The French Connection

Our French cousins have gone crazy for Dirt Quake II. We're going to have to get a tape of La Marseillaise to play for the podium just in case.
Rodolphe and his mate are coming to race the Street Tracker/ Street Scrambler class on this tasty pair - a 1982 Honda XLR500 and a Yam TT600. These are just two of about ten bikes promised to come from over the Channel.

The entry link has gone out to all those who have had their bikes pre-approved. If you think you should have had a link but haven't then email us at dirt at sideburnmagazine.com.

Use the same address to send a photo of your bike if you want to get pre-approval. G

Art & Moto, Lisbon Report

Art and Moto was the first event of its type held in Portugal. It was organised by Cesar of Cafe Racer 351 (the godfather of the fledgling cafe racer scene in Portugal) and Sideburn collaborators the Spanish artists Antonio Merinero and Raulowsky - with the help of the small but enthusiastic Portuguese scene.

The event took place at the LX Factory, a old printing works that's been turned into shops, bars, offices, studios, cafes and a large book shop. The compound is huge and cobbled, giving it a self-contained village high street feel.

That's Cesar's Thruxton, above. The 351 refers to the dialling code needed to call Portugal from abroad.

Four artists' work was on show: Merinero and Raulowsky from Spain, Nuno Capelo and Tiago Santiago from Portugal.
What I thought was a great touch were the collaborations between Merinero and Raulowsky. Merinero did the base of the piece above, then sent the work to Raulowsky who painted on the highlights and lettering. The also created the show poster together, below left.

More Merinero. These are his stencils, the bottom ones are on reclaimed rusty fridge doors.

Antonio Merinero (hat and beer) with Fede from bike modifiers CRO, Madrid, in a cool bar in the LX compound called Impossibly Funky.

New Raulowsky works. We still have a few of the Into The Wild shirt Raulowsky designed for us.

Local photographer, Tiago Santiago made a display of his shots of a Sachs 125 that were backlit with old motorcycle lights. Check out the bike's neat fuel gauge.

Porto-based architect Nuno Capelo showed his art for the first time. Lovely fella and nice work.

Super Company's Salt Shaker appeared again. Last time I saw this bike it was in Milan. Super Company are racing a hotted-up Cub at Dirt Quake II.

Also within the compound were a couple of interesting shops and good restaurants (the latter being something sadly lacking at every UK bike event). This shop sold old audio equipment. 

Love this tree stump DJ platform.

This shipping container turned into a magazine shop had my imagination doing backflips.

Bars and cafe's lined a road between the two main buildings. Bikes parked up and people could stand with a drink and watch the bikes come and go.

The huge Golden Gate-esque bridge, the 25th of April Bridge, shadowed the LX Factory.

Plenty of people came over from Spain, including CRO from Madrid. This is their Yamaha SR250, with tank paint by Merinero.

This is CRO's Sanglas. Spain and Portugal were run by dictator-led governments up until popular revolutions in the 1970s (Franco in Spain till 1975, Salazar and Novo in Portugal till the Carnation Revolution of 1974). Among other things, these regimes severely restricted imports to protect their own industries. The Spanish Sanglas is one of the results, a badge-engineered Yamaha XS400 made in Spain.

This is a Portuguese Casal. The company made bikes and mopeds in Aveiro from 1961 till 2000.

Compared to France, Germany, UK or Italy, the Portuguese custom bike scene is in its infancy, so everyone was rightly proud of the quality of the event, effort and bikes. 

This survivor turned up. Mk2 (?) Escort Estate. More rare than duck egg-sized diamonds nowadays.

 Fine Guzzi and a Bonnie with a fancy Ohlins front end.

 Honda 600, I think. One of the few street trackers in town.

 Hugo from Rev magazine had just finished this Trident. ZXR750 front end, Excel rims, Billet brakes...

The Slicks.

This very cool CB750 had a lot of great touches. It's called the Gravedigger. Bikes in a bookshop? Dreamland.

It will be on show a The Bike Shed Event in London this month.

Neat Swedish-style chopper parked out of the limelight, but still attracted a lot of attention. Reminds me of Back Street Heroes in the mid-90s.

 Everyone welcome, as long as you 'get it'.

On the morning before the show we went exploring Lisbon and bumped into Vasco and his genuine Wrenchmonkee W650. Monkee 35 for the trainspotters.

I borrowed a Bonneville (thanks Triumph Portugal) and met up with photographer Manel Portugal (real name) for a ride up the coast to the beach he surfs at, near the Estoril racetrack.

A great weekend and a big success. Thanks to Cesar, Antonio, Nuno, Hugo, Vitor, Manel, Triumph Portugal and Anabela. Hope to see you all again. G

Ornamental Conifer

We've had quite a long relationship with Nico aka Ornamental Conifer. We were introduced by mutual friend David Death Spray. Nico painted the Sideburn Royal Enfield, headlines for the magazine, the Sideburn van and also my Ruby Castel. So, if you're a long-term Sideburn follower you will have seen his name and work, but you might have never met him. This video introduces him well (but he sounds a bit quieter and more shy in this than when I've met him).
He's emigrating to Australia this month. Good luck to him and Steph. G

PS Anyone else notice they thanks the Crazy Frog, not The Great Frog?

Ichiban Rock N Soul

When I wrote about WFMU being a great radio station, I forgot to say you've got to choose the Ichiban Rock N Soul feed. Duh. Go back and listen to that. G

Broom-Tech

Even more simple, demanding less brute force, and lighter weight, than scaffold tube this 'tool' should not be underestimated. I don't believe there is anything in a magic Snap-on van that could do this job any better... In preparation for last year's Dirt Quake I swopped my chop's original 1979 XS650SE fork legs with its 6" over 35mm stanchions, for Honda CB750F legs (also 1979) with standard(ish) length Marzocchi stanchions (also 35mm) concocted for me by Co-Built's mate, Lee . I was very happy with the new lower look and "If it looks right, it will work right" - right? sadly not this time. On the banked corners of the Coventry track I got away with it, but out on the road the frame rails and silencer grind out and dangerously threaten to have me off like a violent binge drinker.photo Lee Vincent Grubb

As the old XS forks were shagged I tried to find replacement long CB stanchions. Calling upon the usual internet gods drew a blank. It seemed like the only option would be to have them custom made in the States by Forking by Frank. Alternatively, MikesXS also in the States does sell very reasonably priced 2", 4" and 6" over-standard XS tubes, but shipping would be a bit of a stinger and this is a shoe-string bike. Then Pete Eat The Rich gave me the (untested by him) name of Philpots in Dunstable who specialize in hard chrome. Visiting the facility I was more than convinced their refurb technique - 20 hours in the electrolysis tank versus the 20 minute dunk the original factory items received. We shall see...

Stripping my old forks down, the horrors were worse than predicted. The former owner had used galvanized metal tubes as a long spacers instead of the usual known chopper fork bodge of PVC pipe. Although the innards were sloshing in oil the spacers were totally rusty and had contaminated everything. The seals required a blow-torch, a tyre-lever and a foul mouth to eject. The main fork springs were rusted to the inside walls of the stanchions. But luckily I had an old witches broomstick to hand. After some hefty WALLOPS with a rubberized lump hammer and a little swearing, the bastids came out. BP

The Bike Shed Event

We mentioned this event a while ago, but it's grown out of the original venue and into a new bigger one. It's a mixture of bikes, art and photography. We'll be there. It's shaping up to be memorable. 

Go to The Bike Shed Event website for more details.

We've heard, all those in the know are going to the Bike Shed on Saturday and then going to nearby Rye House to watch the DTRA Flat Track racing on Sunday. Both events are FREE to get in.
How cool is that?

Anyone flying into London for the show can take a 37-minute train journey from Liverpool Street (near the Bike Shed Event) to the Rye House station two minutes walk from the racetrack. G