Sideburn 26: World Exclusive

Earlier this year Guy Martin established the record for highest speed on a wall of death riding a Krazy Horse-prepared Indian Scout at 70.3mph. He then went out on his own Rob North BSA Rocket triple and raised the record to 78mph and change, while being subjected to 7G.

You haven't read about the Rob North because it hasn't been featured in any magazines in the world. Until now. Guy only wanted the bike in one magazine, Sideburn.

It was shot in Grimsby for Sideburn by Sam Christmas. We also had Mick Ofield create a blueprint of Guy's bike and highly respected journalist Mick Duckworth write about the history of Rob North and his famous racing frames.

There is only one place to read these features - in the beautifully printed Sideburn 26.

Also, in the same issue, is our regular Ask Guy page, where the very British daredevil answers Sideburn readers' questions. If you want him to answer yours, send it in to dirt @ sideburnmagazine.com

Guy Martin's Wall of Death

Don't forget to watch Guy Martin's Wall of Death tonight, 7.15, Channel 4. There are lots of Sideburn intersections in the Venn diagram of this attempt.

1. Guy is a long-time supporter of Sideburn and has agreed to write a regular column for each issue starting with Sideburn 24.
He also wrote about racing at Dirt Quake for Sideburn 23.

2. He will ride more than one bike on the wall (if all goes to plan). He has been practicing on, and will ride, an Indian Scout, that's been seriously modified by our mates at Krazy Horse. Guy has raced the Krazy Horse Sportster at the previous two Dirt Quakes and first met Paul from Krazy Horse at Rollerburn, our 2011 event.

3. Guy's mentor through the event has been Ken Fox, and one of the Fox family's Wall of Death is returning to this year's Dirt Quake. Get your Dirt Quake tickets now.

Good luck Guy! G

Cindy on the Wall of Death

Cindy swaps her DKR Manx for a stripped-down Beezer twin to ride the wall of death. I love the signwritten BSA ads around the top of the wall.

We've booked the legendary Ken Fox Wall of Death for Dirt Quake V. They will be performing free shows on Friday night, after the the DTRA and Hooligan dirt track racing, then on Saturday during and after the Dirt Quake racing.

Dirt Quake V tickets are now on sale.
Friday is £5, Saturday is £15. Under 11s are free. 11-15 year-olds

All full price Saturday tickets bought in advance will be entered into a draw to win a custom Mutt Motorcycles street tracker worth over £4500. G

Ears of Death

More Italian psych-pop, this time from the band I Rogers performing 'Cristina' (1970) and backed by footage from the film 'Noi Donne Siamo Fatte Cosi' (Us Women Are Made This Way). I'd pay good money to have my ears pulled by a wall of death-riding Monica Vitti. MP

Allahabad Wall of Death

Thanks to Dai Jobu for the tip

Wall of Death Indian For Sale

'Indian Scout built as a Wall of Death bike immaculate condition. Not registered. Converted to road use.'For Sale here

New Wall of Death Film

High quality, new film about the legendary Ken Fox Wall of Death. It makes me want to find the Wall, pay my £2 and climb the stairs.
It amazes me that people make such beautiful films and put them on Vimeo for free. I hope Benedict Campbell gets some work from this showcase.
We featured this Wall of Death in Sideburn 6. GI

Lickerish Moto

Another winning combination by YouTube's fardonbeat66 of Italian freak-pop put to a period film. This time we're treated to Ombretta Colli's La Moto, a 1968 Italian rendition of Serge Gainsbourg's Harley-Davidson (there's a video of Brigitte Bardot performing the track, but to be honest, despite her undeniable Gallic magnetism, both of them, it's not as interesting as this).

The film is The Lickerish Quartet, a 1970 soft pornadelic curiosity, directed by Radley Metzger and starring the Italian siren Silvana Venturelli. Any ideas on the bikes being used? I can't pin them down. Gary did a great feature on the Wall of Death in Sideburn #6, why not get the back issue? MP

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

Speed Cretin vs Wall of Death

Remember the Icon Speed Cretin we posted recently? Well, there's a really nice little video follow-up from the guys at Icon. It seems the Speed Cretin isn't the helmet, but the character in it. We should do a feature on him. GI
Kurt from Icon got in touch to say...

I caught the SpeedCretin posting on your site - that's the TT build I was working on last year. The full Speed Cretin vs Wall of Death video will be posted on our blog on Sep 1st. BTW - You're absolutely correct on the paint looking like Belladonna - I love their SR - how come I never run into girls like that when I'm in Sweden? Anyways, keep up the killer mag - the guys in the Icon office dig it.
Kurt Walter, Icon Design Director

Can't stop the Cretins from rocking...

To promote their new full-face helmet, US bike clothing company Icon have made an ad that shows the lid, the excellently named Speed Cretin, in action on a wall of death. I don't think the full video is out yet, but Hell for Leather have a taster. That's where we got these photos.
Icon commissioned this mutant Yam TT500 to co-star in the ad. It's part-flat tracker, part-supermoto, part-Bososoku bike. The whole concept certainly beats some 'model' with two-day stubble giving it the blue steel that most bike clothing companies use.
This paint reminds me a lot like Bellodonna's SR, that features in their advert in SB3. GI