Asterisk Honda FTR223

This tidy tiddler from Asterisk in Japan, is proudly sporting some Sideburn stickers.
We featured their KX500 in Sideburn 13 and their Harley XG750 coming up in the next issue. G

Australia to England on a Postie

I've met Nathan a couple of times, and he seems a lovely fella. My son is reading the book of this trip at the moment and enjoying it. G

Minibike conquers Pikes Peak

This is a great story from and starring our friend, regular correspondent and occasional magazine contributor,  Roger F from Ohio.

Here's a blast from the past. I just got my new issue of Sideburn magazine with a cover story about Guy Martin and the Pikes Peak Hillclimb, and there was also a minibike picture posted on FB by a friend that caused me to look around for these pictures and maybe put together the little minibike basketcase that fell into my lap last week. Serendipity. 

In the fall of 1971, I was enlisted to help another student in high school get a motorcycle license endorsement so he could ride a minibike up the famous Pikes Peak mountain as a promotion for a new Mercury brand centrifugal clutch. Centrifugal clutches were a weak point for minibikes back then, as kids would thrash them, slipping them unmercifully, making expensive replacement necessary. Unfortunately, a week prior to going their rider gets mono, so at the last minute, I'm drafted to fill in. The advertising account manager, a mechanic and I are packed into a station wagon and drive out to Colorado, right before the road closes for the winter. 

We had three days out there to make it to the top, and back then, only the first five miles were paved. The rest was an exceptionally well cared for, wide dirt road that could be navigated safely by tourists in their automobiles. There was no real skill required to ride the road, just twist the throttle and endure the cold. 

The first day we had great weather, but despite preparation beforehand, the bike was still jetted too rich for the altitude and ran out of breath about a couple thousand feet from the summit. Overnight in the hotel room, the carb was rejetted, but the next day the weather turned bad and we were stopped at the cabin at the end of the pavement due too snow and wind at higher elevations. 

We had one day remaining and it was do or die. The weather was clear but cold, and we made it without incident. The bike was still hampered by a lack of power as I got closer to the summit, and I was consciously taking wide lines to conserve momentum in order to make it. By the time I got to the top, my speed was down under 10mph and the motor was struggling, but that clutch never faltered, even after miles of hard work over the three days on the mountain. 

The publicity was very successful, and the ad manager ghost wrote my account for Mini Cycle magazine, and the story also appeared in the AMA magazine and several local newspapers. The attached pictures are b/w promo shots taken on our way down for the ad campaign. It really was a cool little minibike, despite the lights, horn and mirror tacked on to make it quasi street legal..
Roger

Ducati Mini Speedway Bike

Man, I love it when treasure like this arrives in the inbox. Thanks Karl!

Hi Gary! 
I have two pictures for you. 
This is a DUCATI 98ccm from 1968, about 10 horsepower. 
It was built for Speedway - Junior races in the sixties. I hope its interesting for you. 

I'm the owner of the photos my father made this bike for me as I was about 12 years old. The photo they are a from Voecklabruck / Austria. 
Greetings from Karl

M&M's Street Scramblers

Bultaco Frontera 250

Honda 90 Scrambler

Kawasaki 250TR

M&M's in Japan consistently turn out the neatest street trackers and street scramblers. Nothing too flash or fancy, just handsome and tidy.
We have a full feature on M&M's in Sideburn 6 (of which there are only a few left). G

Boneshaker Mutt 125

Super-cool learner bike from Benny Boneshaker. Go here to buy one...

Boneshaker Mutt 125cc with 30 years experience of building custom motorcycles we thought it was high time someone built a small cc learner legal stylish motorcycle, with a love of vintage Harley Davidsons and Triumphs we decided to create a new motorcycle to be a affordable, maintenance free, user friendly machine with classic styling but above all.. it had to be cool. 

We took a lot of styling cues from 1960's Triumph Desert racers and with that in mind we created the 'Mutt' The Mutt is handbuilt in our workshops in rural England and features a 4 stroke 125 cc engine based on the bullet proof Suzuki GN engine built under licence from Suzuki. The frame is a twin shock all steel construction and uses the engine as a stressed member. 

The tank of the Mutt is painted by our in house custom paint specialist in off white and burnt orange with chrome trim and has classic british style tank rubbers. Wide American spec Triumph handlebars with Gran Turismo grips and a Triumph influenced seat provide great handling and comfort and British look whilst the triple plated chrome downpipe and Burgess silencer let out a healthy rumble that makes you feel you are astride a larger capacity motorcycle. 

The Mutt runs 18" wheels front and rear which are shod with Dunlop deep block pattern dirt tyres for that chunky Steve Mqueen style desert racer look (although we can supply your Mutt with different tyres if you prefer, front mudguards are also available but we prefer the stripped down look). A light weight aluminium rear mudguard and 'flexi' rear light complete the desert racer look. These motorcycles are brand new and will be supplied to you registered on a new plate with a tank of fuel and two years warranty. 

The Mutt is £2900 on the road So if you want a cool 125cc motorcycle with retro styling built by people who love, live and breath motorcycles then get in touch with us on 01562730429 or 07913 325297 or email Benny

Australian Cafe Racers x DQII

Jordan from Australian Cafe Racers has attended a couple of Sideburn events, amazingly, as he lives on the other side of the world. He's posted up a ton of photos and a report of Dirt Quake II on ACR website. Above are the Rusty Nail guys from Yorkshire doing their event finale bike tug of war.

Below is a little film about Jordan and the love he has for his 125 Honda. G

SeeSee Motorcycles

SeeSee Motorcycles is a coffee shop/bike shop/cultural hot sport in Portland, Oregon. It is run by Thor Drake, who features in Sideburn 11. SeeSee stock Sideburn and make videos that make me want to forget about the miserable weather and ride.
SeeSee, we salute you! G

El Solitario Pop Bikes

I've just returned from Spain where I was staying with the El Solitario family for a couple of nights. It was a great time. More about it in the future.
It reminded me I had these amazing Kristina Fender photos of the Pop series of bikes El Solitario built. 125s with BMX bars, obnoxious exhausts and great paint.
At €8000 they're a lot for a 125, but not a lot for a custom bike of this standard.
We saw these at our Kiddo party in Barcelona and fell for them. G

UPDATE: The whole El Solitario crew are coming from Spain for our Sideburn Edwin party.

Cupid Stunt

This has a lot of YouTube views, but I'd never seen it. Fantastic. Thanks to Spanish Johnny for the tip-off. G

CRO Vandertrack

Our good friend Antonio Merinero (above, in the cap) painted this bike. Here are details on the build from Federico at CRO, Madrid. Photos by Luis Cevallos

CRO - Cafe Racer Obsession - is Madrid based little company in which I modify and create bikes in the street tracker and Cafe Racer style; the business is growing since I open in 2009, and right now i am working on 8 (!!) different projects, including a 1953 Triumph. 
The latest release is a 125cc Suzuki Van Van, which I modified for a customer. The bike was trashed by previous owner, so it had lots of work to be done.
The rear subframe is new and the backbone has been modified to fit a Kawasaki KZ400 tank; the rear section, which is called " flat frog", is a fiberglass CRO creation, designed by artist Antonio Merinero, who took care of the graphics and the faded paint also. The CRO script doubles as a taillight, and all the details could be seen on the pictures. 
Of course all the electricals and brackets have been removed or simplified. 
 The name of the bike came after some Margarita shots in my Thursday night CRO meeting, held weekly in a bar in Madrid downtown. Van comes obviously because the bike, Track about the style, and "der" is Dirt drunk spelled and related to the Dutch orange colour... Too much tequila, i guess. 
Thanks for your interest, 
 Best regards from Spain

M&M's Tiddlers

Sideburn favourites M&M's is always a good website to hang out. Above is the Yamaha YDS used for classic scrambles.
The bike below is a Kawasaki 250TR. At first glimpse I thought it was a little Brit scrambler.
Read a full feature about M&M's in Sideburn 6. G

Bonneville Salt Flats UPDATE

Maxwell of Corpses From Hell went to support the Impossible Team at Bonneville Speed Week. He painted a wild car right there on the salt, below, and sent the photos of this 125cc class record breaker wearing an old Sideburn Dave shirt. Who are you, Mr Recordbreaker? Neat bike, by the way. Send us details if you see this. Thanks.

UPDATE - This from Dan Yoder of Killin-It, Thanks DY

Saw your post on Facebook wondering who Mr Recordbreaker was on the old HD 125. He's a good friend from Madison, WI area and a wee lad to be breaking records on the salt! I thought I would share a link to his blog in case you wanted to peruse it over a bit of tea... Primordial Cycles
That is what you Euro people do right:) 
 Anyways I hope all is well and keep up the good work my friend! Oh yeah Patrick Zeigle is the young chap's name - Dan 

Photos: Kristina Fender

Can I show off my Silk Road?

From Yosuke in Japan

Can I show off my moto? It's Honda Silk Road. There was lesser‐known line product from Japan. But, reorganized style is very cool. I think my moto looks like your magazine's contents, street-style moto.

Subarashii! Check out the silencer between shock and rear tyre. See more at Yosuke's blog - Moderately Days. Warning, there are a lot of cats on it.

Honda CT250S Silk Road before picture is below.G

Second Swiss Cub

Following on from his 'Bird Reynolds' Triumph Tiger Cub we featured in Sideburn #8, Danny Hard9 has now had another Cub. As intrigued as we were by the last story, we thought we better put our best dick on it, and so sent Special Agent Arnold on a chilly Euro road trip, to Bern in Switzerland, to get the inside story. It certainly was a journey of enlightenment - if well over budget. You'll just have to wait for SB#10 to read it. BP

We like cheap bikes

And one is being built over at the Rusty Nail Racing blog. Looks perfect for Dirt Quake's street bike class. G