Indholdsfortegnelse for February 2025 i Back Street Heroes

Back Street Heroes|February 2025

HAPPY NEW YEAR! SO IT’S 2025 THEN, WHO’D O’ THOUGHT IT?

I don’t know if you’ve heard of her, but Baba Vanga, a blind Bulgarian mystic who died in 1996, known as the ‘Nostradamus of the Balkans’, predicted that, in 2025, humanity’ll make contact with extraterrestrial life, possibly leading to a global crisis or apocalypse, and also that we’d develop telepathy, allowing for direct mind-to-mind communication. Hmm, dunno about that, can’t really see it meself. Firstly, I reckon any self-respecting alien race’d take one look at the feckin’ mess we’ve made of the planet we live on and go: “Mm, yeah, we’ll give that one a miss, eh?” and, secondly, I don’t want mind-to-mind communication – my head’s full of enough inane bollox as it is (which, trust me, you should be eternally grateful you’re never going to know about), and…

3 min

Back Street Heroes|February 2025

RAT & SURVIVAL

SO, for the 2024 article, I’m just going to say thank you to the following: Pam, Agi, Jo, and Loon for their, and others too, help on the gate; to all the Ogri MCC who allow us disreputable ‘erberts to descend on their clubhouse and environs and genuinely lower its tone; to Dolly and all her staff at Goody’s Bakery for all their hard work and excellent food; to The Jellyheads and Exhibit A for playing storming sets on the Friday and Saturday nights respectively; and to all the disreputable ‘erberts who turn up from far and wide and make this the event I’ve been to most over all my years of biking – thank you! And now, I’m going to give Gareth space to use pics really big, and…

1 min

Back Street Heroes|February 2025

RAMSEY SPRINT

IN these days of Health and Safety wrapping people in cotton wool, it’s one of the few events where you can turn up, show your driving licence, pay just £40, and get a one-event race licence (and insurance). You can do as many runs as you like, and you get an official timing slip for every run, meaning there’s no arguing from your mates as you’ve got the official timing to prove how fast your bike is. The new TT schedule does cause a few problems due to the lack of rest days, and that means that nearly all the social and other events’re crammed into one day, but the footfall for 2024 was the best I’ve seen in years. It was run over two days (the Monday and the Thursday…

2 min

Back Street Heroes|February 2025

BSH/VIC BIKERS' PUB CUSTOM SHOW

IF you’ve been you’ll know it’s a real bikers’ home-from-home with good beer; good food (their chip butties’re bang on… always the sign of a good pub or café, that); a massive gig list of bands you’ll actually want to see; an excellent summer chill-out space; camping and caravan/van/motorhome spaces; and a good-sized car park with hard-standing for side-stands; and CCTV to keep an eye on your pride-n’-joy. If you’ve not been, especially after reading the above list, what’re you waiting for? Old-fashioned biker pubs, like the ones most of us frequented in our formative years, are few and far between these days, aren’t they? In August last year we, as in meself and John the landlord, ran a small, but perfectly formed, custom show there as part of the…

2 min

Back Street Heroes|February 2025

BSH/RAW STEEL CUSTOM SHOW

The workshop, on a farm estate in the tiny hamlet of Lindsell, just off the famed B1057 Great Dunmow to Finchingfield road (the picturesque village of Finchingfield, especially in the summer, is a must-do Essex biker haunt, y’see, and the road up to it’s a doozy), has a huge car park, one that’d be ideal for, say, a bike show and so, when I approached the amiable String about holding one there, he agreed almost immediately. Cool. A date was set, and we started pushing it on social media and in the mag. The second weekend in August soon rolled around and, even before meself and Mutley, String’s GSX-R chop riding mate/occasional workshop pixie, had finished putting up banners and such, folk started to roll in. They’d come from near…

3 min

Back Street Heroes|February 2025

A YEAR OF CUSTOM BIKING…

Most bikes these days, y’see, as I’m sure you know, aren’t quite the day-to-day workhorses they used to be when we were younger. Back in the day, we rode every day to get to work, to the shops, to the pub, to events at weekends – all the time. We did this ’cos, for many of us, our bikes were our only form of transport (and, in some cases, ’cos we were bloody-minded: “I’m a biker, therefore I ride”) – to rejig the words of the line from Monty Python’s Fork Yorkshiremen sketch: “We were poor those days, but we were happy.” Now, though, we’re older and, in the main, a bit better off, and we have cars for the shitty days, and most of us with customs wrap ’em…

4 min

Back Street Heroes|February 2025

News

NEW BMW R12S The new BMW R 12 S is a tribute to their iconic R 90 S from the ‘70s – the world’s first production motorcycle with a handlebar fairing designed according to aerodynamic aspects. The new bike, based on the R 12 nineT, embodies an authentic and sporty retro bike, and features a handlebar-mounted cockpit fairing with tinted windshield, a seat with contrast stitching, and the Lavaorange metallic paint as a nod to the legendary R 90 S Daytona Orange from 1975. There’s a red-laid ‘S’ on the side covers, red double pin-striping lines, and brushed and clear-lacquered aluminium surfaces on the tank and seat hump. The wheels’re wire spokes on shiny, naturally anodised, aluminium rims, and there’re a huge range of options including hill start, heated grips,…

4 min

Back Street Heroes|February 2025

Events

JANUARY 1 Jan: The Hangover Meet at the Ace Cafe, London. More info from www.london.acecafe.com 1 Jan: New Year’s Day Motorcycle Meet at Sammy Miller Motorcycle Museum, Bashley Cross Road, New Milton, Hamps (BH25 5SZ). More info from www.sammymiller.co.uk 2 Jan: Krazy Horse Film Night (The Blues Brothers) at the Abbeygate Cinema, Hatter St, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk (IP33 1LZ). More info’ from www.krazyhorse.co.uk 5 Jan: New Year Autojumble at Whitewebbs Museum of Transport, Whitewebbs Rd, Enfield, London (EN2 9HW). More info’ from www.whitewebbsmuseum.co.uk 5 Jan: Bike Day at the Ace Cafe, London. More info from www.london.acecafe.com 12 Jan: Bike Day at the Ace Cafe, London. More info from www.london.acecafe.com 18 Jan: Unwanted MCC’s Birthday Party at The Rockbar, Shobnall Sports & Social Club, Shobnall Road, Burton upon Trent, Staffs (DE14…

15 min

Back Street Heroes|February 2025

devil’sadvocate /dev.әlz ’æd.vә.kәt/

SOMETIMES IT APPEARS THAT THE OLDER I GET, THE LESS I UNDERSTAND, AND THE LESS I UNDERSTAND, THE MORE CONFUSED I BECOME. It’s a frustrating position but, perhaps, it’s just a natural phenomenon, and something that happens to us all? A shift in mindset, perhaps, that helps gradually to prepare us for our impending and ever-nearing demise? Surely, leaving a world that feels increasingly alien, and one you believe’s become irreversibly mad (or utterly broken) must be less of a wrench? There’re many ‘truths’ in life, things we simply take for granted that appear to be set deeply in the hardest stone. We don’t give them much thought - we just accept that’s how the universe works, and assume it’s how it’s always been and always will be; night follows…

3 min

Back Street Heroes|February 2025

RICK HULSE

THAT WAS A YEAR, THAT WAS! AS I look back at 2024, I can honestly say it wasn’t what I was expecting a year ago. In January I was diagnosed with high-end Stage 3 fatty liver disease, and had to curtail my somewhat prodigious alcohol intake or face stage 4 - the deadly, irreversible stage. Also, to add to my pre-existing litany of health related embuggerments, I’d been referred to a pre-diabetic clinic in a bid to stave off the impending Type 2 diabetes. My lovely wife Mandy and I’d already booked a holiday on the Isle of Sal in the Cape Verde archipelago for our fourth wedding anniversary in early February, so I decided to treat the trip as my swan-song to alcohol and, as you might surmise, that swan…

4 min

Back Street Heroes|February 2025

THE HOOK UP CHOPPER SHOW

For last year’s bash (yes, it’s 2025 now, isn’t it, even though I’m writing this in 2024, so the 2024 event was last year), meself and a bunch o’ mates’d planned to ride down together on chops and customs, while another, whose back’d not really be up to riding a hardtail all the way from East Anglia to Welsh Wales, would drive me van full of tents etm. It was all arranged, and Pam and I were both looking forward to our first long ride of the year, her on her GSX-R ratfighter and me ont’ Future Bike. Then, a few days before, driver matey announces that he’d hurt his wrist at work, and wasn’t going to be up to driving from one side o’ the country to the other.…

4 min

Back Street Heroes|February 2025

LAID-BACK n' DEPENDENCE

When I was old enough, it was big twins I started with, but not American ones - a Suzuki TL1000R. I was a bit of a speed freak, the faster the better, and the bike ended up with a turbo and a ton of engine work, and the aim was to reach 200mph. I didn’t quite get that far, but not far off, but after scaring myself half to death in the process, I decided that if I wanted to live, I needed to slow down. Around 2016 or ’17 I bought my first Harley, an 883 Sportster, and instantly regretted it as the best I could get out of it was 80mph, which was a bit of a comedown. It was fun though, and I found myself with a…

5 min

Back Street Heroes|February 2025

REDNECK NORTON

A quick road trip later it was here, and the investigation started. It turned out the motor was a 1968 Atlas (not a Commando as advertised), and the chain’d run through the squat Harley rear shocks and the rear shock mounts were butchered Norton/welded-on angle-iron (and bent). It’d also been down the road at some point as a footplate bracket was cracked/bent, and so were the ’bars. There was good news, however. The headstock modifications’d been done well, and the tank was a Mustang that someone’d narrowed. The idea was to reuse as much of the original redneck look as possible, and replace the dangerous stuff, so I went through it, welded up the many holes in the frame and rear mudguard, and bolted the tank down (instead of the jubilee…

4 min

Back Street Heroes|February 2025

A NICE START…

Forty years on from my first chopper experience, and having matured at least a bit, I thought again about a long chop. I’d had a Z1000 engine that’d moved house with me many times, but the mortgage finally ate it so, now in more settled times, I had to find a new engine to build around. I’d looked at a Harley Evo engine a few years back, but found you had to get a gearbox, and primary drive, and oil tank etc., and it all seemed very expensive. Then, in 2019 a Twin Cam engine came up on eBay with everything with it - it looked very pretty, except for the dustbin of an air-filter, so I bought it, and so it started. I’d seen Dale from Hellstown Choppers riding…

6 min

Back Street Heroes|February 2025

P&D CUSTOM SHOW

Dave and Chris at P&D, probably the UK’s longest established custom shop (if you add in the years before the name change from Kustom Korner), have been running this August Bank Holiday bike show for a good couple o’ three years now (I think 2024’s was the sixth), and run it more as a chance to get together with all their mates, of which they have many, than a serious custom show… although, of course, they take everything custom very seriously, obviously. It’s a wonderfully laid-back day, held at Slinfold Cricket Club just down the road from the shop, and it was a beautifully warm and sunny one, too. The lads’d booked four bands for the day as, because it was held on the Sunday before a Bank Holiday Monday,…

2 min

Back Street Heroes|February 2025

Mr Bridges Motorcycle Diaries

From the first article we know that the starter solenoid’s a bit like a spider sitting in the middle of the web of the wiring (Fig.2). With a modern solenoid it’ll have the positive lead from the battery connected to it, and the output of the charging circuit connected to it, and it’s the place where the ‘main’ power comes from. The advantage of using the type of solenoid in Fig.3 is that the main power’s fused right at the solenoid, and everything after it’s protected by that fuse. The main power take-off from the solenoid goes to the ignition switch, and ignition switches’re a bit odd. The one I’m currently working with has four key positions: Acc., Off, Ign., and Start. With the key in the Acc. position, then…

8 min

Back Street Heroes|February 2025

Products

MERLIN AXE HYDRO WATERPROOF KEVLAR RIDING SHIRT Building on the success of their Axe protective shirt, the Axe Hydro’s a waterproof Kevlar casual riding shirt that’s the perfect solution to wet/cold weather riding. It has a fully taped and sealed Reissa membrane, providing a premium level of waterproof/breathable performance, that sits between the premium 330gsm outer flannel and a lightweight thermal lining, offering superior protection against the elements. Meeting CE AA certification standards, DuPont Kevlar’s added to impact areas, providing high levels of abrasion resistance, and there’re Armanox CE protectors in the shoulders and elbows, adjustable for a better fit, with a pocket in the back for a D3O back protector. There’re also external and internal pockets, a dropped rear hem to cover the lower back when riding, and a…

4 min

Back Street Heroes|February 2025

Readers' Lives

This month, pics from the 2007 Krazy Horse show in the middle of Bury St Edmunds…

2 min

Back Street Heroes|February 2025

MEDAZA MOSQUITO

“I want to suspend an engine from the top tube of the frame so there’s no need for a front downtube,” said Don. Somebody standing at the bar joked that he could always find a cheap MZ, and they all started laughing as they all knew where to find one. “A friend used an MZ ETZ to commute to Cork, until the gearbox gave him trouble, and about five years ago pushed it to the back of his shed.” Ireland isn’t known for its dry climate, and the ETZ was looking a bit sorry as they dragged it out of the shed. “When I stripped the engine the gudgeon pin’d almost welded itself to the piston, and the crankshaft was only good for scrap. At least the barrel and head could…

5 min

Back Street Heroes|February 2025

DARK DESTROYER (OF FOOTRESTS MOSTLY)

Paul Jones, the owner and builder of this’ere Bandit-engined hardtail streetfighter, is well aware of the latest fashions in custom bike building; of bikes that look like refugees from the late ’50s to the late ’70s; of dark blue jeans wi’ turn-ups; of the resurgence of rock n’ roll at bike events an’ all that but, as someone who harkens back to the ’90s, not the ’70s, doesn’t really see that any of it’s relevant to him. He’s got a very tough matt black GPX750 (monoshock, three-spokes, Sporty tank, cut-down frame) that was featured in 100% Biker back in the 2000s, but he’d always wanted a ’90s-style streetfighter/drag-style chop as those were the bikes he’d drooled over growing up. He’s been building for years and, like the rest of us,…

6 min

Back Street Heroes|February 2025

WARLOCKS MC BIKE SHOW

The street outside’s usually thronging with activity; sadly this year the weather wasn’t kind, and numbers were a lot lower than usual, yet the attendees, of which there were about 450 in total, managed to raise over £700 for the charity Dylan’s Duchenne Journey, Dylan being a little boy rapidly losing his mobility due to Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. I suspect a large proportion of that was down to one of the most bizarre fund raising exploits I’ve ever seen – Mr Burton Gibson, a popular club member and a large character in every manner, letting people staple money directly on to his body! Bikers, being a resilient bunch, stood around both in and out of the showers, with their burgers, ice cream, and tea/coffee, talking bollocks… sorry, sorry… bikes, as…

2 min

Back Street Heroes|February 2025

SUBSCRIBE TODAY

CHOPS & BOBBERS, TRIKES & BIKES – JOIN THE BSH COMMUNITY TODAY BACK STREET HEROES Eee, hasn’t the world changed, eh? When I first started drinking (semi) legally, a beer (Younger’s Tartan bitter if you remember it) cost 79p in the local biker pub, and BSH was, I think, 95p. These days both a beer (well, round my way anyway) and a BSH cost a fiver each, but what would you say if we could do you a special deal, and do you a BSH at just £3.83 instead of £5? That’s a saving of (works out on fingers) 23% – nothing to be sniffed at! SUBSCRIBER BENEFITS INCLUDE: CHOOSE WHICH BSH SUBSCRIPTION SUITS YOU BEST 1: 12-MONTH SUBSCRIPTION BEST VALUE SAVE £15.40 12 print issues for £47 Direct Debit…

1 min

Back Street Heroes|February 2025

TRIUMPH SPEED 400

IT was only a matter of time, really, before Triumph dipped a toe in the ‘classic’, or perhaps that should be ‘retro’, mid-range market that’s been, up to now, the preserve of Royal Enfield – people, it seems, want mid-range bikes, but they want them at RE’s prices rather than Triumph’s, and it’s hardly surprising really; an Interceptor 650 starts at £6,399, while the Bonneville range starts at £9,595 for an 865cc T100 and rising to £11,995 for a 1200cc T120. Yes, you get a higher spec’ bike for your money with Triumph, that much is unarguable, but £3k (or £5.5k) is a lot of money. And, if you can get them to buy one of your entry-level bikes, especially if you’re just starting out on your motorcycling journey (as the…

5 min

Back Street Heroes|February 2025

BANNED AN EMRIC TALE PART TWO

IMMORTAL: NOT SUBJECT TO DEATH OR DECAY, HAVING PERPETUAL LIFE, HAVING EVERLASTING FAME, REMEMBERED THROUGHOUT TIME. FAE: A TYPE OF MYTHICAL BEING OR LEGENDARY CREATURE FOUND IN THE FOLKLORE OF MULTIPLE EUROPEAN CULTURES, A FORM OF SPIRIT, OFTEN DESCRIBED AS METAPHYSICAL, SUPERNATURAL, OR PRETERNATURAL. SIRENS: ENCHANTRESSES CAPABLE OF LURING HUMANS TO THEIR SIDE AND, SUBSEQUENTLY, TO THEIR DOOM. Government Transport Minister Tristan Borges-Wolfe sat behind his huge desk and put his hands behind his head. “Why don’t you tell me what I can do for you… before I tell you what you can do for me?” Fae sat on the corner of his desk, making sure her legs were on show. “I want you to tell me something…” She floated towards him, directly facing him, her eyes wide open —…

13 min

Back Street Heroes|February 2025

Letters

Star LETTER This month’s Star Letter wins a WEISE TEMPEST RAIN JACKET & PANTS WORTH £129.98.Made from tear-resistant Ripstop fabric, the Tempest Jacket & Pants are waterproof and designed to be easy to put on and take off in a hurry. Zipped pockets and reflective strips add to the practicality. Find out more at www.weiseclothing.com DEAR BSH, I happened upon a photo of the wife, Tracey ‘Paws’, from years ago. We’d been together for just a year in 1989, and I didn’t spare any money on the girl − I bought her a BSH sweatshirt and a pair of black Lycras that the mag was also selling back then. It was one of the best Xmas’s I’ve had. If you’d like to use the photo, it’ll make her smile. I…

7 min

Back Street Heroes|February 2025

Motorcycle Action Group

“OURWORST FOES ARE IGNORANCE, POVERTY, AND THE UNCONSCIOUS CRUELTY OF OUR COMMERCIAL SOCIETY”− HELEN KELLER Some of you may remember the Leeds Classic Bike Show which ran at the old tram shed, the Queen’s Hall, back in the late 1980s. The last year it ran, I hung around on the final day to help one of the exhibitors pack up his gear and load his van, his mate having had to leave early due to a family member’s sudden illness. When I finally got away, I pulled up at a red light alongside another exhibitor’s pick-up truck. In the back was a DBD34 Goldie, along with a Rocket Gold Star, both in concourse condition, and both of which I’d been admiring on their stand a few hours before. I was…

5 min

Back Street Heroes|February 2025

REMINISCING…THE HARD TALE

IT was 2pm on a Tuesday afternoon in 1995. The previous week’d been a test of mind, body, sanity, and bank balance. How could things’ve come off the rails so badly? Why had the fates conspired against me? What the hell was going on? The answers were all out there, but I was damned if I could find them. As I stood waiting in the drizzle for the bus, l contemplated the problem. It was all the Bulldog Bash’s fault, l decided − if l hadn’t tried to go, then the events I’d suffered wouldn’t’ve happened. A steadfast refusal to look facts in the face, and a massive dose of heart-ruling head, were the primary contributors, also my girlfriend’d bought the tickets and threatened to shoot me if we didn’t go.…

4 min

Back Street Heroes|February 2025

BACK ISSUES

GO AS FAR BACK AS SEPTEMBER 2014 - ORDER YOUR COPIES TODAY VIA CLASSIC MAGAZINES June 2024 ■ Laverda an unlikely triple treat ■ With a stylish Finnish ■ Miller’s custom classics July 2024 ■ Taiwanese black magic ■ Serious CBR streetfighter ■ Nimbus - bike to the future August 2024 ■ An XS oftrue love ■ Beautiful basic Enfield ■ Holy Holy swansong? September 2024 ■ A psycho sidecar? ■ Cool Finnish shovel ■ Coffin-tanked Kwak October 2024 ■ Tasty dark chop ■ Fully-fettled Norton ■ Billet-engined beaut November 2024 ■ Stunning Ukrainian chop ■ Cool Generator Shovel ■ IfVincent was here December 2024 ■ Eye-catching Hayabusa chop ■ Best Custom’s a family fave ■ Beeza’s simply the best January 2025 ■ Dream shovelhead Harley ■ TDM850 stunner ■…

1 min