World's Fastest Sweatshirt?

Spotted on Triumph's Official facebook page, Guy Martin out on Bonneville Salt Flats, testing the Triumph Rocket streamliner while wearing a Sideburn Engine sweatshirt. The photos are from the first day of practice, with the stabilisers on. They didn't stay on for long. The bloke's a natural.

Get yours from sideburn.bigcartel.com. We ship all over the world.

All photos courtesy of Official Triumph 

Guy Martin vs The World of Physics

Record addict Guy Martin will be at the Bonneville Salt Flats later this month for a Triumph-backed attempt on the motorcycle land speed record.

The Infor Rocket streamliner is the latest in a 60-year history of Triumph velocitubes to contest the record in Utah. With around 1000bhp from two turbo-charged Rocket III engines on hand, Guy will be looking to top the the 376mph record that's been held by Californian Rocky Robinson since he piloted the twin Suzuki Hayabusa-powered Ack Attack to glory in 2010.

Rumours of tea-making facilities built into a compartment behind the cockpit have yet to be quashed by Triumph officials.

Here's a video of Guy meeting the Infor Rocket for the first time. The attempt will be shown by the UK's Channel Four, though no air-date has yet been set. MP

Photos: Triumph Motorcycles

Matt Helders and his Mule

Drummer with the Arctic Monkeys, collaborator with Iggy Pop, a man with fine taste in motorcycles, Matt Helders is all these things. We flew to Los Angeles to photograph the Brit's mean Mule-built Bonneville. 

Read about the bike, and the man in Sideburn 25. 

And if you like the Not For Aircraft Use T-shirt Matt is wearing you can get your own at the Sideburn shop for just £15 plus post from sideburn.bigcartel.com

Photo: Ben Part

Triumph Salt Racer

Just back from Lake Gairdner, in South Australia, the chunky Triumph Salt Racer sadly went pop after hitting 157mph. More info on their build website, and a video on their Facebook page

Loving the industrial Mule-made hydraulic clutch cover. BP

AJS Blog Relic

All blog comments new - or ancient, get forwarded to our personal emails. But it's always a pleasant surprise when old posts still send out ripples. Yesterday Canadian John Gregg left this note on his own bike which had been a mystery since 2009! BP

I purchased this bike 46 years ago for $25 and it has been in waiting ever since. Plans now are to do it up and take it to Bonneville Speed Week this year and try for the Ton and a record. Will be respecting the patina as much as we can. Follow progress here - http://www2.vip.net/jgregg/

Tomorrow night in London

Triumph Promo

Featuring the #91 Bonneville Performance twin of Mikey Martin. Read all about this bike in Sideburn 11.

UPDATE: BP posted this film, so I didn't have chance to write about it, so I'm leaving it as an update.
I love that they include the section of the Bonneville streamliner both crashing and setting on fire. Breaking records and racing isn't fairytale, camp fire horseshit. If breaking speed records was easy no one would give damn. Great video, very brave for a very, very conservative company and not a beard in sight! G (bearded) I

Record Breakers at Edwin

Top bloke and top photographer, Gary Margerum is organising a showcase of his photography and the Baron's Speed Shop Bonneville Salt Flats record breaker and more, at the Edwin store in East London. Worth popping in if you're down that way. G

Worlds Fastest Monster

Bringing our Pinterest collection of desirables, to 260, Mark Bjorklund's Ducati S4RS just smashed a long-standing 1000cc (un-faired, modified frame, normal petrol) world record at Bonneville. Full info and pics here.

And this is his previous bike, a Ⓕ framed 600 Rotax, before it got full streamline treatment. Full build on Jockey Journal. BP

Speed Freaks

Wonderful photos on the El Solitario blog from the Team Impossible trip to the salt this year. BP

Bonneville Salt Flats UPDATE

Maxwell of Corpses From Hell went to support the Impossible Team at Bonneville Speed Week. He painted a wild car right there on the salt, below, and sent the photos of this 125cc class record breaker wearing an old Sideburn Dave shirt. Who are you, Mr Recordbreaker? Neat bike, by the way. Send us details if you see this. Thanks.

UPDATE - This from Dan Yoder of Killin-It, Thanks DY

Saw your post on Facebook wondering who Mr Recordbreaker was on the old HD 125. He's a good friend from Madison, WI area and a wee lad to be breaking records on the salt! I thought I would share a link to his blog in case you wanted to peruse it over a bit of tea... Primordial Cycles
That is what you Euro people do right:) 
 Anyways I hope all is well and keep up the good work my friend! Oh yeah Patrick Zeigle is the young chap's name - Dan 

Photos: Kristina Fender

Spirit of The Seventies W800

Our mates at Spirit of the Seventies have been building some cool projects in the last 12 months, including the Bonneville below. They have been noticed by Kawasaki UK - who've given them a brand new W800 to do a number on.
Now Kawasaki and Spirit are asking for the public (us lot) to vote on the paintjob from the choices above. Go to Kawasaki's facebook to get involved.

There's also a tumblr on the project. G

 

 

Photos from The Bike Shed

Redliners Racing

From Tyler at Lowbrow Customs (that's him on the green Triumph)...

Redliners Racing International: A group of six dashingly handsome, smart, and fast individuals who waste way too much time and money on the irrational pursuit of making old, slow machines go fast. An eclectic mix of men and their machines make up the group, of which you can learn more of on the Redliners Racing website. Follow along to see new motorcycles being built, race preparation being performed, and speed efforts in full effect as we approach August and Bonneville Speed Week 2012. Follow the Redliners exploits at www.RedlinersRacing.com

Zombies and the Charge of the Light Brigade

We've sold out of small and medium Zombie sweatshirts and have a few large and XL left. It was designed by Maxwell at Corpses from Hell and is modelled here by Norm at Motorcycho. Get yours at the Sideburn shop.
The sweatshirt we print on has Raglan sleeves. They're named after Lord Raglan (below), the British Lord who was so murderously stubborn he wouldn't talk to a fellow commanding officer during the Crimean War and helped send the Light Brigade charging to towards a battery of Russian cannon - the infamous charge of the Light Brigade.

The dispute, with Lord Cardigan, was all over a woman if I remember correctly. Anyway, Raglan lost his arm and his tailor designed a new sleeve construction to help the Lord get dressed more easily.

Final bit of the history lesson, the Light Brigade - so named because they were cavalry mounted on faster, lighter charger horses, unlike the Heavy Brigade mounted on huge shire horse haulers - are now the Queen's Royal Lancers. Both the Light Brigade and QRL wear the 'Or Glory' badge (bottom). G

Egg Salad, Neon Brown and Sodium Distortion

Jason's first run on the improved Sodium Distortion
Rotax power.
Egg salad. Great name for a great bike.

I only get a single email from Jason Omer in Washington per year, but it's always a good one.

Hello Gary, I wanted you to see two Rotax creations built by Mark and Carl Bjorkland at SuperRat for this years BUB speed trial at Bonneville. Our team Sodium Distortion adopted them and they didn't disappoint. I have also included a picture of my record breaking 1000cc Buell speed bike, top speed 160mph. Thank you, Jason Omer.

I've just noticed Super Rat are from Bellingham, WA, the home of the mighty Estrus record label. Totally irrelevant, but it made me smile. G

Hagon Forks

Can anyone help?

Sideburn Editors,
My dad and I race a little BSA b25 at the Bonneville Salt Flats (I've attached a few pictures of the bike). We're planning to build a frame similar to Alf Hagon's sprint bike (picture attached). We'd like to find a set of those vintage Hagon grasstrack/speedway forks, but boy are they hard to find over here in the States. Who in the UK might have some of those old
things sitting around? Any ideas?
Thanks,
Max Somers, Illinois

Lowbrow

Lowbrow Customs are a great company. On the surface they're retailing the best of the bobber, traditional chop, garage-built scene, but follow them for a while and they're racing (on dirt and dry lakes), promoting events and races, making films and magazines... They're ploughing back so much of the money they're earning into new stuff. These are just two of the things they've got going on - a film of their Bonneville escapades and also the second Lowbrow Holeshot...

Sodium Distortion update

From Jason who is back in Washington after a week on the Salt. He's been having fun on the Supercharged Buell-powered Sodium Distortion and is sporting Sideburn's latest design, the Race Bike shirt.

'Hi Gary, Got the latest issue, Awesome! Bonneville was a great success, set two records and reached a top speed of 150.151 mph. Jason'

Never under-estimate a junkyard beauty

From the most excellent Travis in Colorado

I kept hoping to get my Sideburn before the trip to bonniville and on my way out of town with the bike loaded i checked the mail box one last time.....Yes! There it was. I stickered up the bike and had a great week out on the salt flats.
Lots of neat bikes and people. the XR750 belongs to my Pikes Peak racer friend Joe Blackwell. He broke his class record. Purdy cool bike. my bike is a stock 79 GS1000 in a sweet ass free backyard find drag bike. $300 total build. The ol GS1000 ran 141 mph. Not bad since i plucked the engine right out the junk yard at my shop. been sitting for who knows how long and i didnt even pop a points cover or check the valves, just cleaned the carbs and found out how long she would over rev in 5th. Never
underestimate a junk yard beauty, eh?
Hope to go back next year. peace, love, and wheelies.
Travis Newbold
PS the new issue is supremo. the best friend I could have had while living in my van out on the salt flats for six days.

Street Trekker

From John in America.

Hi, Gary,
My mate Greg (from NZ) and I just finished a 5,580-mile trip around the American west on a pair of '81 XS650s. One of the attached photos is from Death Valley, where it was 110 degrees F when we went through (we caught it on a moderate day; it
was forecast to be 122 degrees the following weekend). There's a ratty street tracker under all that gear, believe it or not.

Repair was a daily event. One good scare was coming off I-80 to the Bonneville Salt Flats after a few hours of running at 70 mph, and Greg finding the swingarm pivot shaft sticking out a few inches; the threaded end, nut, and locking tab had broken
off somewhere. It was a happy accident that we had happened on Speed Week. When Greg rolled to a stop he landed next to the camp of Guy Warner and his dog Buddy, who attends the events just because he likes them, and brings a trailer full of tools and parts in case anybody needs them. We borrowed the stuff to drill and tap the remaining stub of the shaft for a bolt that held it together for the next few thousand miles. Guy refused any kind of compensation, just telling us that if we saw anybody that needed help, we lend a hand. A low-key guy, and one of my current heroes.

We saw Jacqui van Ham, a friend of yours, at the informal car show outside the casino just over the Nevada state line that night. I wondered why anybody would be taking a picture of my loaded up bike with all those nice cars around...it was the Sideburn sticker on my lid. Proof positive that Sideburn attracts the right sort.
And, Sideburn #6 was waiting for me when I got home; thanks!
John Bishop