Hammered

Photography exhibition of ace Sideburn contributor Grant Robinson. Saturday, January 31st, 7pm @ Motovida, 1254 Ellis St, Kelowna, B.C.

Quartic

So I'm Goggle'ing, trying to find out if a rectangle with rounded off corners (like photos from the 1970s) have a specific geometric name? I thought Lozenge, but that sounds like something you suck. The only thing that can be ascertained with 100% certainty, is that the steering wheel of an Austin Allegro is Quartic shaped. BP

Meccano treasure trove

Meccano Magazine was started in 1916 by Frank Hornby, inventor of the Meccano hobby engineering sets (and later Hornby model railways and Dinky toys, some hat-trick) that did a brilliant job of keeping the minds of millions of teenage boys off their own nuts, for a while at least.

A bunch of insanely dedicate people have scanned and made available pretty much every copy of the magazine, which ran until 1981. There's even a searchable index. If you go in there, don't expect to emerge in less than an hour. The bikes, by the way, are from August and October 1929. Many thanks to Brownhills Bob for the tip-off. MP

Shebam! Pow! Blop! Whizz!

Brigitte Bardot in a catsuit? How does that Gainsbourg bloke do it? This is from 1968, and BB will have been 33 or 34. Blop indeed. Rumours that the video will be re-enacted in its entirety on the Sideburn stand at the Verona Motor Bike Expo are still unconfirmed (and dependent on Gary getting hold of a flesh-tone catsuit). MP

Tenerè Tracker

Enzo's cracking '84 Yamaha XT600. Champion seat, '74 Yamaha DT250 tank and Pirelli MT43 trial tyres. Photos Raffaele Paolucci. BP

Motor Bike Expo - thirsty work

The packing for Verona took less time than I'd anticipated. See you at the Motor Bike Expo at the weekend. We'll be on Mr Martini's stand. MP

SIDEBURN Blueprint T

Blink and you'll miss our latest T, the blueprint XR750. Taken from our ongoing series of technical drawings by Mick Ofield. All of our Ts are printed in limited numbers. Here today, gone tomorrow.
This animation shows 30 of some 40 we've rustled up over the past seven years. Thanks to all our contributing artists including Kar Lee, Chris Watson, James Ball, Stevie Gee, Maxwell Paternoster, Cooper, Ryan Quickfall, Carby Tuckwell, Adi Gilbert, Antonio Merinero, Lenny Schuurmans, Death Spray Custom, ODFU, and me! BP

CR500 Tracker for Sale - Be Quick

Just found out about this, thanks Greg.

The CR500 tracker that won the 2013 DTRA Championship with Tim Neave on board is up for sale on eBay Honda CR500 flat tracker.

This bike was featured in Sideburn 14. G

Photo: Tom Whiting

Brandon becomes Art

When I saw the illustration above, by Stayano, I instantly recognised it.  Brandon P sent us the photo below as pre-approval for last year's Dirt Quake USA. It is a striking photo so we put it on the blog.

When I saw the illustration, it was so recognisable that I didn't even click the image had been reversed till I dug out the original shot. G

Old Empire Lightning

Old Empire Motorcycles sent us photos and info on their latest build, the Lightning. We don't feature a lot of cafe racers on this website, despite the fact all the staff have built, have owned or still own cafe racers, because so many others do, but Old Empire are good friends and this is a tidy bike.  This is what they say...

Built around a 1979 Yamaha SR500, our first thought was how to create something different, yet not too radical as budget was limited. After looking at the framework underneath the usual toot we figured a monoshock would fit perfectly in the end of the top tube (and oil tank) so we went about building a subframe onto the original swingarm suitable to mount a custom Hagon monoshock based on a Kawasaki SXR400 spec shock.

The tank although looking like it was unmodified has been retunneled and moved to sit lower and further forward to keep the lines of the bike true. The original rear section was promptly cut off and replaced with a far nicer flowing unit suitably braced with a second top tube that the rear of the tank now sits on. Custom LED rear lights house in the tail section complete the look.

Photos: Ian Jubb