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 all, and welcome to this new issue of BSH. Hope all’s good with you, and you’re not too feckin’ freezing?

BOOGIE BEACH • LAST YEAR A FEW OF US ROCK MONKEYS WERE LUCKY ENOUGH TO BUMP INTO MARCO, THE ORGANISER OF BOOGIE BEACH, IN THE DORDOGNE IN FRANCE EN ROUTE TO THE GASOHOLICS SHOW. GENEROUSLY, HE PROVISIONALLY INVITED US TO THE PARTY, LAST HELD IN 2019 DUE TO COVID, AND NORMALLY RUN EVERY TWO YEARS ALTERNATING WITH LINKERT ATTACKS.

2024 BSH CUSTOM CHAMPS! THE WINNERS!

BEST CHOPPER 2024 • I’VE BEEN DOING CUSTOM BIKE MAGAZINE STUFF FOR A LONG TIME NOW, YOU KNOW (34 YEARS ALL TOLD), AND EDITED THREE OF THE FIVE UK CUSTOM BIKE MAGAZINES THAT’VE EXISTED, AND YET STILL, SOMETIMES, I’M SURPRISED BY WHAT WINS CUSTOM SHOWS/COMPS. I MEAN, I WAS A JUDGE AT FARO FOR OVER 20 YEARS, BUT ONLY MANAGED TO PICK WHAT’D WIN BEST IN SHOW THERE, I THINK, TWICE, AND I DIDN’T PREDICT THIS BIKE’D WIN BEST CHOPPER INTHE2024 BSH CUSTOM CHAMPS.

BEST CUSTOM 2024 • THE BEST CUSTOM CLASS OF THIS YEAR’S CUSTOM CHAMPS WAS, I THOUGHT, GOING TO BE THE HARDEST FOUGHT OF THEM ALL WITH SOME REALLY TOP-CLASS BIKES (TOM BATTERBEE’S LATEST BUILD, DEREK COMPTON’S RETRO PLUNGER TRIUMPH, MARTIN BRADBURY’S FLAT-TANK SPORTY, BUSTER LAKEY’S OIL-BOILER ‘FIGHTER), BUT ENDED UP BEING PRETTY MUCH A LANDSLIDE FOR THE LEGACY MOTORCYCLES’ SPEED TWIN CHOPPER.

BEST ENGINEERING 2024 • YOU REALLY HAVE TO FEEL FOR THE OTHER WINNERS OF THE BEST ENGINEERING ROUNDS OF THIS YEAR’S CHAMPIONSHIP, DON’T YOU? IMEAN, MATT’S HOMEMADE LEAF-SPRING HONDIAN, STEVE TAYLOR’S BARKING MAD V8 BIKE, LEE JONES’ TURBO CHOP, AND THOMAS SCOTT’S UTTERLY INSANE STREET-LEGAL JET BIKE ARE ALL MORE THAN WORTHY OF WINNING THE OVERALL HONOURS IN ANY OTHER YEAR, BUT THEY WERE UP AGAINST SAM CARLTON’S HOMEMADE TRIPLE-ENGINE J.A.P THIS YEAR, WEREN’T THEY?

BACK ISSUES

BEST NEW SKOOL 2024 • NEW SKOOL IS, AS I’M SURE YOU KNOW BY NOW, SOMETHING OF A CATCH-ALL CLASS FOR BIKES THAT DON’T REALLY FIT INTO THE OTHERS AND, AS SUCH, THIS YEAR WE HAD A TRIUMPH BOBBER, A TWO-STROKE SUZUKI STREETFIGHTER, A YAMAHA BOARD-RACER, A TECHNO TRIUMPH, A TWO-STROKE YAM ‘FIGHTER, A SINGLE-SIDED TECHNO XJ550, A RETRO-STYLE SPORTSTER CHOP, AND A LAMBRETTA CHOP, BUT THE WINNER, ALMOST UNANIMOUSLY, WAS THIS – JEM WHEELWRIGHT’S BEEZER SLOPER.

2024 BEST PAINT • AS THE VOTES FOR BEST PAINT THIS YEAR CAME IN IT BECAME INCREASINGLY OBVIOUS THAT IT WAS GOING TO CAUSE AN INTERESTING DILEMMA – THE BIKE THAT WAS ODDS-ON TO WIN, YOU SEE, WAS ON THE COVER OF THE MAGAZINE JUST FOUR MONTHS AGO (ISSUE 484 THAT CAME OUT IN JULY)…

BACK STREET HEROES

claim your FREE christmas gift when you subscribe to Back Street Heroes

STAFFORD • LET’S GET A LITTLE BIT OF POTENTIAL CONFUSION CLEARED UP, SHALL WE? OFFICIALLY, THIS EVENT CAN’T REALLY BE CALLED JUST ‘STAFFORD’ BECAUSE THERE ARE TWO BIG BIKE EVENTS AT THE STAFFORD SHOWGROUND EACH YEAR – THE INTERNATIONAL CLASSIC MOTORCYCLE SHOW IN APRIL, AND THE CLASSIC MOTORCYCLE MECHANICS SHOW IN OCTOBER. WE’RE TALKING ABOUT THE LATTER HERE, BUT AS I’M A LAZY GET, AND TYPING OUT ‘CLASSIC MOTORCYCLE MECHANICS SHOW’ IS 30 LETTERS, AND ‘STAFFORD’ IS JUST EIGHT, I’M CALLING IT THAT, OKAY?

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 SUMMER.

ROYAL ENFIELD SHOTGUN 650 • THE NEWROYAL ENFIELD SHOTGUN 650 – IS IT A SINGLE SEAT (BOBBER?) VERSION OF THE SUPER METEOR CRUISER? UMM, KIND O’ YES, AND KIND O’ NO…

Mr Bridges’ Motorcycle Diaries • LAST TIME I WAS TALKING...