Flathead

Another instalment from Sideburn ambassador, John Harrison.

My Harley found me sometime in 1983. The father of one of my friends had built it up from three tea chests of parts that he swapped for a complete and running V-twin BSA that was promptly sold to a Japanese collector. He'd built it but ran out of steam before finishing it off. It was copper metallic with white grips and running board rubbers and lots of chrome. I wasn't into Harleys, but saw those 'bars and fell in love. The fact that it had a hand shift and foot clutch added to the appeal.

I haggled him down to £650 because I had £50 saved and a two-year loan for £600 was all I could afford to pay off. Even then I knew I'd stolen it. I finished it off, which only involved wiring it and fitting a saddle.

This picture was taken in 1984, when it was my only transport and I was doing some weekend maintenance. My sister and her toddler were visiting. My girlfriend had recently passed her driving test and bought herself the lemon R5. She was evidently going for the complete French gamine look. We celebrated our 28th wedding anniversary this year. My little niece Emma, who is copying me by playing with spanners on the bike, grew into a bona fide rock chick with a group called Band of Skulls who are quite popular with the younger generations, I understand. Sometimes I look at this pic and wish I'd left it like that, with the lovely colour and 18in front wheel, but maybe it's just the atmosphere in the photo that I like.

In time it needed an engine rebuild, so I took the opportunity to paint it and fit a 16in front wheel. This pic was taken in about 1993, soon after I got it back together. My children loved getting rides like this, sitting in my lap. I would deliver them to their friends' birthday parties with them wearing a bicycle helmet. It has stayed pretty much the same since, except that I've let it get dirty and look its age.

The most memorable ride I've made on it was to Pendine and back to watch the VHRA racing along the beach in 2015. That was 220-odd miles each way. Fine weather, wonderful roads (the Welsh A40 with its endless, fast, long sweepers), good convoy company and the bike running well. I felt like I was flying. Vintage motorcycling can be slow, uncomfortable and unreliable and isn't for everyone, but it suits me fine. Pic: James Bad JuJu Mitchell

I rode it in the Harley class at Dirt Quake V and came in last in all three races. But I had the best seat in the house when Dimitri Coste lapped me at great speed on the inside with Wiggo chasing hard flying down my outside blatting into turn 3.

Hot days in camp

Today marks the start of the 2016 Wheels and Waves festival in Biarritz (GI's there already). Here's a little advice for those camping. Of course, these tips can be used for any camping situation. Don't forget your pyjamas. MP
As taken from Camping and Camp Crafts (1959) by Gordon Lynn, illustrated by Ernest Kurt Barth.

Vintage Engineer Boots

If engineer boots are your thing. If you know your Cat's Paw from your cord outsole. Your Sears from your Chippewa - or if you want to learn, get over to John's Vintage Engineer Boots blog, which is just about to turn its seventh year of boot and good-gear celebration. (Strummer is wearing Sears, by the way.) MP

Lead suited and booted

'Put on the suit and get on the bike.'

'But pa..'

'Get. On. The. BIKE!'

From Mechanix Illustrated, March 1952 and culled from the entertaining Modern Mechanix blog. Don't miss the Transparent Face Mask. MP

Caroll Resweber

Caroll Resweber won his first AMA Grand National championship in 1958, aged 22. The Texan went on to win four in a row, a record that stood until Scott Parker won his fifth on the trot in 1998. And between 1957 and 1961, Resweber won half of the 30 National championship races. He died back in May this year, but his place in flat track history has long been assured. MP

Frenzied practice for Snow Quake

Yes, these plucky fun-seekers are so keen to be in top form for Snow Quake that they wangled a trip back to the Tyrol in 1953 to practise. Note 1: there is no skiing class for Snow Quake. Note 2: but we are talking Snow Quake. MP

BSA USA

A pleasing dose of nostalgia as spotted on the Britbike forum. The pics are from the collection of the late Joe Ward, who from 1959-'64 was a field rep for the West Coast BSA importer, Hap Alzina, based in Oakland, California. They were posted by Joe's nephew and you can see more here. What's that frame on the A10 TT bike? MP

Magali Noël - Le Rififi

Off-topic warning!

I'd never heard of Magali Noël until her death was reported on an excellent weekly obituaries podcast (yes really, Radio 4 The Last Word). She sounded interesting, so I investigated. I'm glad I did...

This is from the 1955 French Noir film Les Rififi Chez Les Hommes. (it says 1959 on the YouTubed clip above, but elsewhere it says 1955, and I think that's correct). Rififi is French for fighting or brawling.

Noël also recorded a song about masochistic tendencies call Fais-moi mal, Johnny ("Hurt me Johnny"), that was banned for its lyrical content. This is a translation of one verse, from the original French, I found online...

His little shirt back on 
His li'l suit, his li'l shoes 
Went down the stairs 
Leaving me with a dislocated shoulder. 
For thugs this type, it ain't worth the expense 
Now my bums are all bruised 
Never again shall I request 

Hurt me hurt me Johnny...  

If you're wondering what this post is doing on a motorcycle magazine's blog, I'll explain that our blog is updated daily and has a much longer lead (leash if you're American) to go sniffing out things nothing to do with motorcycling like parquet flooring, glass-blowing or the surfer, Bunker Spreckels. If you're solely interested in motorcycles, click on a subject in the green on the right hand side of the screen or come back tomorrow and we guarantee there will be another post, probably about motorcycles, because this blog is...
UPDATED
EVERY
GOSH-
DARN
DAY... G

Race With The Devil

The fact this is brilliant is reason enough, but it's also a reflection of the healthy hot rod scene in the States in the mid 1950s, and showcases the great guitar of Cliff Gallup with two class breaks. Lyrics provided, because Gene, who'd have turned 80 this year, really turns on his Virginia slur. First released in 1956. MP

RACE WITH THE DEVIL (Davis, Vincent, 1956, Capitol 3530)

Well, I've led an evil life, so they say
But I'll out-run the Devil on judgement day

[Chorus]
I say, move hot rod, move man
Move hot rod, move man
A-move hot rod, move me on down the line

Well, me and the Devil sittin' at the stoplight
He started rollin', I was out of sight

[Chorus]

I was going pretty fast, looked behind
Here comes the Devil doin' ninety-nine

[Chorus] Let's drag now

I thought I was smart, the race was won
And here comes the Devil doin' hundred-and-one

[Chorus] Let's drag again

I was going pretty fast, looked behind
Here comes the Devil doin' ninety-nine

[Chorus]

Well, I've led an evil life, so they say
But I'll out-run the Devil on judgement day

[Chorus]

Meccano treasure trove

Meccano Magazine was started in 1916 by Frank Hornby, inventor of the Meccano hobby engineering sets (and later Hornby model railways and Dinky toys, some hat-trick) that did a brilliant job of keeping the minds of millions of teenage boys off their own nuts, for a while at least.

A bunch of insanely dedicate people have scanned and made available pretty much every copy of the magazine, which ran until 1981. There's even a searchable index. If you go in there, don't expect to emerge in less than an hour. The bikes, by the way, are from August and October 1929. Many thanks to Brownhills Bob for the tip-off. MP

Play loud, drink rum

A be-fezed Sir Johnny Alpha has been in his basement of beat once again to bring us the latest Killer Diller Radio Show. A young beatster asked Sir Johnny if there was any theme to this edition of the 90-minute aural orgasm. 'No theme man,' came the reply, 'just a load of random great records.' Eclectic brilliance from the likes of The Kneejerk Reactions, Nobody's Children, Arthur Crudup, Soul Inc., The Phantoms... Listen to the stream, or download as an mp3. Either way, have a quart of Mount Gay to hand. MP

Planet Sputnik

Homewares?  Tea towels! I know what you're thinking, 'You've gone, too far now, Sideburn blog. We'll put up with a lot of off-topic stuff you try to feed us, but oven gloves?'

Alright, wind your necks in. This is the latest project of our old friend Sarah B. And the photos aren't too shabby. As with every post on this blog. If you don't like it, wait a few hours and another pops up.

Find out more at Planet Sputnik Homestyle. G

Rock Family Trees

You read the sleeve notes on albums, and take the booklets that come with decent CDs into the bog while you meditate. You have heated discussions with mates - with yourself - about who played marimba on the 1972 Afro-Silesian classic A BSA Killed My Marmoset. You need to read Rock Family Trees.

They're nothing new, so apologies to those who know them already, but I never fail to be awestruck by the work involved in their creation. Pete Frame drew and wrote them by hand and they start life as huge great things covering a large table before being shot and reduced down for print. They're obsessively detailed and you can lose yourself in them for hours.

The breadth of bands and artists covered is immense, though they're almost all on the pop/rock/folk spectrum with dips into jazz and other stuff here and there. He even does trees of genres, such as American Pop 1950-'64. You have to see these things to believe them. All three volumes are still available and are well worth tracking down. MP

Iron and steel

Funny how things can pan out. A few weeks back, my wife found this knife in the street. It had clearly been lying there for a while and with no houses or shops nearby, she brought it home and I cleaned it up. It seems it was a promotional freebie, originally in a leather pouch and probably from the 1950s. I've seen others online stamped with Bayer and also made by Walter Kayser in Solingen, Germany, a town with a long history of blade making, the Sheffield of the Rhineland.

And this is Adolf Weil, a son of Solingen and known as the Iron Man thanks to his long career in motocross, most of which was spent as a Maico works rider, in fact the AW400 he's riding here in 1976 bears his initials. He won 14 national championships and three times came third in the 500cc world championships. At the age of 34 he won the Trans-AMA title. Adolf died in 2011, but the bike shop he set up in his home town when he retired from racing in 1977 is still run by his sons Frank and Jürgen. MP

Hipster Halloween

Just 50p will get you 14 tracks of twisted twang, ghoulish guitar, screaming sax and... yeah, you get it. It's another of Jonny Trunk's bargain offers and worth the piddling price just for The Graveyard by The Phantom Five. Lovers of Sideburn's resident DJ Sir Johnny Alpha will recognise some Killer Diller faves. Available in .wav or .mp3 and it's all stuff released between 1958 and 1966. Grab it while it's still warm direct from Trunk Records. MP

Beat Girl!

For just 50 pence you can download this remastered classic from the 1960 film, set in a seedy, swinging London. It's one of John Barry's earliest - if not his first - scores and heavy guitar twang is complemented by swirling strings and brass-tastic horn honk. Adam Faith sings on a couple of the tracks, but don't let old egg-in-the-throat put you off. This is part of the marvellous 50p Friday offers from Trunk Records, so get a wriggle on if you want to grab it. MP

Dutch filth

Sweating men, lots of blowing, dextrous hands gripping long, rigid shafts... you know you love it. Thanks to Jonny Trunk for the tip-off. MP

Parallel universe

Meanwhile in deepest Lancashire, 1953. On the run back from the Ormskirk and District Club's time and observation trial, Johnny Postlethwaite and his mates stop off for a bottle of dandelion and burdock at Beaker's cafe.

Hotrod music

It's hard to imagine now the impact that Chuck Berry's first single must have had when it came out in the summer of 1955. All I know is, it rattled my cage when I first heard it, aged about 13 in the late '70s, and 57 years after its release it still does it for me today. Great guitar sound and Berry's brilliant poetical lyrics, as typed out below (my version, many people hear them differently). MP

Maybellene, why can’t you be true?
Oh Maybellene, why can’t you be true?
You just started doin’ the things you used to do

As I was motorvatin’ over the hill
I saw Maybellene in a Coupe de Ville
Cadillac a-rollin’ on the open road
Nothin’ outrun my V8 Ford
The Cadillac doin’ about ninety-five
We was bumper to bumper, rollin’ side to side

Maybellene...

The Cadillac pulled up to hundred and four
My Ford got a-hot and wouldn’t do no more
It done got cloudy and started to rain
I tooted my horn for the passin’ lane
Rainwater blowin’ all under my hood
I knew that was doin’ my motor good

Maybellene...

The motor cooled down, the heat went down
That’s when I heard that highway sound
Cadillac sittin’ like a ton of lead
A hundred and ten, a half a mile ahead
Cadillac lookin’ like it’s sittin’ still
And I caught Maybellene at the top of the hill

Maybellene...

Big Mac - updated!

Brilliant on-bike colour footage of Bob McIntyre riding a Norton Manx at Oulton Park in the very late Fifties, maybe 1960-'61 (the Cheshire track where he'd sustain fatal injuries in 1962). You can only imagine the size of the camera bolted to the bike. I've had this for 15 years or more on VHS but went looking for it on DVD. I'm glad to say you can get it from Duke, and it's well worth it, there's more of this lap, plus you get a full lap behind the flyscreen, and there's loads more stuff about all types of bikesport. I think it was one of those films made to show before the main feature in cinemas to stop the nation's youth from slipping into a dirty rocker lifestyle.

It's an apt time to mention that McIntyre was the first rider to put in a 100+mph lap of the TT, in the 1957 Senior on a four-cylinder Gilera 500. To mark the TT's golden jubilee, that year's Senior was run over eight laps (instead of six). That's over 300 miles and more than three hours' racing. On the Mountain Course. On a 170mph bike with drum brakes. Bloody hell. MP
PS: Don't know where the video went earlier. It's here now and the rest of the post should now make sense.