Panther Triumph at Mule

From Mule Motorcycles in Southern California...

Saw your featurette on the Panther and thought you'd like to see the one I have in work. Updated bodywork, Storz tank and modified Woods seat. All new 750 motor.
Richard

Read about the modern Bonneville street tracker Mule Built for Arctic Monkeys drummer, Matthew Helders in Sideburn 25.

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

Sideburn 25: Pre-Order

Sideburn has reached 25 and to celebrate we've slapped on a silver foil logo on a full-fat 116 pages.
Sideburn 25 is now available for pre-order, and will be sent out soon or close to 20 June. Anything you order at the same time as issue 25 will be sent out together on the same day.

Cover star: Mark 'The Rusty Butcher' Atkins

BIKES: Mule Triumph Bonneville; Asterisk Harley XG750; Yamaha XS650 budget desert racers; BSA B50MX short tracker; 1991 Harley Sportster Hooligan racer; One Down Four Up SR500 & DT400

EVENTS: Country Mile Race; Yorkshire Ride-Out

HOW TO: Perfect your body English with Chris Carr

PEOPLE: Matt 'Arctic Monkey' Helders; Nuke-Leah Tokelove; Hank Scott; Dimitri Coste; Rusty Butcher

PORTFOLIO: The photography of Preston Burroughs

ADVENTURE: Royal Enfield Himalayan tested in the mountains

Plus the regular blueprints, poetry, trophy queens, interviews and wonderful illustrations...

Order yours from Sideburn.bigcartel.com

 

Mule Surf

Michael Z surfing his gorgeous Mule Triumph through Utah, captured by his friend, Kristin Park.

See and read more about this gorgeous Bonneville street tracker, and why Michael chose Mule to build it, in Sideburn 22. G

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

Mule Sportster

There are few people who can make a Sportster look as good as Mule Motorcycles can. G

Mule Racing

Mule doesn't just consistently build the world's best trackers and develop parts for you to fit to yours, he also races. And he's fast. Really fast.

I traded off the TT500 you rode at Perris and I’m racing the CRF450 I got in trade, plus I got my 125 bike. Here’s a couple shots on the CR125 (pictured in action). Also, the 450 (below) in work being set up. 
Cheers, Mule

Biltwell

Sideburn's BP and GI have shown up on the Biltwell website. These photos were taken at Perris in California when we were on our summer US tour. Thanks to Julian and everyone from Deus Ex Machina for organising such a memorable night.

GI is on Hayden Hell On Wheels' wonderful Triumph twin desert sled.
BP is on Mule Motorcycles' Yam 500, that Mule sold because it was too slow (it didn't seem it to us). He's chasing Hayden.

We wore and raced in Biltwell Gringo lids on this trip and were very impressed with the quality and fit. They feel much, much better than the $160 price tag suggests. G

Ivan the Terrible by Mule Motorcycles

From Mule Motorcycles...

'Ivan the Terrible' started life as a Bonneville America 270 degree crank motor, Mule frame, R-6 Yamaha USD forks, and lots of Titanium, aluminum tank and widened Champion seat. Mucho mods to the motor push power to 96 at the wheel. Beringer controls and a ceramic-coated exhaust give the low level bling-age. The silver Porsche paint and a red leather seat cover keep the bike within the James Dean Porsche Spyder theme. Note the Mobilgas Pegasus now sporting Mule ears. 

'The bike took first place in the Customs class at the Quail gathering and on the way home we stopped to a shot with a 20' James Dean sign about 2 miles from the crash site that took his life decades ago.'

We like that Mule didn't bother changing his usual T-shirt and shorts outfit just because Quail demands it.
Hands in pockets is The Vintagent in his leather jacket painted by Maxwell Paternoster.

Pegasus the Mule.

Richard, James and Ivan.

Mule Mustard

Another beautiful Modern Triumph build by Mule Motorcycles. This time for a customer in Scandinavia. Love the cheeky exhaust on this, and what looks like an early MV F4 front end. So many lovely details on this bike. Mule's own tank, seat and sidepanels; triple clamps; front sprocket cover; oil cooler kit (that does away with the bottom rails); sidestand kit... Most of these parts are for sale individually. G

Perris

Julian of Deus LA kindly organized a run-what-you-bring at the Perris track, two hours east of LA (crawling in rush-hour traffic), a loose rabble of Hell On Wheels, Deusites, Co-Built, a big Biltwell crew and other friends of Sideburn came out. Everything from crappy plastic scooters to a fully accessorised RGS1200 BMW was throttled around the short track until the sun went down. Iced Beer. Good times.

Co-Built Geoff on Conrad Leach's desert sled.

Dave Skooter Farm in his sparkly new Biltwell Gringo and Jeannette.

Dorinda ripping it up on her Triumph.

Nevin wing-ning-nign

Hayden's Hell On Wheels Triumph.

Mule showing the kids how to do it on his Yamaha TT500.

Bixby Moto showing us that your Mum's 150cc Amstar is all you need.

Gary on the Mule TT500.

Always good to have a seamstress on standby for every eventuality.

Homer Knapp bought his 1928 hand-shift Harley JD (featured in SB#7) along for us to try. An awe-inspiring bike - and man.

Put knobblies on anything and it's legit. Kiyo's CB750/4

Great to finally put names to faces and meet Richard 'Mule Motorcycles' Pollock.

Jen McClain of Deus. BP

UPDATE: some great photos by Shadra Wilson on the Biltwell blog

Mule Sportsters Work In Progress

More inspiration from San Diego's Mule Motorcycles.
Twin lights on a Sportster tracker look surprisingly good. G

Mule got Wood

 

When I tell people I have a Wood frame on my dirt track bike, I sometimes see their face cloud as they think, just for a second, 'He's got a wooden motorcycle?' but they usually don't say it. The owner of this bike could stir it up further.

Sideburn's mailbox is bursting with Dirt Quake III and Dirt Quake USA pre-entries so I'm having to delete a lot of older emails. One I found, that I remembered coming in, but somehow didn't deal with - was from Mule in San Diego, California.

For me, Mule is consistently the best street tracker builder in the world. He's been doing it longer than anyone. He has a niche, but also pushes the boundaries and comes up with some beautiful solutions when he makes a road bike look like a racer, or makes what is essentially a very squirelly race bike into a competent, legal road bike.

This bike is the follow up to Web Surfer he built for Cycle World show, years ago.
It's an oil-in-frame chassis Sportster. The lacquered multiply wooden seat mixed with a silver and beige tank should not work - it doesn't on paper, but I just think it looks neat with its 1962 Huntingdon Beach vibe. And that exhaust and the Morris mag style wheels...

Read about Mule in Sideburn 3 and his incredible Streetmaster in Sideburn 8.

Visit Mule Motorcycles website for top quality parts for Hinckley Bonneville and Sportster street tracker parts.

EUROPEAN customers - Mule now has a distributor in France - Mule Motorcycles France. G