Sideburn: 2012 Report

In 2012 Sideburn...

• We made three issues of the magazine (with four different covers).
• Increased the physical size of the magazine.
• Gained some high quality new stockists in Europe, Australia, North America and South Africa (we always need more).
• Didn't buy anything Chinese unless there was no choice.
• Supported the indie press by selling other people's 'zines and promoting other mags when we could.
• Had a special 16-page section in Dice magazine (#44).
• Organised Dirt Quake.
• Attended the Verona Show and had a great party with Mr Martini.
• Had launch parties in Liverpool, Kiddo in Barcelona and Edwin, London.
• Got the Royal Enfield project bike properly finished, rode it and raced it.
• Made 780 blog posts (more than last year despite an effort to take it easy).
• Expanded our social network marketing into both Pinterest and Instagram.
• Raced at many of UK Short Track's meetings.
• Supported both up and coming and long-established artists and photographers with commissions and fees.
• Had a great couple of films made by Patteran to promote Dirt Quake.
• Printed a bunch of different T-shirt designs and gave away a lot of free stickers.
• Supported Oil Stained Brain, Melbourne, and Suit Ride, London.
• Collaborated with Death Spray Custom to produce a special ten-page section & sticker for SB12.
• Attended a few shows in the UK, one in Italy and the excellent Wheels and Waves, Biarritz.

Out of all the things we hoped to do at this time last year, we failed with just one, to get to Finland.
Thanks for all your support. If you like the blog, but don't buy the magazine, please do something about it. This isn't a blog that just steals photos from other blogs (though we do sometimes), we try to serve up original stuff to amuse and interest and inspire, but mainly it's only here to promote the magazine. Those hundred pages, every four months, are what it's all about for us.

For 2013 we plan to...

• Attend our first US show, The One Motorcycle Show, Portland.
• Hold great launches at companies that support Sideburn.
• Sponsor the UK Dirt Track Riders Association race series.
• Attend the Motor Bike Expo, Verona (with Mr Martini).
• Make Dirt Quake 2 a day to remember.
• Make three great magazines using a mixture of complete amateurs and the best in the business.
• Post at least one blog every day.
• Support people who are trying to make the UK motorcycle scene more interesting - whether they bike builders, shops, event organisers or anything else.

Happy new year to all of you. Have fun in 2013. Stay safe. 

Gary, Ben, Mick and Dave

Edwin now stocks Sideburn

Edwin London now has stocks of current and back issues of Sideburn. G

Iron & Resin by Scott Toepfer

Iron & Resin Fall 2013 Lookbook Video from Scott Toepfer on Vimeo.

Photographer and filmmaker Scott Toepfer (who made It's Better In the Wind) filmed this promo film for Sideburn stockists, Iron & Resin in Ventura, California. It's a 'look book' (or long advert for the season's clobber), but there are some very nice shots in it. G

Chicken Run

Aardman Animations have a soft-spot for motorbikes in their films, but I've never seen this still of McQueen with a trademark Wallace grin before. In trying to trace its origins, it turns out, according to Nick Park, "...Chicken Run was based on The Great Escape with chickens".

Airfix now do a good homage (which is most likely the origin of the Steve McQ one). BP

White Christmas

We were dreaming of a white Christmas but only got incessant rain, so here's a photo of Travis and his brother (he's a real cowboy) having some fun on his distilled offal powered Suzuki TS185J Sierra. We are told the Collie body-warmer is much more reliable than all the electrical vests he has tried. BP

Travis has set up a new old, mixed race, bike shop in Wheat Ridge Colorado. Here's the blog.
UPDATE: Travis also writes Sideburn's new regular poetry page. The first one is in Sideburn 12. BP

New Buratti Design

Lorenzo Buratti is Our Kind of Man.
Former-BMX flatland pro, desert racer, bike builder and furniture creator, the Italian has created a new design of workstation. I love it.
See more at www.lorenzoburatti.com/. G

End of Line

We have just one small and one XL Racer Ringer T-shirts left. All the rest are sold out. We'll give a free Sideburn embroidered patch (on sale for £3.50) to those who order one of these last two shirts.

UPDATE: XL now sold out, so the very last shirt we have in stock is the Small. G

(Sideburn + Motorcycho) x SeeSee = OMG!

Yes, it's true Sideburn is sharing a booth with the mighty Motorcycho at February's One Motorcycle Show in Portland, Oregon. It's organised by that hero to all, Thor Drake of SeeSee Motorcycles.
Now I've just got to work out how to get all the shirts and magazines to Portland (or Motorcycho HQ in Vancouver) without going bankrupt. Any ideas? G

Francoise

GI just recommended me this funny film Moonrise Kingdom, from The Royal Tenenbaums director Wes Anderson. Most of the score is from classical British composer Benjamin Britten, so when this Francoise Hardy record is played on the modest Barrington portable it's even more poignant. BP

Joyous Noel

by Mr Will Vincent

Miskolc by Zenit 11

Earlier in the year, the final round of the inaugural six-round FIM World Flat Track championship was held in Miskolc, Hungary. A bunch of the hardcore Brit racers went on the drive out, as did the Italians. So did long-time Hungarian Sideburn correspondent, Peter Guld. He took these photos with an old Russian film camera, a Zenit 11, and Kodak Gold 200. Here's what he says...

The race (FIM Flat Track Cup) was incredibly good. Fantastic riders, fantastic weather, and a brilliant final. The new wave of the dirt track scene (Collins, Marzotto, Woolley) against the pioneers (old school guys, as Boastie, Belli and Vesprini). 

In the final we saw a fucking big battle between Vesprini and Collins, at the end Collins finished in the first place followed by Vesprini and Woolley. This was enough for Vesprini to win the Cup, so he is the champion in 2012. Signor Fasciani was there too, so it was a big celebration. Before the race Vesprini led the championship with only one point before Woolley. So everything was really cool. 

At the end of the day I grabbed the Zaeta from Belli and I made a few laps, so I became the jester of the event. My bad luck that Woolley got the bike too and showed to everybody, that bike is perfect, just the big guy wasn't on the top.  But I enjoyed a lot, who knows when will you get another chance to ride with a world class bike like this. Marco was again generous and lovable as always.

Buddy Customs Sportster

The one I've seen, that I've liked the most in a long time. Love the drilled-to-within-an-inch-of-their-lives front discs.
Those boots look like something from Krusty's wardrobe though. If you're going to wear Diadoras, stick to Borg Elites.
UPDATE: Photo from Buddy Custom Cycles blog. G

The Stags in London

Sideburn's houseband, The Stags, are playing Camden, London on Sat 29th of December. They're supported by Bristol's Hi Class Joes (below), who played at the Rollerburn pre-party and - I think - the last British Linkert Attacks.

Every Stags show is unique and we can't promise a Theremin Helmet solo (like in this clip), but if you can make it, it'll be a beauty.

Remember, we released a Stags 7in. It's a beauty too. Get it here. G

PS These are the real Stags, not the new band that's trying to steal their name.

Sidebürn Beast T-shirt & Art Print

The brand nü T-shirt is not too late for Christmas, it's just good and early for Spring (or perfect timing if you're from the Southern hemisphere). Sidebürn's latest T-shirt was designed to our specification by one of very favourite illustrators, Adi Gilbert of 99 Seconds.

It comes in black only and sizes S to XXL. It's screenprinted in the ÜK onto a Gildan Ültra. £17 plüs post. Every Beast T-shirt order comes with an exclüsive sticker.

We're also offering the T-shirt as a combo with a heavyweight A3 art print. This is printed on 300gsm gloss card. It looks great in a frame or jüst Blü-tacked to the wall. The print measures 29.7cm x 42cm (roughly 12 x 16.5in).

We're not selling the print separately at the moment. The combo comes with two free stickers. Orders received over Christmas will go out on January 3.

Order now to avoid disappointment. Go to the Sideburn webshop. Thanks G

The exclüsive sticker.

Burning Man

Davida went with a small contingent to Burning Man this year. This was Fid's personal favorite, a Honda CX500 powered avgas tank car; with (the nerd in me says) Mini 1275 Rostyle wheels (but then they look bigger than 10"?).

This is their Evel Knievel Speedster. BP

UK Indoor Flat Track - LAST CALL

Englanders! Stuck for motorcycle kicks over the Christmas holiday? No need, Short Track UK are holding a star-studded flat track meet INDOORS at Grantham, Nottinghamshire on December 27.
There are road race, supermoto and speedway stars racing, plus friends of Sideburn including representatives of Co-Built, Rusty Nail and Station 165.
Tickets are still on sale.

Go to Short Track UK for more details and to purchase tickets. G

Leftism

Sideburn prides itself on being leftfield. But the Ornamental Conifer cover for latest issue of DiCE #47, just kicked the ball not merely into touch, but over the terraces.

The DSC feature on Bonzorro's ropey Triumph chop is a right chuckle. GI lists 'some of my favorite things' in their on-going series. BP

Krazy Horse New HQ

The good people at Krazy Horse are bucking the UK trend of going out of business and are, instead, investing-the-fuck-out-of-things, by moving into a huge, modern showroom/cafe/hang out.
They build high-end choppers and street trackers of all breeds and creeds, import Zero Choppers and Storz into Europe and have lined up a few tasty clothing brands to sell- Deus Ex Machina, Levi's Vintage, Red Wing, Davida, Belstaff, Roland Sands...
They're also having an Ace Cafe-approved eatery called Rockers on site. And where is this? London? Nope. Manchester? No. Birmingham? Nah. It's in Bury St Edmonds, Suffolk.
The Krazy Horse crew supported both Rollerburn and Dirt Quake, even supplying a Zero for Dimitri Coste to race. Top people.
The new address is Empire House, Bury St Edmunds, IP32 6NU. G

Boneshaker x Fly53

Benny Boneshaker (who was in Sideburn 10 with the Sunday Morning Sportster street scrambler he built for the Black Douglas company) has collaborated with British clothing brand Fly53 to make a line of T-shirts.
They were designed by Fly53's Will Rigg, who is one of Boneshaker's long-term customers and a Sideburn reader.
Find out more at Fly53 Boneshaker.com . G

Nürburgring

Spotted this Nürburgring sticker on a boy racer Punto the other day, and thought it was pretty funny - I don't get out enough I know.
Now trumped by this even better Oi van driver one. BP

Psychedelic Agostini

Clips from the 1970 film Bolidi sull'Asfalto a Tutta Birra (Racers going flat out on the asphalt) shuffled heartily and put to The Trap by British band The Maze (featuring pre-Deep Purple drummer Ian Paice). I don't think it troubled the Academy Awards judging panel, despite Ago's compelling performance as fashion clothes horse, twin-shock scrambler and mobile disco botherer. MP

Sideburn's 48hrs in Milan Pt.2

So, after an afternoon looking around the huge EICMA Show (see 48hrs, part 1), Dave and I got the train to Officine Mermaid. They are a bike builders, importers, service centre and a clothes and accessory shop in Milan. When Sideburn did it's first ever foreign trip we went to Milan for a small one-night event called Milan Showdown. We met a lot of great people and began a love affair with the North Italian scene. The Mermaid crew really looked after us. It was them who invited Dave and I out for this trip.

The street that Mermaid is based on, Via Thaon di Revel, is slowly being turned into a 'moto quarter', with a few bike-related boutiques set up on the narrow street. Mermaid have also taken over a cafe that is decorated with motorcycles and various petrolalia.

Mermaid put us up in this incredible 1960s film set of an apartment.

Pinball coffee table.

RIDERS PARTY

That night we made the short walk back to Thaon di Revel for the Riders magazine party. It was sponsored by Pirelli, so there were various rubber things around, like tyres hanging from the ceiling, a welly boot nailed to the wall, rubber hammock, trampoline. People, mainly women, kept wanting to 'interact' with the rubber but when they did a security guard would come up and stop the fun. Oh, and there was free beer all night. These two facts might be related.

Conrad, one of the Anvil Motorcycle crew and me (double-fisting free drinks. Northern scum).

I rarely do the 'stand awkwardly next to famous person' but it was Noriyuki Haga! I was present at his first ever test in the UK. A colleague found out about it and at the time I worked about 20 miles away, so I went up and got straight in. It was me, Nori and Scott Russell and their team at Castle Combe, back in the Yamaha YZF750 days, early 1996, I think. Scott Russell's girlfriend didn't like Nori because 'he's always making weird sex noises'. I like Nori, but I wish Scott Russell had been at this party. That would've got it swinging.

Plenty of cool bikes fill the street on Riders Party night.

 This is what some Italian motorcycle builders look like. Fantastico!

RIDERS MAGAZINE

The next day I went to see Rolling Stone magazine, that I work for, then over to Riders magazine's new office. Riders is a monthly motorcycle magazine that is way, way, way out there. It's like a fuel-injected Vogue. Above is editor Roberto Ungaro, a ball of suave energy who can ride anything with two wheels like a demon. On his shelf is the Davida Dirt Quake helmet he won for triumphing in the Inappropriate Road Bike class.

This is Paolo Sormani, who seems to write at least half of every issue of Riders. He's an anglophile, Northern Soul aficionado and a gentleman.

THE LAST NIGHT

The whole idea of going out was for me and Dave to play some records in Mermaid's cafe (that I can't remember the name of, but it's opposite their bike shop. You can't miss it) on the Friday night .

Euro dirt track legend, Jacapo Monti turned up Dave Aldana's official Transatlantic Trophy jacket that he bought in the auction at Sideburn's David Aldana night, back in 2011. So did Raffaele P of the Streetracker blog, regular Sideburn contributor who shot the cover of Sideburn 11.

 Dimitri of Super Company brought his tuned up Salt Shaker Cub and was razzing around on it.

Just down the street from where Dave and I were having record player problems, Deus Ex Machina had a launch at a site that will be called Blocco 3. Deus are moving into Milan from January, with all the ingredients that have worked in Aus, Bali and, more recently, California. The difference is, I think, that this store will be run like a franchise, not organised by the Deus brain trust themselves. It will be interesting to see what the Italians add to the Deus mix, if anything.

It was great to see a chop parked up with these lids strapped to the sissy bar.

Arrivederci Italian people, see you in Verona in January. G