This is what it's all about

Ichiro used to work at the 'Wheels Through Time' museum.

Well... it shows. His flathead is just how I love 'em.

Feature soon in GKM by the Daddy.

Hey Renshaw

One-all.


- Posted on the move

DicE is extra nice

'But I buy DicE to get away from this unfunny, wordy shit.'

Yeah well, hard luck... for this issue only.

The rest of the mag is BEAUTY.

Photo Finnish

A funny thing happened to me on the way back from the Coliseum

The flights to and back from Verona last week comprised a who's-who of the British custom bike world, with Mark Wilsmore from Ace Cafe rubbing shoulders with Blue from Back Street Heroes, the Battistini lads queuing next to the Sideburn magazine tweedies. Fiddy and Sharon from Davida helmets were also on the flight.

At the show, Fiddy bought some magazines from me and as we chatted I happened to mention being photographed by Davida (modelling their new helmets and goggles) at the very first Ace Cafe reunion in 1994, when the caff was still a tyre depot. I'd never seen the shots used, and wasn't surprised... I was never into the rocker look and didn't really suit Davida's nouveau-59 Club style of the time too well.

But I was amazed when Fiddy recalled the shoot from 18 years before in minute detail: "You were on an orange and black Harley with your girlfriend and we photographed you against a white wall...". Amazing, eh? Anyway, he said he still had the negs in his archive and would dig them out.

True to their word, Sharon sent me the photos this week. Weird to be confronted with yourself 18 years younger (and almost as many stone lighter). I still have that jacket... and that girl is my wife. The bike? It got nicked in London shortly after the Ace bash.

Thanks guys... so nice when someone remembers a promise made then actually follows up on it. Doesn't happen often.

New issue 25 preview

Packed tighter than a Tokyo subway!

The new issue 25... and five years of GKM

The new issue ships to subscribers early next week... so if you want to get your order in early, get to our webstore now!

It's exactly five years since issue one rolled off the presses...

Denis and his amazing VL-Panhead are on the cover of the new one, along with:

Ryan Cox’s ’68 TR6
Hach’s Knucklehead chopper
Anthony Robinson’s survivor T100 custom
The 20th Mooneyes show, Yokohama - big photo spreads
English Don and the second incarnation of the Babylon Taxi
Two friends, Terry and Mike... with two '37 big twin flatties
Karl Stehn’s ‘78 Bonnie chopper, from Oz
Stuart Symonds’ bare metal ‘75 Shovel
Spice Motorcycles' GKM Award-winning ‘44 Knuck, from Tokyo

Hope you enjoy it.

And don't forget, if you want to help us celebrate our fifth birthday, there's one place you need to be on 3rd February.

Diggin' your scene!

I'm diggin' your scene!
Can I be part of your scene?!
Anyone can be part of our scene!
Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene.

It was one of those nights

I seem to remember the orange drinks were Gary's idea. Kind of like the stuff you nick from your mum's drinks cupboard when you're 14... with similar effects.

Good times with good people.

Check out Pat's top blog for more Italian shenanigans.

Need good replacement cases for your Pan or Knuck?

One of the most interesting stands at Verona was Motortechnic MFG's from Germany.

They are making beautifully engineered replacement cases for Knuckleheads – with Panhead cases coming shortly. They also make everything from cylinders to pistons, oil pumps to heads. They are all indistinguishable from OEM (although are a tiny bit wider than stock so you can use Truett and Osborne flywheels), but are made to the most exacting standards; the guy I talked to said their parts are the very best quality available.

Cases come unstamped and are, from memory, around 2,800 euros.

I think this company will do well...

Tweed 'n' leather

At Verona, your stand wasn't complete without some lovelies handing out flyers and straddling the bikes. So Dave and Ben recruited some...

'46 Chevy pickup for sale in UK

1946 Stepside Chevy
3" roof chop, lowered all round.
Camaro front clip (PAS, Tilt column)
350 V8, 350 TH box, 9" rear
Good tyres all round ( 10 x 15 rear)
Easy driver, Tax free, MoT Jan 2013
Best offer, you know what it is worth.

Call Mike on 07590 637245, 07740 950743 or 07906 646868 or email nethertoncottage@hotmail.co.uk

GKM 5th birthday bash... in NJ!

We're featuring an east coast bike on the cover of our 5th birthday issue (#25), so our good friend Walter from Kickstart Cycle is throwing a little party at Rebar in Lodi, New Jersey on Friday February 3rd.

First fifty guests will get a free copy of the new one, and there will be back issues for sale too, cheap drinks, food and a good time to be had.

If you're in the area, come along.

I chose the full English breakfast pizza

But everyone else ate it.

You can buy pizza by the metre here... and we did.

Here's a rare photo of DTFP, Exactamundo, Sideburn, DicE and ConArtism at the same table.

BellaBlogini.

Verona bikes

Some interesting machines and stands amongst the skull do-rags and billet barges. But you have to dig them out... This show is vast.I presented the GKM award to Christian from ChopperLab for his minimalist, dual-DellOrto S&S Panhead (bottom).











- Posted on the move in Verona

Sideburn party at Mr Martini's

- Posted on the move in Verona

Hassidic Yorkshireman

Ben from Sideburn changes Pete's religion on the new GKM banner in Verona. - Posted on the move in Verona

Jeff's '41 FLTT

I hope Jeff doesn't mind me re-posting this... I've been following his FL TT build for a while now and the finished bike is beeeautiful.

Jeff Baer has appeared many times in GKM, and with good cause... he has a jaw-dropping collection of fine, original old H-Ds. We finally got to meet at the Invitational in September where he turned up in style on his 'dirty nine' Knuck.

Here's to you Jeff... thanks for building yet another bike we can feature! If you haven't already, check out Jeff's blog... you really might learn something.

Catch us if you can

If you're coming to the Verona bike show, GKM will be on stand 15D in hall 3.

I will be the one dressed in the pilot's '60s get-up, and Pat will be in his usual stewardess's uniform.

Come and say Ciao!

Steve Uhl's Panhead

Someone on FB asked for some more shots of this bike, so I thought I'd give them another airing here. They first ran in issue 3 (sold out) back in 2007.

This bike was talked about in hushed tones back in the day... before 'period correct' became the wallet-scorching Ebay trawl it is today. Steve and Bill Mize were building bikes like this back in Sioux City while everyone else was trying to work out how wide a rear tyre they could run.

Respect.

Photos by Mr Frank Kaisler.

Dave's collection

If you remember Dave Aliventi's amazing survivor bay area Panhead we featured in issue 16, you may also remember that I saw the bike for real last year... in Tokyo. It had been sold and was being worked on by my friends at Ocean Beetle.

Anyway, Dave won't be too sad to have moved the Frisco Pan on, as he has other enviable bikes to fettle. Take a look at these: from top left, clockwise, we have a '42 Knuck, '35 Indian Chief, '36 Chief and a '53 Panhead.

Nice...

We'll be featuring that rather interesting Knucklehead in a future issue.

ICC! ICC!

Wide boys, football hooligan estate agents, baseball bat attacks on pubs, stripey shirts with white collars, striping rival fans with Stanley knives... must be the late eighties!

Found an old VHS copy of this in a box on the weekend. If you can find it, it's well worth watching... Gary Oldman is on great form. And as a bonus it's directed by Alan Clarke – his final film.

YETI!!

Less than a week to go...

Sideburn party Friday, DicE party Saturday... oh, and I think there's a bike show in between too.

See you in Verona! We'll have t-shirts, magazines, stickers and packets of our new Lady Grey GKM tea. Come and say hello!