T-shirts, Good News, Bad News

GOOD NEWS: As promised here are some shots of the new 'Limp' shirt being sported by humans to give you a better idea of just how gorgeous they are. The lady is wearing a small. The hunk with the XR750 is in a medium. Sizes go up to XXL. They are for sale, £18, plus post, here. Thanks to all those who've already ordered.

BAD NEWS: A little while ago the mighty Deus Ex Machina offered to make a Sideburn collaboration T-shirt. We bought a bunch of them to sell on and, bad news, we're down to our last one - a Medium Charcoal grey, just like the one Geoff Co-Built  is modelling on our recent trip to Barcelona. If you want it, it's here. G
UPDATE: Really bad news. It's now sold out. Thanks Mark.

World's Nicest Indian for Sale

Our good friend Jason has put his Indian Sport Scout up for sale. It features in Sideburn 10 (where these Paul Bryant photos are from).
It is stunning and has a £2000-plus magnesium Smith-Kanrin rear drum.
It'll cost you £15,000.

See all the details here. No bored old men who just want to talk about bikes, no tyre kickers, no agencies, please. G

Cock 'n' Shoot

GI fires off a few rounds on the the F-Track 450i Pursang in Kiddo. BP

El Granchufle

My new favourite band tick all the boxes. Surf band? Check. With theremin? Check. And foxy theremin player? Check. Named after a mystical Patagonian yeti? Check. At least one band member from Chile? Check. Release stuff on vinyl? Of course.
El Granchufle. Lovely stuff. G
PS Yes, we have a theremin tag too.

Kiddo Cats and Kittens

What a shop. What a party. Thanks Sergio, Brusco, Jordi, DJ Inocuo and Carlos. The Kiddo Motors shop was even cooler than I thought it was going to be. Wall to wall felidae. And the Spanish variety like to lick Sailor Jerry's rum all night. Once the Policia shut down the festivities at midnight(?) we stumbled down the street for fantastic tapas. Our DJ gave the head waiter a nod and all the single tables were joined together in one long line so we could all eat together. Only Co-Built and the Ruby boys still had the energy to then reach for the lazers and go out clubbing until silly o'clock. BP

The Sacramento Mile

Bryan Smith was the first man to win a twin race on a 650 ER6 Kawasaki, when he won the Springfield and Indy Miles on the Werner Springsteen bike, back in 2010. He left the team and chose to race Harley XR750, but has returned to a Jap twin framer. This weekend he won the Sac Mile on the Howerton Kawasaki. 

Sammy Halbert came fifth. His brother Jethro, made it through the semis to finish 11th.
UPDATE: Sammy and Cory Texter (Shayna's brother) are complaining about the restrictors the XR's have to use on Instagram.

Jared Mees, 3rd in the Main. He leads the combined GNC title.

Briar Bauman, from Sideburn 10, didn't make the Main.

Nichole Cheza, 13th in the Main.

 Jared Mees (9) and Jake Johnson (1) have been head to head in the twins races all year. Jake won the Dash for Cash, J-Rod was second. Jake came second in the Main.

We have a great, in-depth story on Jake's Zanotti XR750 and what makes it so competitive, in Sideburn 11.

 Brandon Robinson, who came to race us in the UK when he was 16, is now on the Werner Springsteen Kawasaki and came fourth (career best, in the twins class, I think).

 I love it when the bikes run two different wheels. This is Mikey Avila.

Another view of the winner's Howerton Kawasaki.

YEAH! After bashing himself up at the Springfield TT, Mikey Martin showed his potential with a 9th in the main on the Bonneville Performance Triumph. We also have a great story on this bike, in Sideburn 11, written by the man who built the bike,  Bill Gately.

51 is Steve Murray on the KTM in the heats. He made the main and came 15th. In the main, won by a Kawasaki, were three Kawasakis, one KTM, one Ducati, one Triumph and 12 H-D XR750s.

Build a bike that can win and, it seems, Bryan Smith will win on it. 

Photos: AMA Pro Racing.

Shayna Texter wins at Sacramento

Shayna Texter won her first Pro Singles Mile on Saturday night (after winning the Knoxville Half-Mile last year). I wonder how she will do when moves up to the twins.
Read about her in Sideburn 5. G

CFH x CX500

Fin Soup

Wembley, 1948

Apparently, some running and jumping event started in earnest last night, at a brand-new purpose-built stadium in London's Stratford. But the last Olympic Games held in Britain were based around The Empire Stadium, better known as Wembley Stadium, given its name by popular consent from the area in which its twin towers sat, in London's north-western suburbs.

The stadium was already 25 years old - none of yer purpose-build splurge in those years of make-do - and while it was being tarted up ready for the Games, the resident speedway team, the Wembley Lions, were turfed out for the whole summer and had to run home matches at the track of bitter rivals, the Wimbledon Dons, way down south on the other side of the river.

But for the 1948 British Riders' Championship final, speedway was back at Wembley and the September meet drew a crowd of getting on for 100,000 be-capped, Woodbine-fuelled spectators to see Australian Vic Duggan, the moustachioed Harringay Racers rider, take the title. Yep, 100,000 at a speedway event in Britain, and it wasn't uncommon. There's some Pythonesque BBC newsreel footage of the event here. MP

Vic Duggan in action in 1947. Pic: John Chapman/defunctspeedway.co.uk

Olympic opening ceremony, Wembley, 1948. Imagine the same sort of crowd for  a speedway meet. It happened, and often

Hunter S Thompson

Much quoted, but not so often on Moto Guzzi alternator covers. The much sculpted El Solitario V50. BP

Planet Sputnik

Looking for 1950s glamour or swinging 1960s chic? Retro haven Planet Sputnik is your one-stop vintage location, vehicle, prop, wardrobe and people hire agency for photographic, film and television work – and all within easy reach of London. Check out planet-sputnik.com to see what we can do for you.

Kiddo tonight

Wheels and Waves, Biarritz, pt. 3

Finally. Got waylaid finishing off SB#11...

So having been properly roastbeefed on the lawn of Chateau Brindos, Les Anglais marched to the swimming pool, rolled out their towels and plunged into the heavenly blue. I swam 2 lengths under water and surfaced a new man. In my pants. Kristina Fender followed us in. Her bra and panties don't match. Very punk said Gary. By the time Fid caught on (to the swimming pool, not deconstucted underwear), so had security. The club tropicana heist was over and the pool was given back to the sun bathing residents.

That's a pond in the background filled with killer pike. The surf at the beach just down the road was spectacular, but sadly I broke the vow I made before leaving England, that I would risk my life in it at some point over the weekend, and made-do with just staring gormlessly at it. BP

Catalan cuties

Given Sideburn's imminent arrival in the Catalan capital for the Kiddo/Sideburn #11 launch party, here are a couple of tasty nippers from lesser-known Barcelona bike builders Ducson. These 49cc four-speed strokers are the S-20 and S-21 from, I think, the late 1960s/early '70s. Guapissim! MP

Shaved and engraved

These are the stock, four-piston, radial-mount GSX-R1000 Tokico calipers for the Black Arrow. They were roughly ground flat when I bought them secondhand. I've wet and dried them, then sent them to Matt B, the owner of a bike I featured for PB, who had the Tokico logos engraved into them. It's a tiny detail, in the overall scheme of the bike, but I love it.
Next they'll be bead blasted and hard anodised. G

Limp Pocket Shirt

 BACK

FRONT

I know it would've made more sense to get this in at the same time as the latest magazine, but the mag was late and the T-shirt was early. Anyway, it's here now. Navy blue with a white print, combining two of our most popular stickers - Sideburn soul on the pocket, If you don't limp... and Dwayne on the back.
S to XXL on a heavy Fruit of the Loom, screenprinted en Angleterre. If you want one, don't hang around, some of our T-shirts sell out pronto.

Sideburn webshop

Note, the white on the graphic is to show the outline, there is no white stitching, it's blue. I'll get a photo sorted when I get five minutes.
These will be sent out early next week, when we get back from Spain. Grassyass me ameegos! G