Myk's Place by Them Road Apples

I've mentioned the blog Them Road Apples before on our blog. It's from Vancouver and is run by a woman called Becky. This recent post caught my eye, because I recognised one of the bikes. These are shots of Myk's house and various collections, near Vancouver, Canada. He's one of the Scorpion Flat Track team (that we featured in Sideburn 3), a custom painter and friend of Motorcycho. And I liked these photos.

This bike, a Honda CL360 budget racer, was featured in Sideburn 14. G

La Ruche Moderne

A short trip to San Sebastien in Northern Spain, for work last month, meant I had to fly into Biarritz then drive the 40 mins to the Spanish town. Knowing I'd have a little while before I had to be in Spain I contacted Vincent of Bixente Moto to see if I could visit the workshop I'd heard about, in Anglet, the town next to Biarritz. Vincent gave me the address, but it turned out it was to his new place, La Ruche Moderne. Still, I wasn't complaining.

The painting on the outside was done by ex-pat American Steven Burke who works under the name, Lucky Left Hand.

La Ruche Moderne (LRM) is a multi-purpose building. It has a bar and canteen area, with a BSA desert sled parked in the middle. The canteen hosts corporate events and parties, with enough room for a band to play and a wall for films to be projected onto.

At the back is a small display for Vincent and his wife's men's underwear brand - Hemen Biarritz.
Mrs Inman is stood in the middle, helping give scale. The car in the top left corner helps too.

Also at the back is Vincent's wife's collection of Polaroid cameras. They all still work, he says.

 Above the rusty bar is a store area for Vincent's hoard of old stuff...

 Ancient mini-bikes...

Prehistoric skateboards...

1960 and 1970s Schwinn and Raleigh choppers

 Next to the canteen is a long workshop and bike storage area and garage.

Old Harley, JD, I think.           Old Indian

 Vincent and Ronald.

Vincent's daily rider BSA is always evolving. It raced at Dirt Quake II and thrashes around Wheels and Waves annually.

Read more about this great fella and his bike, in a previous guise, in Sideburn 16 (see below). G

Oh To Be 6

To have one's life revolve around skateboards, Darth Vader and collecting football cards. What bliss. BP

Jason's Borile

After selling the neatest framer in the whole of Europe, Jason bought a Borile (pronounced, I think, Bo-real-ay). I have no idea why he did such a thing.
Anyway, he's trying to salvage the situation. Looks pretty. G

I've been wondering what material would be best for a seat base. I tried titanium. Too bendy and difficult to stick leather to. Next up was fibreglass. What a bleedin messy job that was. And the end result looks like a normal seat. But I wanted something different and yesterday morning came up with a plan. 

A totally unique, never done before idea…. It fits really well and works too. Most pleased with my unique idea. Until I google, skateboard motorcycle seat, and loads come up. pah. Not so unique after all. 

I shall of course get it covered in squishy foam and leather for my peachy posterior, I'm not a sadist.
Jason

Do-er

Dave Skooter Farm is a Do-er. Some of the ideas that are thrown around the Sideburn camp are a little crazy-peeps. In a normal environment, a delusional philosopher's 'genius' idea would be laughed off and they would be ordered to buy another round of drinks. Who'd have thought a motorized steak 'n' kidney pie would make a 'suitable' pace-car? Dave would. Dave did. And so Dirt Quake is blessed with the adoption of said vehicle.

A couple of months ago, when the best of the summer had already moved on, the idea surfaced of riding a motorbike in a skateboard bowl. Dave had built his own bowl in his back garden (its footprint is bigger than that of the bungalow itself), John Highside offered up a ropey old Honda Dax, and faster than you can say "Jack Robinson" I was on my way to Wigan with my camera. "Oh can you get a couple of leggy models too?". We were truly blessed with the weather. Gt Man (aka Greater Manchester) has never looked so So Cal.

Sideburn #15 coming soon. BP

Dogbone

Our mate Trawler (above) has launched a skate/chop range of T-shirts. Check them out at Dogbone. G

Alternatif, Aurillac

We're proud to announce skateboard shop, Alternatif in the town of Aurillac, Central France is the latest stockist of Sideburn magazine and T-shirts.

We met Vincent, the owner of Alternatif, at Wheels and Waves. He owns three shops (I think), runs a skateboard team and also produces a superb free magazine called TransferT. He's a doer! G

Holy Carp! He's serious

I was checking Jamie's Full Lock or Death blog and he's made his DirtBlade look very medieval with a stunt cage. It hit home that A) Someone is going to race a FireBlade on a speedway track, B) We might just be about to promote one of the most memorable races in motorcycle history.

Seeing the word 'stunt' reminded me to check up on Icon Motorsport's stunt rider in France, GuyGuy (pronounced GheeGhee, his full name is Guillaume Gleyo). He's 21 and very excited (some might say 'stoked') to be coming and showing you what he can do. And he can do a lot.
The Coventry track is big and has a large, concrete centre to the oval. This is where he'll be doing his stuff. There are going to be no breaks in the entertainment, so consider strapping a hot water bottle to your leg, to avoid missing anything when you need to take a 'comfort break'.

I spent some of yesterday talking to very excited people who are coming to race at Dirt Quake next Saturday. It's isn't easy organising events, especially ones that are trying to do something a bit different, so it was a good boost to know people are as excited about it as we hope they'd be.
Trawler (above) has been drafted into the Skooter Farm team to race our GS750 chop. That's him below on his Kooler Shaker Sportster he built a few years ago. He's never raced a bike before. His first race will be on a chopper he's never ridden before. Hero. G

Slalom at Rollerburn - UPDATE

Slalom is the very essence of skateboarding... it is fluidity in motion...on the edge, no frills, a no nonsense race with a clear winner.
Slalom racing has become totally underground since the glory days of the late 70's...the black sheep of the family.
We have the best in Europe competing at Rollerburn, including Bruno (all the way from Brazil, via London, pictured) and the mighty Trawler. Can't wait to see them in action.

UPDATE: I forgot to mention that Dave, Joe and Wilky Skooter Farm have constructed a ramp (shown below with Joe stood on top for scale) to launch the slalom riders and racing rollergirls down. This ramp is going to be faced with a one-off painting by world famous artist Conrad Leach. That is so amazing I would barely believe it if I hadn't arranged to pick it up this week. We are borrowing an 18-wheeler to bring the ramp and the stage to Rollerburn. You are all coming, right? G

UPDATE ON THE UPDATE
Here's a hilarious Weakest Link video of "diddy body" Trawler. BP

The Man Wolfs are back

Mister Heavenly - Bronx Sniper from Ravenhouse LTD. on Vimeo.

More trippy, disturbing awesomeness from the Man Wolfs. Don't let your kids watch it, till you've seen it first.

Watch the first instalment here. G

Man Wolfs

Be A Manwolf Today from éS Skateboarding on Vimeo.

Crazy in the coconut. Friends of Norm Motorcycho, I think. G
Spotted on CoC.

99 Seconds

2 years of emailing from opposite sides of the same town before finally meeting up in the real world, is a sign of our busy cyber lives I guess. Down at The Deaner, the dilapidated but fabled Bedminster skatepark, Adi 99 Seconds who did our fantastic Aldana poster, was getting big air, I only managed tiny. One conscientious Dad was walking around with a dustpan and brush because of the broken beer bottles hurled by 13 year old drunks the night before. Nice. BP

Skateboard Soul

From Donald in Aus

Checked the mail and was surprised to find not one, but two copies of SB#7! Not sure why [Donald, you ordered and paid for two. Maybe a slip of the mouse], but a copy will be placed in a hermetically sealed container as a time capsule for future generations to enjoy.
Slapped a 'Northern Soul' sticker on my longboard to cover up some of the scratches.
Soon to have its own I'm sure. Thanks for another fine issue. I only wish I hadn't read it so quick, as it only makes the wait for SB#8 that much more agonizing. Oh well, Just another excuse to start re-reading issue #1 and work my way through the stack (and it is quite the stack now) again.
Donald, South Australia

Racefit Visit

Called in at Racefit for a cuppa yesterday. Sorry about the crap phone pics.
They've imported some fancy carbs from Japan for a customer...
A bank of four Yoshimura Mikuni TMR-MJNs. Just incredible things. £2000, plus another £400 in shipping, tax and duty. Ouch.
Racefit's new Growler 2. Titanium, naturally, it's all these fellas deal in.
Me trying out Racefit's latest project for size. GSX1100 frame, Paoili forks, RCD yokes, Dymags, TLR swingarm converted to twin shock, Works Performance shocks, monstrous Mistral tuned 1400cc Katana motor.
One of Racefit's suppliers made Jon a solid carbon-fibre version of a Turner needlenose Summerski (I know eff-all about skateboards, but I liked the shape of this). GI

In Training

Skooter Farm Dave in his backyard pool in training for King's Lynn. Nice helmet Dave. G

The Twilight Zone

3am and the party is over. 20 minutes of Roadie huffing and puffing then we're off to chez Skooter Farm and bed. GI did us proud on the dance floor despite "the most bitter shandies I have ever drunk". Louise; Dave's Mrs' has been on a fairy cake course and we are plied with tea and cake before turning in. We're surrounded by slightly scary puppets and erotic dolls. The yellow monkey is staring at us. BP, GI, Geoff, and Anthony are to share a deluxe king-size pikey caravan that sits in the garden hitched up to a rotting Hilman Super Minx. Dave built himself a skateboard bowl that's bigger than the house. I was skateboarding in 1976 but got The Fear long before ever venturing into a bowl. In this light it's a thing of beauty. I could have stared into it until dawn. GI who always travels light, but always seems to be prepared with the correct kit for the moment, is sporting 6 year old's jim-jams. Welcome to The Twilight Zone. BP

A peek inside Skooter Farm Dave's Shed

And now he's giving you the chance to look inside his mind. Dave's making my new favourite blog - Full-Frokkul-Fiasco!. He seems to be updating it hourly. GI