Sara's Triumph

Lots of people have photographed Sara and her Triumph. This is the Flying Dutchman's go. We have Troy Critchlow's Sara shoot in SB6. She wrote the story herself.
This is what Jan Leek thought of it and the rest of SB6.

Came home from a good week in France and didn't look through the new issue of Sideburn until last night. There is some seriously good writing in there. Sarah's sentence artistry made me read her story twice. Mark Graham's compact history of racing had me in stitches and your story on the Wall of Death was more than just entertaining.
Two things: some 35 years ago I was secretary of the local Gothenburg motorcycle club hosting the world level Trials something (Euro or World?, can't remember). Don Smith [mentioned in Mark Graham's feature] walked one tricky staircase section, taking extra care about halfway, grabbing one spectator, instructing him to stay put, where he could see him. "Don't move!" All the time cigarette fixed between his lips. Walked down again, kickstarted the bike, fixed the spectator in his vision, got one metre into the section and fell. Lying on his back, taking the cigarette out of his mouth he shouted up the mountain: "You can move now!"
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Wall of Death - I saw it the first time about 1960-61, the performers using rigidframed 118 cc Husqvarnas, but had a Triumph twin with high pipes on stage outside to attract customers. Started up, it smoked horribly through its straight pipes. Then some 15 years ago I saw a proper show in Mayen, 20kms from Nürburgring, and they actually had at least two proper Indians. It scared me to hell standing on top of that tub, feeling the whole thing rumble under my feet. I got dizzy just watching.
And you may remember the Elvis film Roustabout (Ann-Margret and Barbara Stanwyck in it). At one point Elvis is challenged to ride the Wall of Death (I love calling it a tub) on his CL77 Honda (guitar on a rack, right side) and falls. I believe he is then comforted by quick-riding Ann-Margret.

Thank you, Gary!

/Jan

The Flying Dutchman

A few people emailed after we posted the Chickenhawk appreciation. I was looking at the blog of Sideburn collaborator, The Flying Dutchman today, and saw a lot of parallels with those photos.
The Dutchman shot a great Harley WR for Sideburn 3 and Max Schaaf for Sideburn 2. Now he's in Afghanistan fixing helicopters. GI

Flying Dutchman

PB collaborator and top fella, the Flying Dutchman has been in touch to say this is his new blog address Dutchman photo blog
Here he is on the shoot of Frank's Harley WL/WR that appears in Sideburn 3. GI

Gary's Euro adventure

Blog regulars will have read that I was driving around Europe in a fancy Audi. Turns out, with the extras, it was worth £110,000. I did 2200 miles in three days. Well, anyway, I've given it back now. I've written the story and I've caught up on the Sidbeurn mailing. This afternoon I'm going to put a drawing of a Gateshead multi-storey car park in a frame, take more Sideburn orders to the post office and get my stuff ready for the race on Sunday. I should invoice for all the fuel that V10 drank.

On the way out to Germany I remembered there was a hot rod show, SINS in Weize, Belgium. I met up with the Flying Dutchman - who has contributed to Sideburn 2 and 3. He is one of the coolest and nicest fellas ever. He works for the Dutch air force fixing F-16s, but he's also a great photographer. He builds and rides his 60s style Panhead all over, he travels to America and shoots stories. He loves loads of different things, so he's not one of the narrow-minded types you sometime come across at hot rod shows. That's him in the middle. He liked the Audi. The Flying Dutchman blog was one of the first I really got into and it's still one of my favourites.

I also met the Jenny the Trophy Queen lady. She makes neat handbags and stuff. She used to be involved with the Ventura Outlaw Short track races. She loves Sideburn.
I bumped into Matt from Dice and his wife. I have every issue of Dice, so it was good to chat to one of the men behind it. In fact, I was surprised how many people I knew since I don't really have any hot rod connections. Simon from The Paintbox. Laurent from Powerglide magazine. Ivan from Exotica, Paris. This is his blue van. How cool?

There were only a handful of bikes, but they were the 50s-60s style I like so there weren't any bad ones. I loved the Chinese Honda Monkey bike engine in the Schwinn-style hardtail work in progress. I could do with learning how to use the Canon I bought off Ben, rather than the Olympus I got free with my Macbook though.

WR

The Dutchman flies again with us for SB#3. This time shooting a ridden not hidden WR.
We're taking pre-orders for SIdeburn 3 now. It lands at Sideburn HQ on Friday 24th. Order now so we can start writing jiffy bags, please. Same price as issue 1 and 2. Paypal to dirt@sideburnmagazine.com
Thanks
BP

Pure style

Shot by The Flying Dutchman. He shot the Max Schaaf action in SB2. He's grrrreeat. I wish I could ride like this. I find it hard to imagine the day though. GI