Hot Wheels Road Trip

So good.
Spotted on Church of Choppers.

John Harrison: The Early Years

There are thousands of people in the Sideburn universe with great stories to tell, and I've chosen a handful to supply stories and update the blog. One is Travis Newbold, Sideburn poet and test rider, another is John Harrison. We met John through his antics and style in the DTRA and the more I found out about him, the more I wanted him involved.

He says stuff like... 'I don't wear T-shirts or sweatshirts (or jeans). Haven't done since my early 30s.' John is 57 with grown-up children, and started dirt track racing earlier this year. You'll find out a lot more about him, starting now. Hope you enjoy his outlook as much as I do. G

'As we're rained off today I thought I 'd get going on my motorcycling history for you. I can't imagine how you would introduce this sort of thing but here you are. Stand by for following emails. All photos are my own unless stated. 

The picture above is of me as a 12 yr old on the first motorbike I ever rode. This would have been 1972. It is a BSA Beagle (surely the bike Snoopy rode in the recently blogged Peanuts cartoon) which was an early '60s, 75cc 4-stroke that they produced in a forlorn attempt to take the fight to the Italian and Japanese small, cheap bike competition. Pressed steel frame and forks, but this one had been converted into a Schoolboy Scrambler with tele forks, a high level pipe and a bobbed rear guard. One of my friends got it and we thought it was the bee's bollocks, particularly as we reckoned it was a dead ringer for a Husky with the red and white tank. We hadn't ridden motorbikes before, but could drive cars, so set about teaching ourselves. I'm amused that the only new item of clothing I'm wearing is my brand new Stadium Centurion X helmet, the rest - shirt, trousers and shoes are all hand-me-downs. 

We had a field at the back of our place that we got permission to ride in and soon we were all on the lookout for field bikes. Another friend found a 125 Bantam ( also 'converted' to schoolboy scrambler spec) which I think he paid a fiver for. It was barely worth it. This photo shows the two bikes pretending to race; in truth they both rarely ran at the same time, or we couldn't afford enough fuel fuel to keep them both going. The same scene must have been played out by lads all over the country learning to ride and fix field bikes. Hopefully it still is. 
JH 104R

Peanuts Go Motocrossing

I vaguely remember seeing this as a very small child and can only imagine that it planted the seed for Dirt Quake.
Can you imagine a kids TV show promoting amateur motorcycle racing in such a carefree way now? G

Good Loser

Chess was not my forte at school, but as other kids were getting wooed by the mysterious power of Sinclair ZX Spectrum and kicking back on Pac-Man, the old game still intrigued me. As a teenager, I was not impressed with Trivial Pursuit, and to this day, chess is the only board game that doesn't bore me. Now an adult, and a Dad, I am very happy that my 7 year-old boy seems to have taken to it pretty quickly - once I'd tricked him away from his Nintendo 3DS. So fast so, I had to promptly stop being so courteous. Now I have to do my best to defend the crown. He's extremely proud to out-manoeuvre me. But his attention span does wane if the game drags on, so we play at a quite care-free, suicide mission pace. It's not unusual that he throws me on my back, Taekwando style, after just a few minutes. Yesterday, unusually, the battle continued valiantly to the last few faithful pieces. And unbelievably to both of us, I managed to put him in check-mate with my last Pawns - or Shrimps as he calls them. He's not a good looser. But that's something I can teach him, I'm a very experienced loser. BP

Falling Bricks

"Mummy, why did Daddy just say 'Falling Bricks'?"
I was in my home office early this morning, foul-mouthing a magazine that had just aggravated me due to a mis-managed financial agreement.
"*uck*** P*****!" is what I actually said. Luckily my seven-year-old's delicate ears didn't pick that up. My wife was in hysterics. BP

Random photo courtesy of Google images.

Norton P11 WANTED

We've had a Bertie Bassetts mix of bikes for our Sideburn repop Top Trumps so far. For issue #22 which will be back from the printers shortly, we have a tasty Parisienne BSA Road Rocket.

We are now on the hunt for a Norton P11. We only need one decent HiRes shot of this classic, if you know of one in your vicinity? The owner/ supplier of the photo will get a free copy of the mag with their bike featured. BP

UPDATE:
Thanks to Jerry Kaplan we have a great example of the breed for SB#23. BP

Diesel Fitting

Diesel fitters seem to have an affinity to the (now sold out) Sideburn bobble hat. Christmas Eve, and while you were running about buying last minute presents, young ike dove into the engine bay of our Berlingo, and ripped out the manifold and stinky EGR, to change the glowplugs which were dying.

Having watched two Youtube DIY videos, my 'expert' skill was duly humbled upon reassembly when, with with the family on-board for a Christmas treat, the F*&#er wouldn't rev above 2000rpm, and would hardly pull out of our parking space.
Water contamination from over eager cleaning was suspected and Boxing day was spent draining the fuel, disassembling the EGR, and further cussing chasing my tail on French car forums. Pulling the rubber pipes off the electronic vacuum regulator (which duh, had been topsy-turvy), revealed an inactive EGR valve. So all dandy now. BP

Top Trumps

Sideburn #19 sees the start of a new series on classic Top Trumps cards. As prepubescent youths, before we got our hands dirty, motorcycles (and dragsters, and trains, exotic cars, and cricketers) were battling each other by torch-light under bedsheets purely on their technical specification.

Our first featurette, is this wonderful Jawa 897 engined Hagon grass tracker photographed by Andy Baker of the Jerkyls. BP

In Aus we don't have any grasstracks so we use dirt tracks which have both right and left hand corners some of which are tight and require gear changes and brakes are required under the current rules. This bike is made up from what we could get our hands on. The chassis is a Hagon sand racer with a homemade swinging arm slightly longer than standard. The engine is a Jawa 987. Wheel adapters, brakes and exhaust are home made.
Here is some extra spec:
compression ratio 14:1; Carburettor Dell'orto 36mm round slide; Ignition is a Pal magneto; Gearbox is a Norton AMC 3-speed with 1st gear removed; wheels 23" front 19" rear; Brakes front Hagon drum, rear Yamaha disc (handlebar operated); suspension front is rubber bands, rear are Hagon shocks.
Cheers Geoff
[fettling the bike in the photo, who built the bike along with Steve Constable and Chris Murrey]

All I Want For Christmas is my Two Front Teeth

The Sideburn webshop is out of teeth at the moment, our usual supplier is at a loss too. But we do have these kids T-shirts designed by Maxwell Paternoster available in blue and red. They don't really help when trying to chomp on apples, but they are guaranteed to bring a smile to your toothless darling's face.

And here is Spike Jones And His City Slickers performing the hit originally written in 1948, that was also covered in later years by Nat King Cole, Dread Zeppelin, Elmo from the Muppets, The Three Stooges, and Count von Count of Sesame Street amongst others. BP

Trash N Treasure

Sideburn's entertainments officer, Dave Skooter Farm, decides to sell off some of his extensive 'Pop Culture' collection, amassed over the last 40 years, sets up his own
retro market and invites 25 like-minded friends to join the TNT conga line!

Laidback, afternoon velvety sounds from SB house DJ Johnny Alpha and mid-tempo beat ballads and floaters from WIGAN YOUNG SOULS founder, Jordan Wilson. These guys were in the dance sequences in the new NORTHERN SOUL film.

Sun 23rd Nov, 10am until 4.30pm

The Old Courts, Crawford Street, Wigan. WN1 1NG

Mid-century curiosities;  women's vintage fashion; toys, records, furniture; films, men's fashion; retro computer games; 70's memorabilia, board games; hand crafted accessories...

Earn Brownie points and bring the missus on a fab, non-motorcycle-related day out?

New Kids Shirts

This new kids shirt has just arrived (or 'dropped' as the cool crowd say).
Available in three age ranges and two colours, all printed on lovely soft, 100% guaranteed organic cotton.

The illustration is spewed forth, via an inky pen, from the twisted melon of Mr Maxwell Paternoster.

Blue or red.
5-6
7-8
9-10
Limited numbers of each.
Order soon to avoid heart-broken children and spousal disappointment, from the Sideburn shop.

NOTE: Sizing is supplied by manufacturer and on the smaller side, so please click the photos to see a size chart

Why 15?

 

A great story from Jan-Willem of the Dutch Brothers Racing - just about the most enthusiastic dirt tracker in the whole of Europe - about why he rides with number 15 on his bikes.

When I was 8, my dad took me riding in Nivelles. 
I had a little Montesa Cota 25 automatic. That day he let me try his Cota 348 with 6 gears. this was the first time I rode with gears. The bike was way too high for me so he had to launch me and catch me when I wanted to stop. 

Nivelles is a place in Belgium where there was a big motodrome. That same day was a karting championship race. There was one driver who used a different racing line and was really quick. He was wearing number 15 and inspired me. From then I used number 15. I found a picture, perhaps you recognize him.

Below is Jan-Willem powering out of a corner on his Harley XR1000 framer - that's his brother Mick, 16, behind him. Below that, crossing the line at a DTRA heat on his Rotax, under the lights at King's Lynn this year.

And this is a shot Ben made for Sideburn #1, of Jan-Willem on his Mule-built KTM DTMX at Lelystad speedway track. Note the dainty footwork.

Pink-Viz

Did away with some iffy graphics on my daughters BMX lid with a rattle-can of German Montana Acrylic, in flat flouro pink. It's specifically designed as a graffiti paint. It's seems hardy enough, but not entirely compatible with the regular acrylic primer. BP

Long Wheelbase

We really don't need yet another vehicle in our household. A 9th bicycle for a family of four is getting excessive. But this Adams Trail-A-Bike (I believe the Canadian firm invented them?) seemed like a good idea. ike is fast on his own micro mini, but he has zero road sense. Bristol is hilly and pedalling our trusty 45kg Dutch Bakfiets is getting more strenuous as the kids get heavier by the week. The combined weight of the new set-up is 21kg less, there is some extra HP on tap and it was only £20 on Gumtree so it's ticking lots of boxes. In theory.
In practice there is a frightening amount of tail-wagging-the-dog effect (even if ike isn't doing ballet plié), and it's 23cm longer over-all. Not good. I've now tightened right up the universal-joint coupling but there is still slack in the connecting pin. I reckon 20cm could be cut out of the main top-tube to bring the the trailer as close as possible to my back wheel. But even with those modifications, the bottom line is, I don't like not being able to see what he's up to, or if other traffic is paying him any attention. BP

OR as Dutch Brothers, Jan-Willem suggests, go for the family tandem designed by Ronald Onderwater. It's wheelbase is 19cm shorter than the Bakfiets.

Ducati Mini Speedway Bike

Man, I love it when treasure like this arrives in the inbox. Thanks Karl!

Hi Gary! 
I have two pictures for you. 
This is a DUCATI 98ccm from 1968, about 10 horsepower. 
It was built for Speedway - Junior races in the sixties. I hope its interesting for you. 

I'm the owner of the photos my father made this bike for me as I was about 12 years old. The photo they are a from Voecklabruck / Austria. 
Greetings from Karl

WWII Pilot Boy Band

My daughter was watching the BBC children's programme, Horrible Histories and a section showing Charles Darwin singing about natural selection caught my eye. Then this came on - at 6.45pm, on CBBC, one of two childrens' BBC channels. It is completely trippy. Douglas Bader's return to the RAF  is compared to Robbie Williams rejoining Take That. I don't know how much of a message it gets across to kids, but some of it might stick. I was laughing out loud while thinking 'They can get away with this?' It's like Monty Python for under-10s.
Listen hard to the lyrics. G

Stamina

Last Saturday, me, Mrs P, the littluns and some old friends cycled the 14 mile Bristol-to-Bath old railway cycle path. Bristol has previously been crowned 'Britain's Capital City of Cycling'. Hogwash. But this is a great leisurely day out, with plenty to see en-route including a proper toot-tooting steam train. When we arrived in picturesque Bath there was a Rugby match on at the rec so we received a rousing roar from the crowd. Having left home at 11 we were just in time to catch the 5 o'clock intercity train back to Temple Meads which took all of 11 minutes. The adults were showing signs of botty fatigue but the small people were still bushy tailed, I was well proud.

The official route website is rubbish, but all you need is a regular A-Z. BP

Micro Me

'Mini Micro' racing BMX (so with with 18" wheels) are hard to come by second hand, but I eventually found one via the friendly community forum BMXTalk.

A 2006 Proline model, it's go go greased lightning with 110psi slicks and 120mm crank (I never remembered how filthy some of the lyrics in Travolta's song were). This one even came with an extra gear set and longer crank arms for supercharging. My little man's striped-down Islabikes Cnoc 16 is a great little street bike, but not built for speed. He came Last, Last, Last in his motos, and kept his chin up for 4th in his final at his first race. This should put the weasel amongst the pigeons. BP

Big Day

ike lines up for his first ever Moto at the local BMX track, Patchway Bristol. A few jokes were made by rival Dads of his enormous AMA superbike style numberboard - and they weren't more impressed when I said it was made from a 20p charity shop place mat. It was miserably icey weather but more than 100 riders turned up.

Pippa, also first timing, borrowed a proper helmet complete with scene-correct stickers. BP

Mini Highside

Captain Highside's Honda Africa Twin in a KTM chassis featured in Sideburn 2 (see a post on it here). Highside is a very talented motorcycle engineer and racer and was one of the first pro BMX racers in the UK (for the Raleigh Burner team in the early-80s). And a couple of crashes he's put his own racing on hold and take his three kids BMX racing. Georgie is the the youngest and has a flat track bodykit on her balance bike, complete with tiny replica stickers. He says...

'I was given the bare bike but it needed the Skooter Farm treatment! I made a buck for the tank and seat unit and then vacuum formed them out of ABS in the 'shop. I made the stickers on my PC and printed them on vinyl. If anyone is interested in a tank/seat they could be available.'