Back Street Heroes August 2025

I’m not going to mess around with preamble this issue, so let’s just talk about stupidity, shall we? T’other day I was at a pub, picking up some stuff from an event I’d held there, and was being talked at by a typical cardriving know-it-all who, when he overheard me and a mate saying that the weather before the weekend’d perhaps put a few folk off, opined that, yes, that was because riding bikes in the wet’s dangerous, isn’t it? Now, normally, I’d just ignore this sort of comment cos, well, you know the announcer’s never been on a bike in his life, but this guy was such a nob that I felt compelled to say summat. “No, mate, riding bikes in the wet, in itself, isn’t dangerous – what’s…

And d’y’ know what? It was well worth the trip across the country from over ‘ere to over there, it really was; three halls of customs, bikes, and cars, plus the Two Brothers Racing Stunt Team arena, and a Harley-Davidson ride-n’-try area, too. There was onsite camping a few hundred yards away, and loads of parking, and, importantly, the weather stayed good, which always puts a smile on people’s faces. Rocking up on the Friday to unload the Spondon?, I was very impressed with the sheer number of bikes entered; there was a whole sizeable hall full of, if you like, our kind of customs, and an equally sized one housing what they call ‘Butchered Classics’, but what we’d call streetfighters, as well as scooters, and classics of the old…

Nick Eddison, you see, is the custodian, as he describes himself, of a piece of British chopper history – he’s the third owner of ‘The Original Sin’, a 1960 Triumph Thunderbird originally put together by the legendary Dick Smith of the hallowed South London workshop Baron’s Speed Shop. He’s world famous for being one of the best in putting together period correct stock and custom British bikes, especially Triumphs, and has an impressive client list which includes A-list celebrities as well as humbler customers (like Nick), too. The Original Sin was built 15 years ago to showcase the skills of Baron’s Speed Shop, and was originally owned by Del Russell, who was then part of the original set up. At that time, the bike was in a different incarnation, with…

The club has a core of eighteen regular members who meet at the Club on the first Sunday each month, and they raise funds for charities on a five-year cycle – this year’s Year Two for Blesma, a charity helping limbless veterans to live independent and fulfilling lives. Veteran Kevin Davis attended to represent the charity in receiving a cheque from club chairman Alex White for one thousand pounds already raised and, after the presentation, he told his story and how Blesma’d helped and supported him to build a new life as an amputee, giving encouragement, support, and legal advice, as well as sourcing practical items to meet his changing needs. Blesma covers the whole of the UK, working with the NHS, and is committed to the health, welfare and…

Sandy’s son, James (“the one with the money in the family” he says) started this XS650 chopper project by purchasing a Fenlands Chopper frame and ordering a springer front end, with wheel, caliper, and disc, from a supplier on eBay. He’d already sourced a bastardised XS650 scrambler, with logbook, from a guy in Hastings and hired a van to collect it and to bring it back to his native Suffolk. Needless to say, he was a few grand in at this point alone, and the end wasn’t really in sight so, when one day his dad came home with a running XVS bobber, he took one look at it and ‘offered’ to swap the ongoing XS project for the completed and on the road Yam. “Somehow,” Sandy says smiling ruefully,…

After much pestering, nan then promised me the money to purchase my first bike if I passed all of my O-levels. With a little exaggeration of my results, dad took me to his friend’s bike dealership and I was soon the proud owner of a cherry red MZ50. Owning the MZ was never really a brag, but it did go, importantly, 3mph faster than my friends’ Fizzy and old Gilera, with that great smell of smoky over-mixed two-stroke. Bliss. My gleaming new wheels didn’t last long though… While at college, unbeknownst to me, someone stuffed tissue paper into my tank. After limping home on a cold winter’s evening, dad and I set about searching for the issue in our garage, which was heated by a super-bright arc lamp. As dad…