Sideburn 34: Out Now

We venture into the deserts of California, Mexico and South Africa to test the mettle of our contributors. Old bikes are ridden not hidden, and inappropriate machinery is raced through 1000 miles of wilderness  proving the adage that it's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog.

SB34 also features McQueen's very own Huskie; a new regular column from Death Spray Custom, an interview with the toughest woman in flat track; follows a group of female high school students building a budget race bike and serves up an LSD-fueled report from Wheels and Waves El Rollo race. Yes, really.

BUY SIDEBURN 34

COVER: Hayden Roberts and his Triumph TR6 desert sled
BIKES: Triumph TR6 desert sled; Harley Sportster 883 Baja racer; Steve McQueen's On Any Sunday Husqvarna 400 Cross; High School project Honda CB160 flat tracker; Survivor Customs CCM Rotax racers;
PEOPLE: Sandriana Shipman; John Harrison; Chuck Joyner
INTERVIEW: Johnny Lewis
HOW TO: Build Your Own Flat Track
BLUEPRINT: Jawa 500 DT Type 890
SHOP: Rebels Alliance
EVENTS: X Games; Wheels and Waves; Sons of Speed banked oval racing; Vancouver Flat Track, Pemberton, BC;
ADVENTURE: 1000 miles through Baja on a Sportster; deep into South Africa on Royal Enfield 500s;
PAGES: 116

BUY SIDEBURN 34

BUY SIDEBURN 34

Happy Halloween 1

Celebrate the night of undead, of ghouls, of monsters and of rampant one-eyed commercialism by buying this soon to be sold out forever art print of the Zombie Steve McQueen by Maxwell Paternoster.
It's printed black on recycled brown art stock.
Notice that McQueen/Hilts has accessorised his Triumph with a decapitated Nazi. They're the next big thing.

Every order gets a free sticker plus free a handful of Sideburn posters and flyers from past events.
Get yours in the Sideburn art department.

Remember, if you like Maxwell's work check out the Maxwell Paternoster book we have in stock.

70 Years Ago...

..today, since the break-out from Stalag Luft III. The Great Escape is a dramatised, Hollywoodised version of events. The truth of WWII break-out attempts is incredible. The ingenuity was mind-boggling.

The Great Escape is often wrongly remembered (by me at least) and depicted in UK TV skits as a feelgood movie of the 'good guys' winning the day. The poster, above, even calls it a great adventure - making it sound like a mountain biking holiday in Moab. Regarding the actual break-out, in 1944, of the 76 who escaped only three were successful - two Norweigians and a Dutch airman. Of the recaptured allies, 50 were executed on Hitler's orders (a war crime, as they were killed not during the escape, but when recaptured).

Apparently, a great deal of McQueen's Virgil Hilts character was based on the US Pilot David M Jones, who was on the Escape Committee and worked on the tunnels and planning, but didn't go through the tunnels and subsequently survived the war, went on to be a Jet Age test pilot and work for NASA. G

UPDATE: Coincidentally, Steve McQueen was also born on this day, in 1930. He died in 1980. If he were still alive, he'd be two years younger than Bruce Forsyth.

Norm Zombie

Motorcycho Norm (on Vicious Cycles theremin duty) sporting the Sideburn Zombie McQueen shirt illustrated by the genius Maxwell Paternoster.
We have a few of these left in Small, XL and XXL. £15 plus post.
Head over to the Sideburn webshop to snag one. G

McQueen is Dead

Very few outlets give me the opportunity to write what I really want to, hence the reason I approached Ben, back in 2007, to help create Sideburn. One that still does is the website Influx. Mike, is the geezer who runs it and he is a geezer: a West Ham fan with a lived-in mush full of cracked tombstone teeth and accent as cultured as a brick through Southern Fried Chicken's front window. He's a brilliant self-taught creative writer and self-confessed Acid Rambler.

Anyway, he asked me 'Can you turn me around a 750 word piece on the whole Steve McQueen shit?' Who says the art of briefing is dead? And while a series of features on Steve McQueen is hardly pushing the envelope, I couldn't refuse.

To his credit, Mike only edited out a couple of lines that he thought would offend their target readership too much. Read it, and other McQueen-related stories (not by me), over at Influx. Leave a comment on my bit, whether you agree or not, and it'll make me appear popular. Thanks! G

Live For Myself, Answer To Nobody

Incoming from top photographer Sam Christmas (who shot SB15's Cover 2)

It should be a good night with loads of unseen McQueen Barry Feinstein prints, other photography by Bill Ray, Von Dutch, Joe McGorty and myself, art by Death Spray and Corpses from Hell as well as a few rare motorcycles and cars. And a free bar. Its in the (fully enclosed) top floor of the NCP on Brewer street, Soho and if you rock up on a McQueen era(ish) bike, you can park in the actual exhibition space... and leave it there til the next day too if you want to drink. For those that are interested but can't make the opening, the show will be running for a few weeks.

A Zombie By A Corpse

A detail of our latest T-shirt showing an undead Captain Hilts drawn by Maxwell Paternoster of the Corpse From Hell. It's printed, in England, on a soft white ringspun Gildan.

He smells of rotting flesh and is an ungodly shade of beige; he's hungry for the blood of nazis and is aiming the front wheel of his steed at the Swiss border. That's Maxwell's normal Friday afternoon, anyway. No idea what the Zombie Hilts is planning.

Order yours at the Sideburn webshop. G

Zombie McQ by MP (CFH) for SB

Summer's here! Really. Time to get a new Sideburn shirt, surely. This one was both illustrated and modelled by Maxwell Paternoster, the prez of the Corpses From Hell Motorcycle Gang.

There are a lot of companies after your T-shirt pounds/ euro/ dollars/ dirhams, BUT we're pretty sure this is the only T-shirt in the world to depict a Zombie Steve McQueen with a dead and decapitated Nazi stormtrooper strapped to his petrol tank. It's a no-brainer.

It's printed in England on a lovely soft, Gildan ringspun shirt. Get yours for just £15 plus post. At the Sideburn webshop. G

PS If summer isn't where you're at, we have wooly hats too.

100% real fake dirt

Adriaan in the Netherlands alerted us to this sham, this farrago, this steaming pile of pure wrong. Yes, it's a 'McQueen' replica ISDT-style waxed International with fake mud printed onto it. I shit you not. As Adriaan said...

'Some people really don't know when to stop.'

Get a grip. G

Chicken Run

Aardman Animations have a soft-spot for motorbikes in their films, but I've never seen this still of McQueen with a trademark Wallace grin before. In trying to trace its origins, it turns out, according to Nick Park, "...Chicken Run was based on The Great Escape with chickens".

Airfix now do a good homage (which is most likely the origin of the Steve McQ one). BP

Desert boots on a bike is where it's at

A couple of people are getting fizzed up about what an actor is wearing in the photo below, perhaps forgetting it's not real life and that the storyline probably didn't start with him wanting to tour the Alps on a Montesa and therefore perhaps not choosing the ideal riding gear.
I'd noticed it as well, but didn't think it was reckless, just that it reminded me of another famous actor on a motorcycle. G

Maxwell Paternoster x Dice

Chief Corpse From Hell and regular Sideburn collaborator, Maxwell Paternoster has created the latest killer Dice Magazine cover. Lovely job.

Read about Maxwell's personal, private, pickled BSA in SB9 .

Also, we have heavyweight art prints of the Zombie McQueen Maxwell drew for Sideburn. They're A3 size on recycled brown card. Just £8 plus post. Only available through our webshop. G

King of Cool

Hi Gary, Ben Hope all is good? The US trip looked ace, instagram feed was a great touch!
Thought this might be of interest to you and your blog readers? My friend Ben Burdett has a photography gallery in London and his new exhibition is original prints of Steve McQueen by John Dominis, the Life magazine photographer who spent three weeks with him and his first wife Neile Adams in California, 1963, just before The Great Escape came out. Lots of the iconic images, including a couple from the Mojave desert race and the one from the Life cover riding the Triumph, are on show and for sale.
It's worth a look in. It starts today and runs until 27th October at Atlas Gallery, 49 Dorset Street, Marylebone, London W1. More on their website. Sorry about the crappy iPhone images, I took them as I left the private view last night!
Cheers Mark MWA

Zombie in France

From François in France...

Hi Gary, the zombie print has well arrived in France, and as been sent straight away to the framer, you'll find enclose a picture with the Challenge One poster as well.
They're making a nice pair in my stairs, as I have no garage for the moment.
As a consequence, the transformation of my 1970 honda CB125 twin into a CL175 scrambler lookalike is a bit difficult and it's not progressing very fast.
I'll send you some pictures when it'll be ready.
Thanks for your work and keep on making us dream !
François RAYNAUD

Wrong quote

If you're going to use a good, but increasingly threadbare old quote on your tacky (€20!) cash-in T-shit (I typed that incorrectly, first time, but thought it suited it), then at least have the brain to put a photo of the correct actor with it. I spotted this tripe among the among the halls of goodness at EICMA. G

Last Zombies in captivity

It was two, now only ONE in size large, then they're all gone. Forever.
Zombie Steve McQueen drawn by the most excellent Maxwell at Corpses from Hell. They have Sideburn in rotting flesh font on the back.
Get yours here. These are the sizes. They cannot be exchanged. G

Chest width of the sweat, not the wearer (1in below armhole)
47"

Sleeve length (armpit to end inc cuff)
20.5in

Front Body length (from round neck to bottom of waistband)
25.5in

Fat Tyre

From Ed at Great Rock (a brilliant looking MTB site)

Hey there
Thought you might like these photos of the On-One prototype Fat Bike, with Sideburn sticker in shot (Zombie McQueen on the helmet)!
Cheers Ed

Conrad and the Long Day pt. 2

So, the long day continued. From Reading I drove into London at rush-hour. I had to drive because I'd picked up the Enfield project from Co-Built and the bodywork that had been painted. I was quite keen to see Conrad Leach's new work, Paradise Lost at the Gauntlett Gallery. There are always loads of people I really like catching up with, like Dai Jobu, Nick Ashley, Jake Rocker, the Vintagent and....Conrad Leach - a lovely chap. I've seen loads of his work, but it's always been in print or on the internet. To see the actual paintings and inspect them made a big impression on me. I'd really like to buy one. To think, the first time I met him he was bump-starting my Wood at Peterborough (nope, that's not prison slang).Her Majesty and Men's File's Nick Clements.
Cres, Sarah, Steve, Gary P from MCN, Helen and the fella who gave me my first writing assignment, a long time ago, Steve Berry.
Nicolai the painter came over with his mate Chris to pick up the bodywork I'd just collected from Revolution. They wrapped it in a blanket and stuff it in the sidecar for the journey to Nicolai's East London grotto. Check Nicolai's amazing work at Ornamental Conifer. Big thanks to David Death Spray from the intro way back when.
The Cro Customs/Conrad Leach/Gauntlett Studios BS1.
Phil D and Davida's Fid the Lid.
Jerome from Ruby Helmets made it over from Paris.

The show is on at Gauntlett Gallery, London till November 12. It's well worth the visit. GI

Warholian Zombie McQueen

From Dusty Terry, Portland

So here is a Warholian McQueen lino cut print I made about a year ago. My girlfriend and I jokingly called it Zombie McQueen. Then your shirt and sticker came out... I'd like the spy cams removed from my house please, you filthy pervs!
Anyway, this print is mostly rubbish and barely recognnisable as Steve, but I thought you guys might get a laugh out of it if nothing else.
Bye, Dusty Terry

Terry also made, and sent us, the leather belt loops 'for people who keep their keys outside their pants' and the postcard below. Talented fella. Thanks Terry. Hey, did you also have the Triumph with the crazy exhausts and rude tank?