Ass or Grass

Nobody rides for free!

Dirty Whitewalls 2000

Found this old photo of Mr Morales on the Davida website, modelling one of their Speedster helmets back at the beginning of the noughties.

Wherever you are right now Johnny, I salute you!

Shu's forty-one

I suddenly remembered the photos of Shu's 1941 UL I'd taken because I had just seen his bike on the Junk Motor blog, then Paulie's. The coincidence prompted action!

I shot the bike in December 2010 at Ocean Beetle, the shop north of Tokyo where Shu works. I still have a few bikes from that trip I need to get into the magazine. But too much material is a good thing, right?

It's completely original except for the headlight and '52 Panhead bags. Great bike, and he rides it everywhere. You know what's coming next: coming soon in GKM!

Unmessed-with '63 Duo Glide for sale

Our friend and Belgian Widow Oli is reluctantly selling his ex-Belgian Police 1963 Duo Glide.

All the right bits plus fresh engine, gearbox and paint.

One for the collector. If you're SERIOUS, contact him at olivier.moes@telenet.be

Influences: 1996

In the mid-nineties I was soaking up chopper influences from anywhere I could find them... which in those pre-Internet days was largely magazines. I was into Danny Lyon's photos; I was hanging around some of the London Hells Angels; I was riding a soon-to-be-hardtailed Shovel; I was working out what I liked and why I was so drawn to early style customs.

I saw Chris Brown's Pan-Shovel in the 1996 BSH Yearbook and liked it enough to keep the cutting to this day; '53 Pan bottom end with a '79 Shovel top, sitting in a '56 straightleg frame with an original springer. Allowing for current preferences for skinnier rims and drum brakes, this bike would be cool today... And remember, hardly anyone was riding bikes like this in England back then.

Photos by – who else? – Garry Stuart.

On a London bedroom wall in 1977

Just found this, complete with 35 year old blu-tac on the back. It used to be above my bed when I was a kid.

My mum told us that when she left home at 18, her mother made a huge bonfire and burned all her possessions, including her Elvis 78s. Because of this, my mum was always careful never to throw any of our stuff away without consulting us first. Which is why I can still dig up relics like this.

Four

It's my boy's birthday today.

The day he arrived was the happiest of my life.

What a bonkers week

It's always manic when a new issue comes out. Receiving then distributing thousands of magazines – to stores, subscribers, readers – is probably the worst aspect to being a kitchen table publisher, and I'm always glad when the first big wave has been tackled.

My missus has been laid up with flu (the Italian lurgy, caught from me) and the kids have been sick too... it's at times like this I wish I worked an easy day job in an office far from home.

Of course when I'm riding in California or drinking with best friends in Japan, I'm glad I don't.

Never mind, the worst of the week is over and now I can spend an hour this afternoon catching up on some bike-related reading with a nice mug of sweet Lady Grey.

Visit beautiful New Jersey... TONIGHT!

Remember, if you're in or near NJ tonight, get on down to the GKM/Kickstart piss up at Rebar in Lodi:

REBAR 132 Essex St. Lodi, NJ 07644 (201) 368 8181 rebarnj.com

Free copies of the new issue, cold beer, good music, biker movies... More info HERE.

Hero is an overused word

Can't remember when, but Matt Davis told me long ago about this guy he knew in Italy who had a normal nine-to-five job but had for years nurtured a dream of riding an old Indian on the Wall of Death.

Most of us of course would slap ourselves and get on with paying the gas bill, but not Davide. He saved and saved and searched and searched until he found himself the happy owner of an original Wall, and two Indians.

I finally met him in Verona and had a chance to talk to him about his plans and look at some progress photos.

Matt has been relating Davide's extraordinary story with some great photos on the DicE blog, so read more about him there. Davide's my new hero. (There, I said it.)

Bad, basic, black, bitchin'...

Built by Jason. Shot by Throttle. Feature by GKM.... soon.

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