Tuesday 30 September 2014

Maxwell Paternoster Book: In stock

We have a limited number of this hard-to-find, new Maxwell Paternoster book in stock.

Published in Spain, it is a compilation of the british artist's sketchbook drawings. It includes: tigers wearing pompadour hair-dosand sideburns. Dogs rollerskating on a deadman’s face. A record player with Yeti’s feet. Skulls coming straight from hell. A skate-boarding squirrel. Wheelbarrows full of 'amazing shit', chilis and brain juice. Weird creatures beheading themselves with chainsaws. Wild bikers heading back home on the longest detour.

Softback
48pp
29 x 21cm (11.4 x 8.26in)

£18 plus post.
Get yours at the Sideburn shop.

Calistoga Half-Mile Expert Main Full Race


Very exciting racing. If you're tight for time, the race starts around the 10-minute mark and lasts for 10 minutes.

#7 Sammy Halbert running well. Remember, he's coming to the UK as a guest of the DTRA for a Sideburn/DTRA night, then over to the International Dirt Track Festival in Spain to be the star instructor.

More details on the Sammy Halbert night very soon, but it's happening on on Saturday 18 October somewhere in the Midlands. G

Monday 29 September 2014

Dust Hustle, Brisbane

The fellas at Ellaspede put on their Dust Hustle at the Mick Doohan Raceway a couple of weekends ago. We were proud to be a sponsor of what looks such a fun event.

I just wanted to express our written thanks to you and Sideburn for helping us pull off the Dust Hustle event on Saturday. It wouldn't have been possible without your help and brand support. The feedback we've had so far from everyone who entered and attended to spectate at the event has been highly positive, with many giving us some great feedback about you and the Sideburn Mag. 
Many of the dirt track regulars who also attended the event to see what all the 'hoo-haa' was about were also stoked to find out about your publication. As you know we ended up having 80+ riders enter which was a sell out, as well as 10+ riders for the lunchtime demos (one on a turbo YZF450) and around 500 spectators through the gate on the day, which was an awesome result!
Hughah, Ellaspede

Photos: Sam Scoufos, AJ Moller & Roderick Pilbeam of www.scollerandco.com

Sunday 28 September 2014

Dirt Quake II by Moto Journal (Now with English Subtitles)


If any English-only speakers wondered what our French friends were saying about Dirt Quake (and the Friday night DTRA racing) on the recent Moto Journal video, worry no more - they've posted it with English subtitles. Just click the little box in the bottom bar between the clock and the gearwheel and they'll appear.
Click the gearwheel to choose your preferred quality (HD if you have a good speed connection), then full screen.
Merci, once again, to Moto Journal for coming to Dirt Quake III and making such a cool little film. G

Dennis Hopper in Rome

SCRATCHING THE SURFACE
PHOTOGRAPHS BY DENNIS HOPPER

Questa è la storia di un uomo/bambino che decise di sviluppare i suoi cinque sensi e di vivere e fare esperienze piuttosto che limitarsi a leggere. - Dennis Hopper

La mostra è stata realizzata in collaborazione con The Hopper Art Trust, dedito alla salvaguardia dell'opera e della memoria di Dennis Hopper. The Hopper Art Trust é stato fondato dal Dennis Hopper Estate nel 2010 e ha sede a Los Angeles, California.
www.dennishopper.com

FINO A NOVEMBRE 8, 2014
INGRESSO GRATUITO

GAGOSIAN GALLERY
VIA FRANCESCO CRISPI 16, 00187 ROME
+39 06 4208 6498
WWW.GAGOSIAN.COM

Saturday 27 September 2014

Old Cotton

Spartan 'waxed' cotton jacket. I guess Barbor or Belstaff didn't make any intellectual property claims on their famous trials jackets in the olden days, so this copies exactly the same pattern with a wonky breast pocket - and being nigh on useless at keeping water out even when it is properly waxed. Mine was as waterproof as a tea bag. Can't remember where I got it from. It already had the Norton and BSA patches on so along with its purple corduroy collar, I deemed it to have pedigree.
The back was painted, and repainted, with various 'freak-the-squares' symbols and then painted out all together as I matured. Funny that the manufacturer bothered to put in three brass mesh breathing vents under the arms. One thing that this jacket was not short of was fresh air.
Road Rocket across the bum was in honour of the magazine rather than the BSA of the same name. I wore this flimsy thing on my first foreign bike trip to Spain in 1989 with my brother, me on a Honda CM250T, he on a C15 BSA. So it brings back a lot of memories.
My first leather jacket came later. A Blake's 7-style burgundy number I bought at the Dock Road sunday market in Liverpool for 80p. It was hideous but functioned. I gave it to my flatmate who lusted after it.
When I moved to London, U-turning black cabbies were a daily threat to life, hence the flipped taxi pin badge.
The DIY 99 patch was a poke at the regressive 59 club. 1999 was still 8 years into the future. It was made from real 59 cloth patch as I was briefly a signed-up member until I realised I was a Mocker not a Rocker. The Nuffield pin badge pre-empted any tea hut jibes about my Moto Guzzi being a tractor. BP

Friday 26 September 2014

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

Hot cock

When I’m working late helping to put together another issue of Sideburn, one thing that keeps me going is the taste of hot cock. And if it’s hot Jamaican cock, well, that really gets my juices flowing. Hard and long – a night finishing the mag can be testing, but so long as I can lay my hands on plenty of cock, I know I’ll get the sticky bits licked before the press deadline. MP

Thursday 25 September 2014

Old leather

A load of boxes stored in my parents’ loft recently turned up a nostalgia-overdose. In among the Subbuteo and Scalextric, the graffiti-plastered school books and old rugby boots was this, my first ever leather jacket. I got it when I was about 14 years old. The Triumph obsession was served by a tatty Tiger Cub that, just as I was old enough to ride it on the road with L-plates (17), the law changed and pushed it out of reach. The Isle of Man patch was from my first ever TT, with my mate Smiffy (and his parents) when we were 15. That white ‘LP’? Teen love in Humbrol enamel. The lining’s long gone and it smells like a dying Labrador, but it’s a keeper. Can anyone ever chuck out their old leathers? It’s a skin thing. MP

Wednesday 24 September 2014

The Revivalists

Acclaimed photographer, and Sideburn contributor, Nick Clements is doing a book signing in Mayfair, London, tomorrow evening.

Tuesday 23 September 2014

DGR 2014

The Distinguished Gentleman's Ride has exploded. Well, not literally, but there are clearly a load of folk doing it this year. And it all happens this Sunday.

This weekend, there are 255 charity rides (raising money for prostate cancer research) in 57 countries. And Triumph are corporate sponsors of the whole thing.

Baybutt of the Corpses From Hell reminded us he's organised one in Sheffield (UK). You can sponsor him here.

For details on your nearest ride, go to Distinguished Gentleman's Ride. G

Monday 22 September 2014

Dirt Quake III Film by Moto Journal


DIRTQUAKE : Serge Nuques, Guy Martin, des... by moto-journal

Great video from the famous French moto media company, Moto Journal.
We know there are a few Dirt Quake III videos in production, but this is the first to be released.
Moto Journal are the fellas who brought Serge Nuques.
Merci bien.

There's some vey hot DTRA action in there too.

You can click to watch in HD. G

I ♥ Wiltshire

Saturday afternoon blat down the fields with my 17 year old nephew to blow the cobwebs out of my CCM in eager anticipation of Rye House (yesterday - which was fantastic). I rode his classic CG125. Frustratingly the law states that now he has passed his test, he will have to wait until he is 19 until he can get a big bike. BP

Sunday 21 September 2014

Rye House Today


Free to spectate!
Racing all day from 11.30-ish till 5.
Huge entry of racers.
Weather is going to be good.

Saturday 20 September 2014

Dell'Ortos Suck

(in a good way). After a complete carb strip, petrol tank tap off for a de-gunk, and fresh fuel, my CCM now starts as it should, just on the choke. Once warmed up, choke off, the engine runs smoothly through the rev range without coughing. Sweet music.
Stripping the PHM is straightforward, mine is a 40 'ZS1' with no pumper (Dell'Ortos mechanical injector, that my Guzzi, and most older Ducati's, do have - normally sits where the primitive riveted banking plate is).
On the top, there is a mystery tab with the number R-4938 stamped on it. Corsa Italiana raced the bike in its former life as a Supermotard in the '00s, before switching to the much faster Vertemati. Maybe it relates to re-jetting?
Hefty arthritis inducing spring.
Needle is clipped on its lowest of four notches (so sits higher in the bore and gives more fuel). 55 choke jet (45 as standard) cleaned with a fine sewing needle - now with added dayglo cocktail flag so I can add it to my surgical tool kit.
32 idle jet (standard 45 - not sure why one would down-size on that). A very fine hole that only a single strand of copper-core electrical wire was small enough to poke clear. 198 main jet (195 standard).
Also new to my arsenal, kinky Vynatrile gloves. Don't suffer all those nasty chemicals and cruddy nails anymore.
Later today, I'll take the bike to my Mum's farm for a proper shake-down blasting up the rough driveway. BP

Friday 19 September 2014

DTRA Juniors

I mistakenly credited this great shot from the DTRA Amman Valley round to the wrong photographer. Sorry.
It was actually taken by James Boddy. See more of his photography here.

The DTRA's fearless boys and girls will be in action on Sunday at Rye House. G

Coste x Monark


See this man racing at Rye House this Sunday. Free to spectate.
Here's the story behind this short film from Dimitri...

I wanted to share with you the result of a nice day of riding in Normandy back in june. I've been asked by Herve Coutin the editor of the independent magazine "Bad To The Bone" to shoot a fashion story for its latest issue. he wanted off road riding and a vintage motorcycle. 

Fabrice Bazire, let me ride his beautiful Monark 500 GP for the day, and like every time I ride this Swedish beauty I had an amazing time. Herve Coutin shot in black & white film for the 10 page story. 

The day before, I was working on the edit of a short video with the tiny amount of footage I had from my JMB photoshoot, and Julien Faucher, the editor I was working on asked me if I could call him next time i go riding because he was interested into filming motorcycling. I then realized that i had to ride the following day. 

I gave him a ride to Normandy, he shot what he could while Herve was snapping photos, and he came back to me today with this cool video. I hope you like it even if there isn't any sideways action. just casual riding in the fields of Normandy.

Thursday 18 September 2014

Front End Chatter Podcast

Not sure if Front End Chatter is the world's only motorcycling podcast, but it's the only one I listen to.
It's recorded in England (about 8 miles from my house) by two very experienced moto journalists. Simon Hargreaves (in the black above, and on an S1000RR racing a Veyron, below) started on PB in the 1800s, edited it (twice), worked on a car mag for a bike, went back to PB then onto Bike. Martin Fitz-Gibbons (MFG or Mufga, pouring tea in the photo) was on Bike for nearly a decade. He has a degree in brain-melting maths and uses this experience to work out the probabilities of Marquez's next win.

Now the pair freelance for most British mags.

The normal structure of the 90 or so minute show is: cover racing news - MotoGP, WSB and BSB - giving opinion and fact, plus news and rumour. Next is new bikes and a bit of road test nattering. Finally is any other business. In the most recent programme (#17), they give (very differing) strong opinions of the Police campaign centred around the David Holmes video.

I rarely agree totally with their views, but I still love listening. They are incredibly well informed. They inhabit a world of kneesliders and two-year-old sportsbikes and have ridden everything from MotoGP bikes down.

I listen while walking the dog and never miss an episode.

It's currently unsponsored, so they're doing it for fun and, perhaps, to raise their profiles. For an amateur podcast, the sound quality is very good, but there are enough amateur pauses, and paper shuffling for it to be casual.

You can download it through your smartphone, searching Front End Chatter in your podcast app, or listen directly at Front End Chatter. G
Photos: Jason Crtichell (top), Tom Salt (bottom)

Fake Quake

Look, we're not angry, just disappointed.
We're happy that our Dirt Quake events in the UK and the USA are inspiring people to ride whatever they've got on dirt tracks.
It's great that people want to organise their own race events - we can't organise them all over the world.
BUT if you feel inspired at least think up your own catchy name.

This event is NOTHING to do with Sideburn and we're not going to be there.
We weren't asked or told about it until a reader emailed us.
It might be the best event ever (...) but it isn't going to be a DIRT QUAKE.

Please desist from using our names to promote your events.
Merci
Gary and Ben, England

Creature From The Black Lagoon

Propping up my shed under a sheet of corrugated plastic with a flower pot capping the end of the silencer was just a quick storage solution for my CCM after last years Dirt Quake. I had hosed off most of the quagmire mud, but I certainly didn't plan to abandon it it for over a year, otherwise I would have at least taken the battery off and drained the fuel - and cocooned it a little better.
Over the weekend I dragged it out of its dank nest in preparation for riding in the last DTRA race of the season, at Rye House this Sunday. It was a sorry cobwebby state. I put the battery on charge but wasn't it expecting it to start. It didn't. It pissed out rain water from the headers. Never a good sign. Taking the plug out and kicking it over produced a proper spurt of water. An even worse sign.
With some transparent rubber hose gaffer tapped to the household Henry hoover, I sucked out a cup-full of water. At least it wasn't rusty water and the engine didn't have any problem turning over with the kicker. But then I heard the echo of waves. Never a good sign. There was even more water in the exhaust. Murky. It's not true that stainless steel doesn't rust.
I'm using a car-type BOSCH starter solenoid instead of the original Denso one, and with a brand new battery the starter was spinning up fine and the engine would fire-up for a second on full choke, no throttle, but then die, as if the main jet was blocked - but normally it runs happily from cold just on the choke, so that doesn't tally. So I cheated and bought some highly flammable Easy Start from Millards the local automotive shop. Sprayed liberally onto the air filter, it did get the engine running on the throttle, but doesn't really solve the problem....
I had already cleaned the float bowl of green gunk, carb filter mesh of pigeon's bogies, and washed the foam air filter of brown toffee,
- oh and there was a Kinder Egg Fantasy ghost (missing his badminton racquet and small section of beach shown here) hiding in the airbox. I suspected problems further afield so sought higher intelligence...
Spent an hour on the phone with Capt Simon. Who updated me on the evils of modern fuel, whose shortcomings include very short shelf life of 6 weeks (i.e. not a year and a half); very aggressively corrosive chemicals; separation of constituent ingredients creating varnish like gummy residues; water absorption - to the point it's no longer combustible. So tomorrow I will chuck the remaining fuel in the tank and properly strip the Dell'Orto. BP