It's not what you ride...

It's how you ride it. G

Do You Comb Your Fringe?

Tomorrow night (Thursday 31st Oct), BBC Four is repeating its documentary Full Throttle: The Glory Days of British Motorbikes. (the above on-line viewing link might not work outside the UK?). The usual faff about Mods versus Rockers but an interesting piece on Lawrence of Arabia, and some coiffure tips on Vespa seat covers. BP

Retrospective Scooters Book

This brand new book takes its name from a back street North London classic Vespa specialist. It's the work of photographer Paul Hart who shot the shop, its vintage Vespas and also the scooters the photographer himself bought from Retrospective over a six-year period. 

Paul explains the book was shot all on film, not digital, which always makes much more difference to the photographer (and other photographers) than the reader. Instagram's instant effects have dulled us to the joys of cross-processing. Nevertheless it's a lovely coffee table book for anyone with a soft spot for Piaggio's wasp. 

The 120-page book is a chunky large format softback and is limited to 130 copies. It'll sell out, guaranteeing its cult status. 

It was designed by David Hardy of (Team S Equipe and Enjoy the Ride) and the short passages are in English, Italian and German. I've been picking it up and putting it down all day. I've found it pretty inspirational (even though I'm a Lambretta man). 

Go to Vespamore to buy yours. G

Art & Moto, Lisbon Report

Art and Moto was the first event of its type held in Portugal. It was organised by Cesar of Cafe Racer 351 (the godfather of the fledgling cafe racer scene in Portugal) and Sideburn collaborators the Spanish artists Antonio Merinero and Raulowsky - with the help of the small but enthusiastic Portuguese scene.

The event took place at the LX Factory, a old printing works that's been turned into shops, bars, offices, studios, cafes and a large book shop. The compound is huge and cobbled, giving it a self-contained village high street feel.

That's Cesar's Thruxton, above. The 351 refers to the dialling code needed to call Portugal from abroad.

Four artists' work was on show: Merinero and Raulowsky from Spain, Nuno Capelo and Tiago Santiago from Portugal.
What I thought was a great touch were the collaborations between Merinero and Raulowsky. Merinero did the base of the piece above, then sent the work to Raulowsky who painted on the highlights and lettering. The also created the show poster together, below left.

More Merinero. These are his stencils, the bottom ones are on reclaimed rusty fridge doors.

Antonio Merinero (hat and beer) with Fede from bike modifiers CRO, Madrid, in a cool bar in the LX compound called Impossibly Funky.

New Raulowsky works. We still have a few of the Into The Wild shirt Raulowsky designed for us.

Local photographer, Tiago Santiago made a display of his shots of a Sachs 125 that were backlit with old motorcycle lights. Check out the bike's neat fuel gauge.

Porto-based architect Nuno Capelo showed his art for the first time. Lovely fella and nice work.

Super Company's Salt Shaker appeared again. Last time I saw this bike it was in Milan. Super Company are racing a hotted-up Cub at Dirt Quake II.

Also within the compound were a couple of interesting shops and good restaurants (the latter being something sadly lacking at every UK bike event). This shop sold old audio equipment. 

Love this tree stump DJ platform.

This shipping container turned into a magazine shop had my imagination doing backflips.

Bars and cafe's lined a road between the two main buildings. Bikes parked up and people could stand with a drink and watch the bikes come and go.

The huge Golden Gate-esque bridge, the 25th of April Bridge, shadowed the LX Factory.

Plenty of people came over from Spain, including CRO from Madrid. This is their Yamaha SR250, with tank paint by Merinero.

This is CRO's Sanglas. Spain and Portugal were run by dictator-led governments up until popular revolutions in the 1970s (Franco in Spain till 1975, Salazar and Novo in Portugal till the Carnation Revolution of 1974). Among other things, these regimes severely restricted imports to protect their own industries. The Spanish Sanglas is one of the results, a badge-engineered Yamaha XS400 made in Spain.

This is a Portuguese Casal. The company made bikes and mopeds in Aveiro from 1961 till 2000.

Compared to France, Germany, UK or Italy, the Portuguese custom bike scene is in its infancy, so everyone was rightly proud of the quality of the event, effort and bikes. 

This survivor turned up. Mk2 (?) Escort Estate. More rare than duck egg-sized diamonds nowadays.

 Fine Guzzi and a Bonnie with a fancy Ohlins front end.

 Honda 600, I think. One of the few street trackers in town.

 Hugo from Rev magazine had just finished this Trident. ZXR750 front end, Excel rims, Billet brakes...

The Slicks.

This very cool CB750 had a lot of great touches. It's called the Gravedigger. Bikes in a bookshop? Dreamland.

It will be on show a The Bike Shed Event in London this month.

Neat Swedish-style chopper parked out of the limelight, but still attracted a lot of attention. Reminds me of Back Street Heroes in the mid-90s.

 Everyone welcome, as long as you 'get it'.

On the morning before the show we went exploring Lisbon and bumped into Vasco and his genuine Wrenchmonkee W650. Monkee 35 for the trainspotters.

I borrowed a Bonneville (thanks Triumph Portugal) and met up with photographer Manel Portugal (real name) for a ride up the coast to the beach he surfs at, near the Estoril racetrack.

A great weekend and a big success. Thanks to Cesar, Antonio, Nuno, Hugo, Vitor, Manel, Triumph Portugal and Anabela. Hope to see you all again. G

Dirt Quake

Can't beat the perverse pleasure of an XS650, a Fireblade, and a Vespa (plus some other nutters) doing battle in the mud. This is Dirt Quake, read all about it in SB#11. BP

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