Fill 'er up

Inspired by Racefit, Steve Elliott and Jeff Wright, I splashed out on an endurance twin filler for the Black Arrow. It's a ridiculous purchase. The Black Arrow is a pure road bike. This is going to make life more difficult at every petrol station. But look how gorgeous it is.
It was made in the UK by RCD. G

Rust Quake

Finally repatriated my XS from my Mum's pigeon coop so as to get it ready to 'race' in the DIRT QUAKE chopper class. It hasn't run for, what 9, maybe 12 years. I'm praying it won't demand a total rebuild to revive it. We've stipulated regs' that chops do not have to have a road legal MOT, but otherwise be in a safe, decent working order, and not excessively covered in pigeon shit.
Once again the Multi-Spaz devoured all - this time including Mrs and 2 kids.It's not like there's a tree growing out of it or anything. BP

Jeff Wright's view on the world

Jeff Wright (Church of Choppers, FTWCo) sent these photos and a note...

'I want to do a story on these guys....
Matt George and John Kite...John is the guy behind the RS...He was the first to take the cx and put it sideways in the frame and race it.'

Streetmaster Race Bike - EXCLUSIVE

From L-R: Richard 'Mule' Pollock, Richard 'Streetmaster' Varner, Jeff Johnson, Shawn Kump
The legendary Dick 'Bugsy' Mann checking out the bike.

The Streetmaster, built by Mule, is the high water mark of street tracker's, the one all others will be judged against. And now there's a race version, tested at Perris, California. Exclusive news from Mule himself...

Richard Varner who IS Streetmaster decided we should build a race bike to showcase our chassis and other parts soon to be available. So that's what we did. Racing intent is start out locally and see how it goes with the strong possibility of bigger things later this year.

The motor has the 270 degree crank with the total emphasis on traction and torque. Weight is very low (I plan to get it weighed this week) and handling is neutral and superb according to test pilot Pro Jeff Johnson. Power is good and more dyno work, gear sorting and refinement will take place over the next couple weeks. All in all, a great first outing with perfect weather. More to come for sure.
Mule

The $75,000 Streetmaster prototype (with titanium spokes!) was featured in Sideburn 8

Broke Bone patches back in stock

Get yours here.
If you tried to order and it said SOLD OUT, try again now.

Stick

From the occasionally genius one-series-only Snuff Box. MP

Twig

Choosing the 'right' kind of door fixtures for your modern home (or shed) can be such a nightmare. So much choice in materials these days; brass, stainless steel, aluminium, titanium even, marble? For me a large twig was the obvious choice. BP
UPDATE:
Seems like my engineering capacity has been called into question, so here is some cinematic evidence of the twig in service. BP

Mule XS650

I've had these photos on my desktop for about a year. Mule Motorcycles does things right. And this street tracker has 18s and road tyres, proving they do look right with that spec. Love the licence plate hanger welded to the rear loop too. More Mule coming on the blog soon.

Read about Mule in Sideburn 3 and Sideburn 8. G

Dan Walsh: Our man in Mablethorpe

Dan Walsh, one of the most original and readable talents to have written about motorcycles, has supplied an exclusive story for Sideburn 10. While his creative juices were flowing he wrote this about a recent visit to Mablethorpe. Thanks Dan (and Hayley for the photos).

Everyday is, like, Sandy....

Sunshone two-stroke smoke, salty north sea spray and sandy smiles for miles. Sunday's beach race at Mablethorpe was an English spring delight. Open pipes, open faces, wide the fuck open throttles closed the Golden Sands to dogs and walkers, opened them for thumpers and dirty scramblers.

Round and round, round after round, ran fluoro-dressed crossers, tartan-trousered kwackers and triumphant scrapyard knackers. No blink and you miss it one-hit wonder, like the sunday papers this shit goes on for happy hours. Time to watch, chuckle, stroll with ice creams, let on to passing aunties walking dogs and slinging swag - to some Mablethorpe's nowt but a chip wrapper, greasy old rubbish, but it's also a travelling showmen wintering ground, home away from home for our inlaws and outlaws.

Blow on a chip, pick a favourite. Old man(c) Lomas was the smoothest on his Conti'd Honda, and had the slickest set-up with his missus in her van-powered starter rollers. The grasstracker boys seemed to circle fastest, Barrie Gammidge's Dirty Thirty Triumph 900 seemed straight-line quickest, mid-corner slowest, carving curious over-shot spiraled lines. The elbows-out motocross kids were the most competitive, the balls out-unlimited roadsters the most joyous - for no good reason nor bad reason, we cheered loudest for prettiest twin-shocker Bonnie Number 22 and ugly bug Green Fifteen.

Open pits, open access - stand where you like, go where you want. Hang out behind the vans with the parents and partners leaking anxiety & pride, sit on the stone steps with the high-viz Sunday riders, sip in Sharky's bar with the old local soaks. Just remember this shit won't be there forever. Next rounds are on the 11th and 25th March. Support your local beach race!

Read more about Mablethorpe Beach Races (and Daytona, when it was still a beach race) in Sideburn 3. G

Plastic biker

The Inman household has been after this fella for a while. My lad doesn't play with his Playmobil as much as he used to, but when this chopper rider was re-released and spotted by Mrs I we had to have him to join all the other riders in the toybox. The rider wears Fiddy-esque cowboy boots, trousers with metal discs up the seam (conches?), a black waistcoat (no back patch), skull shirt (perhaps from Iron & Resin) and a Centurion full-face. He's also sporting a fantastic Chesterfield Kings-style, page boy mop (below).

His bike is an innovative V3 (maybe Honda NS400) with girder front end, apes and twin lights.

There are five other bikes in the re-released Playmobil riders series. G

UPDATE: Check out more Sideburn Playmobil fun and here too.