Influx: Alt.Bikers - notes from the new wave

Thinking man's automotive blog/web-thing, Influx is back after something of a hiatus.
They returned with a love letter to Ford's Dagneham plant and Ford Britain - getting Billy Bragg on board to write for them and star in a video.

Next up is 'Alt.Bikers - notes from the new wave'. They asked me to write a couple of pieces, one was about the mainstream 'co-optation of the alt. bike scene' (their phrase not mine). It's an insider's view, only lightly edited and barely dumbed down for the masses. That's why I like Influx so much.

The other piece I wrote for them is an interview with Bruce Brown, director of On Any Sunday.

There is also a feature on the Old Empire x ODFU Osprey by Influx head honcho, Mike Fordham, and a list of ten influential bike builders written by Bike Exif founder, Chris Hunter.

Heading up all this wordy stuff is Influx's own short and sweet video (above) shot at Dirt Quake III last year, featuring Sideburn's own entertainments officer, Dave Skooter Farm and other familiar faces.

Don't forget Dirt Quake IV is Friday-Saturday,  July 17-18.
Dirt Quake USA is Saturday-Sunday, June 20-21

You can read the articles at influx.co.uk, but here's a taster...

'For the first time since the British working class streetfighter scene of the mid-1990s – a sub-culture that spawned the definitive Triumph Speed Triple and every subsequent ‘hyper-naked’: Aprilia Tuono; KTM SuperDuke, Ducati Streetfighter… – it is motorcycle customisers, not solely racing or in-house design departments, that are leading development with their vitality. The crucial difference between the neo café racers and the streetfighters is the 21st century scene is clean-cut and affluent enough for boardroom inhabitants to relate to. There’s nothing illegal about the new scene. These people don’t look, or behave, like wrong ‘uns. They are ABC1s. Tasteful and urbane. The defining events do not take place outside a Midlands bike shop or on a wind-battered disused runway – but in hip, cultural magnets – Biarritz, Portland, East London’s Shoreditch.' G

When GI met Marc Marquez

As a full-time freelance journalist, I (Gary Inman, Sideburn's editor) have a very varied life. A deadline every day too. The job has taken me all over the world and Sideburn fits in around this day job and family life (though Sideburn muscles into every single day). 

Last August I was sent an email from Italy asking me to interview Marc Marquez in London. Then it was cancelled. A few weeks later it was back on, but in Italy. All a bit last minute, but I could fit it in, so I drove to London for the flight to Milan. I was picked up in a minibus by a big crew and driven to Rimini on the far coast of Italy. We pulled into the car park of the Grand Hotel Rimini at nearly midnight. 

It wasn't long since I'd watched the brilliant Grand Hotel Budapest and there were a lot of visual comparisons. No lift boys though.

The next morning, after breakfast on my own, I went to a pair of adjoining suites where the photoshoot was underway. The room was crowded with: 

• The husband and wife photography team - VanMossevelde+N
• Their two assistants
• The wardrobe man and his assistant
• The magazine's art director
• Hairdresser
• Marquez's agent (above in 93 shirt)
• Marc Marquez (through the crowd in the suit and tie)

Ten people in total, plus me. I sat and waited my turn.

 About a third of the clothing options the magazine brought.

 Marquez hair trimmings. I should've collected them for eBay...

I interviewed the world champion, on the cusp of securing his second world title, for nearly an hour, a good slot. At the end, having run out questions, I asked him the old cliche - what was better, winning races or sex? He said, winning races leads to more sex with a laugh.
The assignment was for Icon in Italy, but their Spanish version picked up the interview and photos. Then the national paper, El Pais (who own the Spanish version of Icon), took the quote and made it a front page headline, in this quite traditional and Catholic country. Obviously to try sell more magazines.
When I saw Marquez's manager at the Superprestigio he gave me the dead eye and told me about the El Pais situation, that I didn't know about until that time. Whoops.
Marquez is a nice young fella, I hope I didn't cause problems for him. I doubt it.
I was told, the week before the Superprestigio, the rider was on TV crying because he'd caught a lot of very public grief for moving from Spain to Andorra to avoid paying Spanish tax. The Spaniards, in the depths of a very rough recession, didn't like this super-rich young sportsman avoiding tax so publicly. As I understand it, he made a U-turn and moved back to Spain, or decided not to move to Andorra at all.

Sideburn - the choice of world champions.

 This is the coverage in Italy's Icon. I write for them regularly if any Italians out there are bothered. G

Tom Egan

I recently interviewed Pennie Smith, the rock photographer who shot, among many other great images, the cover of The Clash 'London Calling'. During a short research session I watched a French TV show from the early-1980s that went to visit the NME's offices and interviewed Smith.
They show a clip of The Clash with this incorrect caption. Do you know what song they're really playing? G

What would Jeff do?

A few weeks ago, the editor of Performance Bikes, a magazine I've contributed to for well over a decade, rang up and said, 'We are putting on a free track day with Dunlop and Rockingham racetrack. Why don't you come on the Black Arrow.' Great idea.

Since then, though, I've damaged my left rotator cuff (painful muscle and tendon shoulder injury), highsiding on a wet track at the last DTRA race. I've crashed another two times since then... And I'm busy. So busy. I always go to bed knowing I've only done half as much as I should have that day.

Aching, busy, the black Arrow buried behind two other bikes, excuses, excuses...
But what would Jeff do? I'm talking about Jeff Wright (of FTWCo and Church of Choppers). He has two bars, his T-shirt business, four three kids... Jeff would go to the track day.

So I did. And it was great. The Black Arrow behaved. The sidestand bracket grounds out, but I knew the bike was low. I need to go up a tooth on the front sprocket and take the gauze out of the bellmouths too, but other than that, it felt good. I'm now looking forward to riding it on Montlhery's banking at the Cafe Racer Festival, outside Paris in two weeks.

And, because he's a columnist for PB, John McGuinness turned up, cool as you like, chatted and did a few laps in his World Endurance and TT leathers.

Thanks Jeff. G

When GI met Valentino Rossi 2

Ever since I heard about Rossi building a riding ranch in his home town of Tavullia I wanted to ride it. And going to prove it's not what you know, but who you know, in early September this year I managed, being the first journalist in the world to do a lap of Rossi's private test track.

It was all down to my connections with Rolling Stone Italy, for whom I write a monthly column on motorcycle culture.

It was ten years since Rossi was on their cover, dressed as Elvis and the editor, Michele Lupi, wanted to catch up and chose me to write the exclusive interview. The feature was even mentioned on the national 8pm news.

It's out in Rolling Stone Italy, December issue (with Ligabue on the cover). GI

I was invited to do the interview, but I asked if I could ride the track while I was there. It was no problem, Rossi's right-hand man, Albi said, and rustled up a bunch of gear for me to borrow. Our old friend Marco Belli loaned me his 450 that was on wrecked, bald tyres. I rode like a wet lettuce, uncomfortable on the tyres and the surface is very, very loose, but I'm glad I did it. I'd have been happier on my own bike, though.

 Valentino, Gary, Marco

The original steel-frame Zaeta belonging to Graziano Rossi. The old man did more laps than anyone in the blazing heat and dust.

Above: Leathers hung up in the Rossi Pizzeria in Tavullia. It's a stylish place with just enough memorabilia to feel special, but not cluttered. In the courtyard is a well-stocked gift shop full of 46 paraphernalia.

 The Rossi Fan Club HQ.

To see when GI interviewed Rossi before (but it wasn't for the first time), click here.

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

Two Years Ago...

Just over two years ago, I returned from a 16-day trip riding through South Africa, Namibia and into Zambia with a group led by Charley Boorman and Motoaventures. I follow him instagram (we are @sideburnmag by the way) and he's just done the trip again. Seeing his insta posts reminded me to dig out these photos, under the perhaps ill-found assumption you might be interested.

The first day's riding around the Cape was incredible.

The back of Table Mountain (not Sugar Loaf Mountain, you dumbass Inman! See comments).

Selfie. I wrote that bike off the next day.

Charley B, wearing the Sideburn x Deus Ex Machina shirt Deus made a couple of years ago.

Near the Fish River Canyon, Namibia.

If this looks like fun, and you've got a wedge of cash for a trip of a lifetime, check out Motoaventures Tours. G

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