couple of ‘em really. Firstly cos, well, I’m English and that’s what we talk about, isn’t it? I mean, normal English people, you know, normal ones, not like us, use it as a conversation opener, according to all the info’, but to us lot, as bikers, well, it’s less of a conversational subject, isn’t it? It’s more of a massive part of our lives than just a conversation starter, isn’t…

This’s great, and part of what it’s all about – no matter what life throws at you, you know you can turn up at a rally and have a great time in the safe and relaxing company of old mates. You might also be aware that we, until quite recently, are something of a dying breed and, sometimes in the rare lucid moments at a rally, you’ll’ve surveyed the scene and realised that everyone around you has either grey or white hair, and that there’re very few young ‘uns coming up behind us. Thank God, then, that a group of said young ‘uns’ve developed an interest in old-style choppers, and created a new scene – the vintage chopper scene. Now, I know some people call them hipsters but, having been…

One of the most active, in that you see ’em everywhere, are Kernow (the old Cornish name for the county of Cornwall) – no mean feat in itself considering that Cornwall is for most people in this country a bloody long way from anywhere. And when you add into that the fact that six out of the seven Kernow members run hardtails, and all bar one are radical and/or long-forked bikes (and the one that’s not as radical as the rest uses a frame made thirty-plus years ago), that shows real dedication to choppers, doesn’t it? NCC Kernow’s been in existence for 39 years. It was formed in 1985 by an NCC member called Paul Rodgers who moved to the very tip of the south-west and got the County started.…

It clashes, you see, with, mainly, the Rock & Blues up in Derbyshire that we run a round of the BSH Custom Champs at, and so I’ve yet to point my front wheel towards Beaconsfield Town FC where it’s held, and that’s a shame as I’ve always heard good things about it over the years. The WLHR have a reputation as a good crew – they were established way back in 1983, and they meet every Wednesday night at Hayes Cricket Club, Wood End, Hayes (UB3 2RJ) in That London. So, back in April I thought I’d go some way to redressing that a little – if I couldn’t make their rally, I’d make it down into The Big Smoke to go to their St George’s Day Bike Show &…

Sidecars are, as you probably know already, one of the few vehicles worthy of the oft-repeated (usually erroneously) phrase ‘Not for the faint-hearted’ – even fairly under-powered ones built out of fairly turgid old snails like MZ250s, CX500s, and old Brit bikes and BMWs can be a real handful, particularly in inexperienced hands. I myself have something of a reputation in certain circles for turning one over – a somewhat unfair reputation at that, given that I was in the sidecar itself at the time of the accident, not actually riding, so I’m not sure why I’ve got the rep’, y’know? Anyway, a few years ago, Gavin, Gav to his mates, had a ’98, first generation, R1 that, I’m guessing, had seen better days, and an idea for a sidecar…

Actually, the original story of the mermaid, written by Hans Christian Andersen back in 1836 or so, has certain similarities (well, if you allow a bit of leeway) to the story of this particular Ariel although, it has to be said, how it came to be’s probably nowhere near as traumatic a story as HCA’s – to say that guy was a bit of a sadist to his characters doesn’t really come close to the truth. I mean, Matt, the owner and builder of this Ariel custom, may’ve skinned his knuckles a few times while building it, or bashed himself with spanners once or twice, but he didn’t, I’m guessing, experience feeling as though he’d been run through with a sword, as the mermaid does when she loses her tail…