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 • Hello, and welcome to this festive season issue of BSH (although it seems the festive season starts these days in October, doesn’t it, if not earlier?) – the last of 2024 (despite what it says on the cover).

The 101 Run • THE 101 RUN IS ORGANISED BY SCOTT WALKER FROM DICE MAGAZINE, AND’S BEEN RUNNING FOR A COUPLE OF YEARS. “WE HAD A BLAST IN 2022 AND 2023, SO WE’RE BACK AGAIN TO TAKE OVER MARGATE, AND HAVE A RIGHT LAUGH.”

International Bike of Mystery! • BACK INT’ DAY, WHEN I WERE A LAD, IT WERE ALL GREEN FIELDS ROUND ‘ERE, THA KNOWS… AHEM, I DO APOLOGISE – I APPEAR TO’VE BEEN TEMPORARILY POSSESSED BY A PASSING DEMONIC YORKSHIREMAN, TERRIBLY SORRY ABOUT THAT. I THINK HE’S GONE NOW, SO SHALL WE START AGAIN?

CASSING TON BIKE NIGHT • 2024 WAS, I THINK, AN ODD YEAR FOR BIKE EVENTS, IT REALLY WAS – ALMOST EVERY ONE YOU HAD TO PAY FOR WAS, AS FAR AS I COULD TELL, DOWN ON NUMBERS, EITHER A LITTLE OR A LOT, BUT THE FREE, OR NEARLY FREE, ‘UNS WERE HEAVING. ROYSTON & DISTRICT MCC’S MELDRETH BIKE NIGHT, FOR EXAMPLE, WAS RAMMED, AS WAS THIS – THE FAMOUS CASSINGTON BIKE NIGHT AT CASSINGTON, NEAR WITNEY IN OXFORDSHIRE.

BIG SKY SHOVEL • WE’VE HAD A COUPLE OF CONRAD’S BIKES IN BEFORE (HIS ZED CHOP IN ISSUE 430, AND HIS KWAK DIGGER IN 446), AND YOU CAN PRETTY INSTANTLY SPOT HIS BIKES AT FIRST GLANCE, NO MATTER WHAT THEY ARE, BECAUSE OF THE HANDLEBAR ARRANGEMENT – THE LEFT ‘BAR HAS JUST A WRAP OF VELCRO AROUND IT, AND THE RIGHT HAS ALL THE RELEVANT CONTROLS/LEVERS BECAUSE, AS HAS BEEN MENTIONED BEFORE, HE IS THE BRACHIAL PLEXUS MOTORCYCLIST.

SHED-BUILT BEEZER • YEAH, YEAH, IKNOW I’M BIASED COS, I KNOW NOT WHY, I HAVE A THING ABOUT BSA A10s, BUT WHEN YOU SEE SOMETHING AS SIMPLE AND CLEAN AS THIS ‘ERE BEEZER YOU CAN PROBABLY SEE WHY…

MPH VINTAGE SPRINT • IF YOU’RE READING THIS THEN THERE’S A GOOD CHANCE THAT, AS WELL AS CUSTOM BIKES, YOU HAVE AN APPRECIATION OF ALL THINGS CUSTOM, TOO, AND FOR MANY BSH FOLK THAT VERY DEFINITELY INCLUDES HOT RODS.

LEAF-SPRING ’ONDA LEAF, LEAF-SPRING ’ONDA (TO THE TUNE OF ’HELP ME RHONDA’) • IT’S FUNNY HOW CERTAIN PEOPLE IN THE CUSTOM BIKE WORLD’RE, AND I DON’T MEAN THIS IN AN ANY WAY DEROGATORY WAY, PREDICTABLE, ISN’T IT? OKAY, SO ‘PREDICTABLE’ PROBABLY ISN’T QUITE THE RIGHT WORD ‘COS IT HAS A SLIGHTLY NEGATIVE CONTEXT WHEN USED TO DESCRIBE PEOPLE, BUT IT’S THE ONLY ONE I CAN THINK OF AT THIS PRECISE MOMENT THAT GETS CLOSE, SO BEAR WITH ME A SEC’, YEAH?

’ERE, MISTER, YER FORKS’RE FUNNY… • I DON’T KNOW IF YOU’VE EVER REALLY GIVEN ANY THOUGHT TO THE FORK/FRONT SUSPENSION ARRANGEMENT ON THE BMW GS, AND OTHER, MODELS? IT MAY LOOK, AT FIRST GLANCE, AS THOUGH IT’S JUST A CONVENTIONAL RWU (RIGHT-WAY-UP) TELESCOPIC FORK SET UP AND, AS MANY OF US HAVE NO INTEREST IN HUMUNGOUS ADVENTURE BIKES WITH A SEAT HEIGHT THE SAME AS GODZILLA’S INSIDE LEG MEASUREMENT, THAT MAY BE AS MUCH AS YOU’VE LOOKED, BUT IT REALLY ISN’T.

BACK STREET HEROES

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OUTKAST COMPANY FESTIVAL • WITH A NOTICEABLE DECLINE IN ATTENDANCE AT RALLIES OVER RECENT YEARS IT’S ALWAYS HOPEFUL WHEN A NEW ONE STARTS UP, AS DID THE OUTKAST FESTIVAL LAST YEAR.

WOLFPACK MC YEKNOD RALLY • GOING ON THE INTERNET TO LOOK UP THE MEANING OF A WORD OFTEN SENDS YOU DOWN THE PROVERBIAL RABBIT HOLE AS YOU CAN SOON GET LOST IN THE SIDE-LINKS THAT TAKE YOU FAR, FAR FROM WHERE YOU FIRST SET OUT TO GO…

DOWN THE BACK O’…

TANK ART • ART IS, AS ALL ARTIST TYPES’LL SAY, SUBJECTIVE – BASED ON, OR INFLUENCED BY, PERSONAL FEELINGS, TASTES, OR OPINIONS, AND OVER THE NEXT FEW ISSUES WE’LL DEMONSTRATE THAT. HERE’RE A FEW MORE TANKS AND MUDDIES SPOTTED THIS AND LAST...