Innehållsförteckning för June 2024 från Back Street Heroes

Yay, it’s May, and that should mean we’re at the beginning of summer 2024! (Note the ‘should’, he says pessimistically – many’s the time I’ve been to rallies in May and lain shivering in me tent wishing I’d not put the winter sleeping bag away quite so readily…) It’s definitely the month in which the event season kicks off with a vengeance, isn’t it? In our listings for this issue there’re some… er… hang on, talk amongst yourselves for a moment… 58 weekend events, plus any number of weekday bike nights, and should your bank balance/liver/long-suffering other ‘arf stand it, you could probably go to a bike-related event every single day this month. And they say biking’s a dying thing, do they? Unusually for me, I (allegedly) have the weekend…

Some of us may remember, back in the 1980s, a Finnish stunt rider, Arto Nyqvist, who came to Santa Pod and did insanely wonderful stunts (absolutely vertical wheelies the likes of which we’d never seen, skiing off the back wearing clogs) on a Z1300, and those of you of a street-fighting bent may’ve read about the now sadly defunct weekends of two-wheeled mayhem that were the legendary Bomber Weekends, organised (chaos) by the Finnish version of Streetfighters magazine, Bomber. Apart from that, well, it’s near Sweden, isn’t it? And it’s very cold in winter, there’re a lot of trees, and it’s expensive there (but not as expensive as Norway… nowhere’s as expensive as Norway). That’s about all we know… What we definitely don’t know is that it has an absolutely…

They built the bike as a sister vehicle to the classic car belonging to the famous musician, and its body lines exactly mirror the shape of the car, while its construction echoes the components of the car, too. The headlight area, for example, imitates the front of the car with its radiator; the rear lights look like car lights; and the handlebars and levers’re made in the style of the car’s windshield frame; while the front mudguard over the 30-inch wheel’s finished with a chrome cover, just like the Slow Burn’s fenders; and that wheel’s inspired by the appearance of a car wheel, while the entire rear of the motorcycle forms a symmetrical line with the rear of the car. It’s based around a RevTech 115-cubic inch (1,884cc) engine and…

I do like a custom classic bike though, in fact some of my favourite bikes of this ’ere magazine’s long, long history’ve been based on classic, mostly British, motorcycles: Mitch’s Norvin from issue 4; the Fuchsia BSA; Odgie’s pink Triumph; Larry Houghton’s Brough; Vic Jefford’s single-sided Triumph; Briz from CCD’s cherry red A10 (which, strictly speaking, was in 10% Biker – I really must get over and photograph it for BSH); the list is almost endless, but anyway… Motorcycle museums then, as you can imagine, leave me a little cold. I don’t mind seeing classic bikes, stock classic bikes, out on the roads as God, Edward Turner, James Lansdown, Philip Vincent, and all the others intended, rorting and snorting, rattling and dripping – that’s part of our heritage, part of…

Unlike last year, the weather gods (y’know, those nice people who stand in front of big maps on the telly and smile sweetly as they tell you you’re going to get p*ss-wet through) were kind enough to keep the snow away, and Pam and I drove up, in a hire van with a couple of bikes in the back, in, mostly, sunshine – I say ‘mostly’ ‘cos this year was the first time ever I didn’t stop at the Border Stone on the A68 because it was blowing a hoolie, and the piper who’s usually there was conspicuously absent (probably ‘cos the tartan octopus he usually has trapped under his arm’d taken advantage of the suitably aquatic weather to make a break for a nearby loch). The Edinburgh bypass was…

Paul Duffy was at the Druids MCC Show in Kildare, Ireland, back in 2017 and, wandering the field, he bumped into a guy named Kevin who had a rather nice trike. Paul’d always been a fan of trikes, and this one completely lit the blue touch-paper – he decided then and there he had to have one. He chatted with Kevin for a bit, and then, he thought, it was going to just be a simple case of finding and buying one. The hunt was on, but nothing really piqued his interest – so many that were offered were nothing more than bikes with a car axle added, not really customs, and while there’s nothing wrong with that, for him they just didn’t hit the right buttons. He thought about…

WE know, though, don’t we, that that’s not the full picture – yes, there are those out there who’d rip yer ’ead off an’ spit down yer neck as soon as look at you, definitely, but, equally, there’re also a large number of us hairy (and, these days, not so hairy) folk who have more sensitive and artistic souls and only look, on the outside, like the images foisted upon us by those with a desire to sell sensationalist films and TV series and the like. That fact is particularly true, I think, amongst the denizens of the custom bike world where folk who might look as though your granny’d cross the road to avoid ’em are amongst some of the most artistic and creative anywhere, turning out motorcycular conceptions…

The 650 Super Meteor is a big Meteor, it really is. It has the same overall look and stance, and it has a very similar feel, just more so. You could, almost, swap between the two and not really feel the difference… until you fire up the engine, release the clutch, and pull away on a 650 twin, rather than a 350 single. Now, when we (okay, I) do roadtests ‘ere at BSH, they tend to be on the roads not too far from the Editorial Hovel and so the pictures do, I admit, have something of a universal look to their backgrounds but, thanks to the way the timescales worked last year, I was booked to do Stormin’ the Castle while I had the Super Meteor and, as I…

It’s a paradox of modern politics that those who govern us, having worked most of their lives to achieve power, should put themselves in a position that risks rendering them nigh-on powerless. That was the problem with our membership of the European Union – MPs would tell MAG lobbyists they’d like to help us with whatever issue was in question, but the decision’d been made by the EU, and there was nothing they could do. It was true, of course – the UK had indeed signed its sovereignty away, despite the lies Prime Minister Heath told. Now though, since Brexit, MPs once more have the final say unless, of course, they again sign it away. Unfortunately for us though, they’ve done just that. Such is the effect of the Climate…

And while, as I say, we probably won’t ever see one of these in these hallowed pages, there’re others out there that, while not quite as rare, are almost equally unlikely to feel the hot kiss of the custom builder’s gas-axe. The motorcycle you see here before you for example, while not quite in the above class, is another that, again, is something you’d see too often in fully customised form; it’s a genuine Laverda Jota from the late 1970s/early 1980s, and it belongs to a guy called Stephen Anstis. I don’t know if you know much about what is one of the classic Italian superbikes, but the Jota, in its truest form, was a bike that, if it hadn’t been for the British Laverda importers, the now long defunct…

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! CHOOSE WHICH BSH SUBSCRIPTION SUITS YOU BEST 1: 12-MONTH SUBSCRIPTION BEST VALUE 12 print issues for £47 Direct Debit 12 print issues for £52 credit/debit card SAVE £15.40 2: SIX-MONTH SUBSCRIPTION 6 print issues for £25 Direct Debit 6…

Just before the introduction of the dreaded bat lurgi in 2020, we were planning to organise a series of BSH custom shows, alongside the ones we’re already involved with, of our own, as well as the online rounds on our Facebook Page and Group, and finally, for 2024, we’ve done it! Yes, this year, as well as the three online rounds of June, July and August, we’ve also arranged a number of ‘real world’ rounds, too – six of them to be precise, covering more of the country than we have done previously! The first was at the Scottish Motorcycle Show back in March (you can see the first winners here hereabouts), and then there’ll be: ROUND 2 IS SUNDAY 23 JUNE AT THE STRATFORD AUTO JUMBLE AT STRATFORD RACE…

THE BIKERS COVE The Bikers Cove, on the south bank of the Firth of Forth, below the famous Rail Bridge (amazing view of it), just outside Edinburgh, is a very cool little biker café, with a huge amount of parking, that offers great food, very passable coffee, and a killer haggis/square sausage breakfast roll. Located at one end of a small parade of shops selling other cool hippy/alternative stuff, it’s well worth a visit for the food, the company, and the views of all three bridges and the Firth, and it’s open every day of the week except Mondays. The Bikers Cove is at 6 Newhalls Rd, South Queensferry (EH30 9TA), and you can get more info’ from their Facebook Page and Group. DGR 2024 Registration for the 2024 Distinguished…