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
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