Icon 1000: Three Martini Lunch

When Icon 1000, the Portland-based company that never sleeps, release a new video I get excited. They have a fresh new website too, covering their Icon Motosport, Icon 1000 and Icon Raiden brands. Go to www.icon1000.com. G

Old Empire Lightning

Old Empire Motorcycles sent us photos and info on their latest build, the Lightning. We don't feature a lot of cafe racers on this website, despite the fact all the staff have built, have owned or still own cafe racers, because so many others do, but Old Empire are good friends and this is a tidy bike.  This is what they say...

Built around a 1979 Yamaha SR500, our first thought was how to create something different, yet not too radical as budget was limited. After looking at the framework underneath the usual toot we figured a monoshock would fit perfectly in the end of the top tube (and oil tank) so we went about building a subframe onto the original swingarm suitable to mount a custom Hagon monoshock based on a Kawasaki SXR400 spec shock.

The tank although looking like it was unmodified has been retunneled and moved to sit lower and further forward to keep the lines of the bike true. The original rear section was promptly cut off and replaced with a far nicer flowing unit suitably braced with a second top tube that the rear of the tank now sits on. Custom LED rear lights house in the tail section complete the look.

Photos: Ian Jubb

Glemseck snaps

What with the chunnel and roadworks it was a 14 hour schlep from home to the Glemseck cafe racer sprint - but worth it. Trying to digest a very phallic Brätwurst washed down with a 1litre tankard of beer at 10am is quite daunting but we had fun.

Gary's Black Arrow was hot to trot.

- or if post-industrial GSX-R is not to your taste how about rear-as-front 16" white-wall tyres and drum brakes?

Seb's BM was sporting some new bling - including nitrous, and a new paint job.

Guy Martin: "SIDEBURN, the bloody best motorbike magazine on the planet....And not just because I'm on the cover"

Nutty Target 320, based on a KTM 690.

Nick's fugly but purposeful Honda Magna mongrel.

Frank Chatokhine's Triumph with lovely mesh fly-screen.

Kraftstoffschmiede R90S

BMW Roadster concept with impressive machined aluminium tail piece

Germans do like Trannies, this Feuerwehr was a minter. BP

Cafe Racer Paris

This weekend. GI will be at the historic banked Montlhery track with a ton of SB merch' including mags, Ts, and lush Mick Ofield blueprints.

Red Max snaps

Great turn out, and a very healthy mix of bikes at the Red Max open day yesterday.

This dinosaur was my favourite.

Always good to have a rummage in the workshop too. BP

Red Max Open Day This Saturday

Red Max Speed Shop,
Unit 3 Prospect Rd Business Park,
Alresford [near Winchester] SO24 9UH
BP will be there with a hamper of Sideburn goodness.

Sub Cool

Tidying up the hoarders mountain of my desk, unearthed this dusty snap (from a pre-digital age so I think it's from ±1999). Ater Matchless 500 racing at Assen, Holland. Love it. Not that I know anything about it. Who dares to paint their bike BROWN?! (Maybe the owner had a matching Austin Allegro). Lester mags? Ridden by (amongst others) Dave Croxford and...

Peter Williams - here at Brands Hatch in 1970.

Also related to this JPN lovely?
When I eventually get my Guzzi back on the road, I'd love a raw white gelcoat full fairing like this. BP

The Drayton Porkchop

Portsmouth creative agency, I Love Dust, worked with highly respected UK chopper builder (and all-round good bloke) Benny Boneshaker to make a basket case old ironhead sportster into cafe racer type of thing they call The Drayton Porkchop. It was the agency's tenth birthday present to themselves.
Check out ilovedust.com for tons of creative inspiration. G

BMW Spezial

Hi Ben,
We're working on a beemer project for a German customer which includes a couple of major changes:

GSX-R rear wheel adapted for single-sided BMW shaft-drive,

aluminium tank & rear end,

upside down front forks. cheers Weiger

Star Twin.

Day Job

My 6 year-old daughter has a book called "What Does Daddy Do?" where the main character tries to explain to her class-mates what exactly her Daddy does for a living. In the face of her friends whose Dads all hold down 'normal' jobs she initially struggles before verbally painting a colourful and heroic picture. I'm not sure if my daughter's version would be so rosy considering the amount of time I seem to be chained to the computer of late. But last week I did have the pleasure of dusting off my studio equipment to go and shoot the new Norton Domiracer prototype at the Donington factory as a cover story for Café Racer Magazine.

Bertrand Bussillet Le Look Le Plus Cool.

BB on buffing detail.

Claire Salter erected an impressive bouffant with model Charlotte's hair.

Even with all the cash I've been saving recycling zipties, I don't think I will be investing it in a £22,000 Domiracer despite its good looks. Although the real bike still only exists on paper, most of the proposed 50 production bikes have already been sold to prospective customers.
Café Racer #65 (Septembre-Octobre) OUT NOW! BP

Cafe Racer Festival, Montlhery

August? It's August already? What! I don't seem to have had two minutes to relax this year. June was the craziest. Two trips to the Isle of Man (one on a rubber dinghy); Dirt Quake II, Wheels and Waves and this event, the brilliant Cafe Racer Festival and the historic Monlhery circuit on the outskirts of Paris.
Both Ben and I work for Cafe Racer magazine (the French one) and have big admiration for its boss, Bertrand, so when we were invited, we made our second long trip to France in a week, having just returned from Biarritz.
I'm so glad we did. It was great.

The event was all centred around the amazing speed bowl track, that dates back to the 1920s. For something like 100 euro, you could have sessions riding it as fast and high as you dare. The photo above shows the scale. Articulated lorries fit through that tunnel. The speck is a bike coming down from the steepest, tallest section of banking.

There was a 'street' of dealers, bike builders, kit sellers and painters too. The Sideburn stand was manned by me (Gary) and Dave Taylor, who spent Saturday and Sunday spinning fantastic tunes too. The browsing spectators loved them, the insurance company opposite us, didn't.

We were next to Mr Martini (from Italy) and a classic bike racing club from England. Sideburn stockists, Motokouture (above) came from Belgium. Star Twin came from the Netherlands...

Radical Ducati drove up from Madrid with a ton of great bikes, including this 350...

SR500 specialists Kedo came from Germany...

One of Krugger's bikes came from Belgium. Bertrand the event organiser did a mid-week flit from Paris to the neighbouring country to pick up this reverse-head Honda. Fred Krugger was supposed to be there but his leg had been broken by a flying race bike that went out of control at the Isle of Man TT and cartwheeled down Bray Hill. The world famous custom builder was stood in the garden it landed in. He was lucky he wasn't killed.

This dude is a famous French actor, called Pio Marmaï. He's a big deal, but I didn't realise till I looked him up when I got him. He was here drinking beer and racing his scruffy XS650 chop. That's when he wasn't taking his cat, Mr Pickles, for a walk.

Bertrand, the boss of Cafe Racer - editor, publisher, writer, everything. He also organised this great event, with help from a small team. Here he is getting in some crucial Gallic shrug practice while talking to the one and only Sonic Seb.

If I saw these two fellas walking round in England I'd be wondering where they parked their slammed VW Golf, but they owned and built these two stunners. 

GSX-R1100 with drum brakes. Er, ooookayyy...

Mr Martini, Bertrand B, me. Hats for sale at the Sideburn shop.

Hauler.

Neat KTM LC4 road racer.

Cool French cats in their Lewis Leathers.

Awesome road and race bikes were everywhere you looked. Like this Dick Mann replica.

And this XR750 road racer.

Norton George was over from the UK too, with his amazing bobber (running modern discs)

Variety. Neat ancient Peugeot...

And this Zen Buell, meant it was my kind of event.

Met loads of cool people from great companies, like David and his wife from Pure Motorcycles.

Pull Your Finger Out

Me and Renia from the Chatokhine Crew.

Seb and Laurens.

Neat Sportster tracker.

Triton, Vans and Church of Choppers sticker.

A few XR1200s turned up.

Bertrand lent me his Trackmaster Triumph (that featured in the recently sold out SB12) to race in the sprint. I did alright till I starting missing gears... (Photo by Renia1)
What an amazing event. If they do it next year, be there. We will be. G