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.

HAPPY NEW YEAR! SO IT’S 2025 THEN, WHO’D O’ THOUGHT IT?

THE HOOK UP CHOPPER SHOW • THE BEST-LAID PLANS OF MICE N’ MEN, EH? WELL, OF MEN ANYWAY – I’VE NO IDEA WHETHER MICE MAKE ANY FORM OF PLANS, BUT I SERIOUSLY DOUBT THEY MAKE ‘EM TO GO TO THE HOOK UP CHOPPER SHOW ANYWAY…

MEDAZA MOSQUITO • LIKE ALL GOOD IRISH STORIES, THIS ONE BEGINS IN A PUB. FRIENDS SINCE SCHOOLDAYS, DON CRONIN, MICK O’SHEA, AND CHRIS HARTE WERE SITTING AROUND A TABLE, SUPPING, AND TALKING ABOUT THE NEXT PROJECT.

RAT & SURVIVAL • DO YOU KNOW, I’VE WRITTEN UP THE RAT SHOW, OR THE RAT & SURVIVAL BIKE & TRIKE SHOW AS IT’S OFFICIALLY TITLED, SO MANY TIMES IN ITS… COUNTS ON FINGERS… 27-YEAR HISTORY THAT I’M NOT SURE I CAN SAY ANYTHING ABOUT IT YOU HAVEN’T ALREADY READ AT LEAST… ER, LET’S SAY, 10 TIMES BEFORE.

LAID-BACK n' DEPENDENCE • “WHAT GOT ME INTO CUSTOM BIKES? WELL, THAT’S EASY – CUSTOM BIKES DID. MY UNCLE WAS SERVING IN THE ROYAL AIR FORCE IN GERMANY AND, VISITING HIM AS A 12-YEAR-OLD, I FOUND HE HAD LOADS OF US MAGAZINES AND, LOOKING AT THE BIKES AND LIFESTYLE, IT SPARKED AN INTEREST THAT’S STAYED WITH ME EVER SINCE.

DARK DESTROYER (OF FOOTRESTS MOSTLY) • ONE OF THE THINGS I REALLY LIKE ABOUT THE BRITISH CUSTOM BIKE SCENE IS THE FACT THAT SOME PEOPLE IN IT, DESPITE BEING SURROUNDED BY THE LATEST TRENDS AND FASHIONS OF THE DAY, LOOK AT THEM AND GO “NAA, NOT FOR ME, TA.”

RAMSEY SPRINT • THE RAMSEY SPRINT WAS FIRST RUN BY THE PEVRIL MOTORCYCLE CLUB ON THE ISLE OF MAN IN 1963, BUT PETERED OUT WITHIN A FEW YEARS. THEN, IN 1978, THE NATIONAL SPRINT ASSOCIATION RESURRECTED IT, AND SINCE THE DEMISE OF THE BRIGHTON SPEED TRIALS, IT’S PROBABLY THE OLDEST CONTINUOUSLY RUNNING EVENT OF ITS TYPE IN THE UK.

REDNECK NORTON • “I FIRST SAW THE NORTON ON EBAY IN MARCH 2021, AND THOUGHT IT WAS ONE OF THE COOLEST BIKES I’D SEEN IN YEARS – NOT ONE FOR THE PURISTS, BUT REDNECK AMERICANA AT ITS BEST… OR WORST, AS SOME OF IT TURNED OUT.

WARLOCKS MC BIKE SHOW • THE YARDBIRDS ROCK CLUB IN GRIMSBY’S PROBABLY BEST KNOWN FOR ITS EXTRAORDINARILY GOOD LINE-UP OF TOURING BANDS AND TRIBUTE ARTISTS, AND’S BEEN HOST TO THE WARLOCKS MC’S BIKE SHOW IN MAY SINCE 2006 (THE SAME YEAR THE VENUE OPENED).

BSH/VIC BIKERS' PUB CUSTOM SHOW • I DON’T GET TO THE VIC’ BIKERS’ PUB, THE VICTORIA AS IT’S MORE FORMALLY KNOWN, IN COALVILLE IN LEICS NEARLY OFTEN ENOUGH, Y’KNOW, AND THAT’S A SHAME…

A NICE START… • “I’D ALWAYS FANCIED BUILDING A LONG CHOPPER AFTER A FRIEND IN BRIGHTON PUT STEAM PIPES, INSTEAD OF FORK STANCHIONS, IN HIS HONDA 500/4 - THE HANDLING WAS TERRIBLE, BUT WHAT A LAUGH IT WAS WATCHING THE FRONT WHEEL BOUNCE AROUND A LONG WAY AHEAD.

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BSH/RAW STEEL CUSTOM SHOW • THERE CAN’T BE MANY FOLK OUT THERE WHO IN HAVEN’T THIS ‘ERE HEARD COUNTRY OF RAW STEEL OF OURS CHOPPERS, (AND FRONTED I’M SPEAKING BY THE‘ERE BFG*, ABOUT OR STRING BRITAIN AS HE’S MORE AS A WHOLE, COMMONLY NOTKNOWN, JUST ENGLAND), OVER IN THE BACKWOODS WE DON’T OF ESSEX, OR REALLY HAVE SEEN SOME OF MOUNTAINSIDE THE BIKE THEY’VE MOTORCYCLE BUILT, INCLUDING EVENTS STRING’SINOWN THEMEGA-CHOPPER, SAME WAY AS SOCIAL THEY DO DISTANCE OVER(SO IN EUROPE, NAMED ‘COS MOSTLY IT’S TWOBECAUSE… METRES FROM WELL, THE WEFRONT DON’TWHEEL REALLY TOHAVE THE MOUNTAINS, RIDER).

P&D CUSTOM SHOW • USUALLY OUR LAUREN GOES DOWN TO DEEPEST, DARKEST SUSSEX TO COVER THIS EVENT FOR US BUT, THIS YEAR, I THOUGHT ‘WHY SHOULD SHE HAVE ALL THE FUN?’

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...