Back Street Heroes

Back Street Heroes is the UK’s biggest-selling and best custom bike magazine. We cover all styles of custom bikes and the custom biker lifestyle.

EDITORIAL

JUST LIKE JIM'S! • BACK IN 1979, PHIL COTTON WAS A SEVENTEEN-YEAR-OLD YOOF WITH A KH250 ON L-PLATES. ONE NIGHT A MATE’S BROTHER TOOK HIM ON THE BACK OF HIS Z1B KAWASAKI, AND THAT WAS IT – HE WAS UTTERLY HOOKED. HE PROMISED HIMSELF HE’D HAVE ONE BY THE TIME HE WAS 19…

ULTRA-MARINE • BY YOUR ANSWER TO THE NEXT QUESTION, I’M GOING TO FIND OUT HOW MUCH OF A NERD YOU ARE. DON’T STRESS, BEING NERDY ABOUT STUFF ISN’T THE STIGMA IT USED TO BE AND, INDEED, MOST OF US’RE NERDY ABOUT SOMETHING: HARLEY MODEL HISTORY, SUZUKI CARB JETTING, LED ZEPPELIN’S BACK CATALOGUE, THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY, TERRY PRATCHETT BOOKS, RED DWARF, BIKER FILMS – THE LIST GOES ON AND ON.

BEER, BIKES & BANDS • I DON’T KNOW IF YOU KNOW, BUT THERE’RE ALMOST TWO SCHOOLS/SUB-CULTURES/GENRES/CALL IT WHAT YOU WILL OF CHOPPER BUILDING? THERE’S THE STUFF THAT US LOT ‘ERE IN BSHLAND’RE USED TO SEEING WITH VERY CLEVER ENGINEERING, CHROMING, BLING PAINT, ETC., AND THERE’S THE OLD-SCHOOL CHOPPER SCENE WHERE THE BIKES’RE MORE BASIC, MORE TRADITIONAL, AND MORE LIKE THOSE OUR FOREBEARS RODE IN THE ‘60S AND ‘70S.

FROM PILLAR TO POST… • IN TERMS OF THIS BIKE’S SOMEWHAT SKETCHY FORTY-TWO YEAR HISTORY, KEVIN BLYTHE IS MERELY THE MOST RECENT CUSTODIAN IN A LONG LINE OF SEVENTEEN OWNERS, RIDERS, BUILDERS, BODGERS, TINKERERS, AND TALE-TELLERS THAT’VE LAID THEIR HANDS ON HER. WILL HE BE THE LAST? WHO KNOWS?

BEARTOWN BIKERS' CHARITY BIKE SHOW • DUE TO COVID GENERALLY, AND CIRCUMSTANCES PERSONALLY, THE LAST COUPLE OF YEARS’VE BEEN A BIT OF A WASTELAND EVENTS-WISE SO, WITH THINGS LOOKING UP, I DECIDED TO TAKE IN A LOCAL ONE-DAY SHOW.

FIREFIGHTER 66 CHARITY • FOR THOSE EXPECTING PICTURES OF SPARINGLY-CLAD FIREFIGHTERS, IT’S BEST TO DISAPPOINT YOU NOW – THIS WAS AN EVENT ORGANISED BY THE FIREFIGHTERS MOTORCYCLE CLUB, TO RAISE FUNDS FOR OLI, A FIFTEEN-YEAR-OLD LAD WITH A RARE BRAIN TUMOUR.

B*ST*RD! • WHEN CHRIS IRELAND BUILT THE BSH BEACH BASTARD, THE HALF BIKE/HALF VW BEETLE TRIKE, FOR THE 100TH EDITION OF THE MAGAZINE (WE’RE ON THE 460TH ONE NOW – SCARY!), I SUSPECT HE PROBABLY DIDN’T KNOW WHAT AN INSPIRATION IT’D TURN OUT TO BE…

YOU'VE BEEN NABBED 29 • HAS IT REALLY BEEN THREE YEARS SINCE THE LAST NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR BIKERS WITH A DISABILITY (NABD) RALLY? NO, HONESTLY, HAS IT? IT’S NOT A RHETORICAL QUESTION - I’VE COMPLETELY LOST TRACK OF WHAT HAPPENED WHEN.

BEEMER BOBBER • ONE OF THE GREATEST DRAWS OF CUSTOM BIKE BUILDING IS HAVING A BIKE TOTALLY DIFFERENT TO ANY OTHER, EVEN THE OTHER BIKES THAT YOU OWN, OR THOSE YOU BUILD FOR OTHER FOLK.

BSH CUSTOM CHAMPS 2022

BACK STREET HEROES

BACK STREET HEROES

INTO THE VALLEY • GIVEN ITS TITLE, IT’S RATHER PECULIAR THAT THIS PARTICULAR MAG RALLY HASN’T BEEN AT A VENUE WITHIN A VALLEY FOR SOME YEARS – NOT THAT THAT’S ANY BEARING ON THE QUALITY OF THE SITE, OR THE ENTERTAINMENT LAID ON THEREIN.

'TRACKER TRIBULATIONS • THIS BONNIE BELONGED TO ONE OF MY BEST MATES, DAVE ROBBO, FOR YEARS, AND IT SAT IN THE CORNER OF HIS WORKSHOP IN A PART-DISASSEMBLED CONDITION. HE’D BOUGHT IT IN 1984 WHEN IT WAS JUST TWO YEARS OLD, AND’D USED IT TO GO ALL OVER THE COUNTRY TO RALLIES, AS WELL AS BEING A DAILY RIDE. HE TOOK IT OFF THE ROAD TO REPAIR AN OIL LEAK, BUT THEN BOUGHT A GS750, AND THE BONNIE WAS CONFINED TO THE CORNER.

TWISTED TURNOUT PROPER CHOPPER SHOW • TWISTED IRON HAVE BEEN A LITTLE QUIET LATELY – IN FACT 2019 WAS THE LAST TIME WE PUT ON AN EVENT.

MR BRIDGES VOL V PART VII MOTORCYCLE DIARIES • AS YOU MAY RECALL, AT THIS POINT I WAS IN NEED OF A JIG. THAT CAN SOUND A BIT INTIMIDATING BUT, ESSENTIALLY, IT’S A LUMP OF SOMETHING STURDY WITH BRACKETS...