Lucky 67

Wishing Bon Chance to Dimitri who is racing at the Catalina this weekend. It's highly unlikely he will be able to choose his own lucky number 67 in his own tape crafted satanic font.This a pale commercial equivalent called Pyrite. BP

UPDATE:
Dimitri qualified only just in time - read the story on own blog Hotel Coste. We await news of the racing with bated breath.photos by Le Admiral

Dimitri at Catalina UPDATE

I can't believe the last time we saw this bike, which was only a couple of weeks or so ago, it was on its side in the back of a borrowed people carrier on the outskirts of Paris. Dimitri is a do-er. What an inspiration. Not only did he look this cool, he won his class. I hope he brings this bike to do UK short track race. G
Photos: Simon Cudby via Ze Last Chance Garage

Sideburn and Fork at Yokohama

We didn't make it out to Yokohama, but ForkCo literally flew the flag for us. ForkCo are our Japanese distributors and make some of the most beautiful dress-up parts for Harleys, XS650s and Triumphs. They're available through ForkCo or our friends at Lowbrow Customs.

Thanks to David Death Spray for the shot below. Check out Death Spray's great Yokohama coverage. GI

Vinyl Junkie

(Milan Show Down road-trip contd...) On our way through Paris, the cultural high was meeting up with Skooter Farm Dave's mate Born Bad Iwan Lozac’h. Monsieur vinyl junkie par excellence. What a great evening. Gary and Dave were already in a state of heightened arousal when he said that a particular stack they were thumbing through was for sale. They both came away with some unobtanium vinyl. As for Ivan's collection of figurines, out of print photography/ low brow books, and hot rod memorabilia, well it deserves more than a whole blog dedicated to it. BP

UPDATE: Ivan is also a member of my new favourite band Les Terribles. GI

Conrad Leach at Gauntlett

Loyal Sideburn subscriber and world renowned artist, Conrad Leach indulges in some clever marketing by having his Cro Customs built Evo Sportster-powered board track/Brooklands-inspired street bike in the window of a Pimlico art gallery, Gauntlett, that is flogging his wares. G

Conrad's blog Conartism
UPDATE: Found a great online photo feature on this bike at ChopCult

The Wisdom of Rupert Paul

A thought to end the year with. I've been doing quite a lot of work with Bike magazine in the last few months and I found this short piece while I was doing some research. It was written by one of my favourite bike journalists, Rupert Paul (above). As the former editor of Performance Bikes (in its late-80s, early-90 cultural heyday), Rupert was instrumental in reinventing British bike mags. He also helped me get a job once and wrote about Mablethorpe beach races for Sideburn 3.
Anyway, I like this a lot (I retyped it, so if there are any mistakes, they're mine not his). G

It was the Buddha in one of his far from idle moments, who said that a meditation on death is the greatest meditation of all. Only when you are aware of how fragile and transient your time here is, can you truly and fully engage with life.
Riders love a risk or we'd live in jars packed with cotton wool. But are we that aware? Control freaks, more like. I love riding fast — don’t know anything else, really— and the kick comes from endlessly balancing skill against risk. But whenever I’ve crashed, the two or three seconds before show me who I really am - a very fragile, very mortal bag of skin, muscle and bone feeing deeply, deeply regretful. Thus, as the trajectory towards the car/ditch becomes obvious:
Myself (to imaginary omnipotent being): Could we start again, please?
Omnipotent being (in the guise of reality): Crunch.
Equally revealing is that, as soon as we feel able, we forget how scared we were and put on the bravado again. I once crashed in a busy street while carrying a giant thermos of tea in my rucksack - with the result that, as I got up, gushes of brown fluid splashed onto the floor. A small girl was horrified: ‘Oh look, mummy – blood!’ In seconds I went from total panic to laughing out loud as I explained.
The truth is, we kid ourselves that it’ll never happen. If we didn’t, we’d never get on a bike. RP

Independents

From Lowbrow Customs - part mag, part catalogue. Found it very hard to put down.
No bullshit period correctness (with a twist). Greasy Kulture
Lovely British mag about various old shit, art, music and Lancaster Bomber pilots. Dirty Mag

My mate Nige's A5-sized VW mag. Type

Bah Humbug

Can't be doing with all that Merry Christmas bollox, but as one of our illustrators Nicola Rowlands pointed out, Gary and I bear more than a passing resemblance to Morecambe and Wise, and if we were going to make a Christmas card, then I think this photo would have to be it - silly captions welcome. So wishing blog fans, loyal subscribers, anyone who has ever bought anything from us, and our über talented contributors, All The Best over the festive period, thanks for riding with us in 2010, and Keep It Skiddy in 2011. BP

UPDATE: It's only Ben who is miserable about Christmas. I can barely contain myself. GI

Going out music

Have you downloaded the latest Killer Diller radio show yet? It's a bloody belter. No special guests, just the most laconic DJ ever, Sir Johnny Alpha, playing insanely danceable rarities you've never heard (after an ultra bizarre intro). Download it and play it before going on a night out. Or play it and just stay in.

Download it here or visit Sir Johnny Alpha's MySpace. G

Draft Excluder

The Co-Built boys were out in the snow yesterday.
Sideburn scarves (like the one doing its job in this photo) are selling fast. Once there gone, that's it. Unfortunately, we can't make it to Braintree, so if you were waiting to buy stuff there we're sorry to disappoint. Order through the Sideburn webshop instead. G

Arctic Enduro

I've been a big fan of Kriega products for years. The British company have a new website up and sent these photos of their R30 rucksack getting some extreme weather use in North Norway. The balaclava thing's catching on. GI
www.kriega.com
Photos: Richard Finney