Stafford Bikes, People, Hell Riders

After 4 hours sleep we were on the road in an LDV convoy to Stafford. In fact, Dave actually was in an LDV Convoy, I was in an LDV Pilot. It's a busy show and if you don't get there early you can queue in traffic for an hour or more.
Top left is the founding editor of Bike, Mark Williams and the übergruppenfuhrer of Morton's magazines, who run this show, Steve Rose. Top right: Dave and (insert caption here). Middle Right: Alex from Skeleton Chop Shop brought his girlfriend and bought a tank. Bottom left, Alex Fox and Kerri from the Wall of Death had a wander round on set-up day after their own epic set-up.
Stephen turned up in a Bonneville Performance T-shirt to complement the Bonneville Performance framer we had on the stand.
The highlight of any UK show for me is The Magazine Man. Bryan is a real one-off and it was good to see his lad Gavin after speaking to him on the phone so often. That stand is just full of motorcycle magazines (plus a few pinstripe and tattoo mags) from all over the world. I just wish Street Bikers wasn't £17.
Nice mix of bikes in attendance. Bottom left is Michael Dunlop's Manx winning Suzuki 750. Bike 196 is a tuned SCott Flying Squirrel. I just love it.
It was hard to escape the stand at Stafford, but me Dave and our new mate Gresham went to see the Wall of Death while Ben spun some discs. It was the wildest performance any of us had seen. It was one of the last shows of a long season and Ken and Kerri seem to be both taking crazy risks, wheels virtually kissing the top wire, knowing if they touched it they'd hit the deck, 18ft below, very hard. I spent a day with the Ken Fox Wall of Death for the feature in Sideburn 6. Young Jamie wasn't riding bikes then, now she's in the act. I think she's only 16 still. Both Ken and Kerri saw us up at the top of the rail and Dave, Gresh and I were all convinced Kerri was keeping eye contact with us as she rode around. And she never stopped smiling. 'It's like pole dancing on motorbikes,' said Dave 'It's all teeth and tits.' It was fantastic.

Then Ken and Kerri did the race on two Honda 500s. At the end Ken does his spiel about not a company in the world being willing to insure them (true) and the coins start raining down into the middle while Ken, Kerri and Jamie keep smiling. Brilliant. Can't wait to see them again next year. GI

"I don't know what it is, but I want some"

- The quote of the weekend from a bemused punter; 1 of 25,000, as they gawked at the Sideburn stand, and didn't really 'get' if we were a garage or a beatnik gentleman's club.
Jason's Bonneville Performance Triumph was definitely the crowd pleaser. Dave played schmozzatastic discotheque 45s all weekend on his mono Vestax - even Guy Martin's Dad was moon walking in his loafers. Good to put some faces to names, and to finally meet Princess Leia. BP

Eddie Lawson

We've heard he hasn't been to Yoorope for at least 15 years, but he's in Stafford this weekend. What's more, while the UK's best selling motorcycle title had its interview cancelled, Sideburn's is supposed to be still going ahead. Yahoo.
We have exclusive T-shirt deals and other new merch. Come Sideburn's Stafford Stand for a nosey. In the main hall. M52, follow the crowds.

Do You Want Onions With That?

Like our (confusing to some) Rollerball deal we made of
'1-off T-shirt + mag for £13'
we will be doing the same deal with a new Tee at the Stafford show this weekend 16-17. BP

Sideburn at Stafford

Photo: Paul Bryant

Sideburn is having a stand at the Stafford Classic Mechanics Show, the best modern classics show in Europe, on the weekend of October 16-17. On the stand will be:

• Sideburn's Project FT (as painted by Death Spray Custom)
• Jason's amazing Bonneville Performance framer
• Exclusive T-shirt offer (with a new colour option not seen before or after)
• Other brand new Merchandise that we'll preview next week
• Books and, of course, magazines

We're in the Main Hall, stand M52 (next to the ladies toilets, classy). Red Max Speed Shop are having a stand in the main hall too and they're selling a massive range of bodywork and parts. And Eddie Lawson (below) is the guest of honour. When was the last time he came to the UK? GI

Lawson coming to the UK

Nope, Fast Eddie isn't racing in short track (but David Aldana is), he's coming over as guest of honour of the Classic Mechanics Show at Stafford. If that wasn't enough to entice you, Sideburn is having a stand in the main hall. We will have an exclusive T-shirt on sale for the weekend only and hopefully some other new merch too. We'll also have the world's best Triumph Streettracker and Project FT500 on the stand. The show is October 16-17. GI
Photo: The Rider Files