Jackie is a punk, Judy is a runt

More photos from Verona soon. In the meantime, here is one of the highlights from my soundtrack to the weekend: one of my favourite songs, by a band named after Pat's favourite west end caff (now sadly gone). Class.

Sideburn DJ Dave introduced me to this tune (amongst others) and has also promised to send me the best tracks off Johnny Moped's first album (I only have 'Hard Lovin' Man' on single). Again, class.

Verona and back

Got back from Verona yesterday fairly unscathed by the snow in Europe and Aperol consumed on the trip.

We had a great time and a successful show. The Expo seemed even bigger than last year, if that's possible.

Like last year, lovely MBE organiser Gaia asked me to pick a bike from those on show to receive the GKM award; it went to this 1400cc S&S drag bike, built by a little firm called Italian Choppers (Pepe and Billy). I loved its stance and little custom touches (two front heads!), but what sold me on it was the almost exclusive use of Italian components around the S&S lump.

The tank, for example, is from an Italian moped, as is the scalloped rear valance... shaped and widened to fit. Two Brembo stoppers, check. Rare 'Ceat' Italian rear tyre, check. The dual Dell'Orto carbs, homemade pipes, front hub and Tommaselli throttle were icing on the cake. Well done boys... lovely work. We'll be featuring it in the magazine soon.

Thanks goes to my mucker Pat for all his help and to Phil for the laughs.

Stick this on your pipe and smoke it

Yep, we have new, thick, hand-screen printed stickers... the perfect accompaniment to any pipe, oil tank or hot rod window.

If you come by our table at Verona, we'll have some there.

Subscribers will get one inside their new-look GKM in a few weeks' time.

From outta the blue

From the Yokohama files... how nice is this? In the car park. 2011, 2010? Can't remember.

Perfect.

I need to take a break from looking at bikes all day

So sometimes I stop laying out a page or writing a feature and hit YouTube to, yes, look at even more bikes.

I would love to know where these crappy 'documentaries' source all their images and old footage of club members on their bikes (from what looks like the late fifties and early sixties). If all those little snippets could be cut together... nice.

Look east

No one beats the Japanese chopper mags for their combination of quality and content.

The latest Cycle Headz is full, as ever, of lovely stuff (I worked out this is a '47, above, but everything else is in Japanese, so don't ask me).

Get a copy, if you can. Thanks Mochi and Yusuke!

Bit less seasoning please

Just over three months ago, I took this photo riding home from a lazy lunch in the country with Pete. Chuck Taylors and sunshine, Ray Bans and warm air. Perfect.

So don't give me that old bollocks about how you love the seasons: watching the leaves turn then drop; waking to that muffled silence that tells you the first snow has fallen; waiting for the spring flowers to push their way through the frost.

I don't want seasons. I want sunshine, every day. All year round.

I had that, pretty much, in Australia. In the ten years we lived there, NSW was officially 'in drought'. Ideal in biking terms. (Obviously slightly less ideal in population sustainability terms.)

Still can't get used to the descent into four or five months of freezing, wet – and soon to be snow-covered – misery here.

I need to get to LA or Sydney, fast.

It gets me, despite myself

The Smiths weren't my cup of tea. It was more the students who idolised them that irritated me than their music, if I'm honest. But I did buy the 'This Charming Man' single on the Rough Trade label in 1983.

It's hard to describe how different the record sounded at the time. In your face, yet coy. Manic, yet louche. Marr's guitar was extraordinary... that opening riff is one of the best ever in popular music. But no one ever praises the bass line (in fact, didn't Morrissey argue that the bassist and drummer had no creative part to play in the band during their court battle over royalties?) which is superb.

I still love it, and it's the record my sister still associates with me at that time... not the obscure rockabilly that was my life.

More about me and Moz, here.

Next week... Verona!

If it's as much fun as last year, it will be good. We're heading for the Verona 'Motor Bike Expo' next Thursday and will be there until the Monday.

Come along to buy magazines, hats, stickers... you know, the usual.

And hopefully Ben will be on hand again to make the GKM display a little more, well, Hassidic.

Great photos of bikers in their natural habitat

If you're in London between 24 January and 3 February, get along to Sam Christmas's photography exhibition. He really is one of the finest photographers covering the chopper scene at the moment.

Happy birthday E

This is my favourite TV footage of Elvis. He's still got the speed-freak jitter, but he's making money now and he's having fun. Hair is proper southern trucker. Outlandish check jacket from Lansky's on Beale.

Check out his expression during the drum roll in the guitar solo, and the way he stops dead... stares... resumes playing.

He's still the king and would have been 78 today.

A good shop for parts and mags in the UK

My mate Sean runs a neat little store selling the world's coolest chopper parts and mags... including GKM.

Support the independents! Give him a call. He will treat you right and he knows what he's talking about.

CLICK HERE to see their wares!

Chicken Poo, coming at you

In the new issue we finally have a feature on the funkiest flathead this side of the Atlantic, Boneshaker Choppers' 'Chicken Poo'. Benny will give us the lowdown on how and why this crazy 45 ended up in his hands.

Shot for us by the extremely talented Sam Christmas.

Johnny

Two years.

Miss you mate.

Rewind: Mr Watts

Before I left Oz, I hooked up with Simon Watts at the 2009 Kustom Nationals in Victoria, Australia and took a few shots of his practical and patina'd Beesa bob-job (which he'd ridden to the show).

For one reason and another I never got it together to get it into print, so here it is... better late than never.

Mr Watts is a highly talented individual who turns his hand from writing ads (how I first met him) to pinstriping, building cars and bikes, painting and now tattooing. Sorry about the delay in airing these mate; see you soon!

This week, long ago

90 years ago this week, Sam Phillips was born.

60 years ago this week, Hank Williams died in his Cadillac.

Play some good music today in their memory.

Wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen...

... friendly old girl of a town.

I spent NYE watching TV. Because I am saving myself for parties like the one Lau and Kasper at Motorious are having on 22 June from 12 noon in Copenhagen to celebrate their first birthday.

Unfortunately all the photos I have from my last party there are too, er, blurred... so here are James and Emil doing the easy rider thing the next morning to Krenkerup and The Castle Run.

 I love Denmark!

Let's look forward... and always back

Everyone reached 2013 now? Good.

Then happy new year to you all.

Who knows what the new year may bring? Well, in our case, we know it will continue to bring you the most interesting traditional custom motorcycles – and the odd car – on the planet.

This, for example, is Takeshi's '49 Hydra Glide, which you'll be able to read about in the new issue, out on February 1st.

We'll be changing a bit for the next one after 30 issues. But in the important ways, we won't be changing at all. So let's look forward to a new year... and continue to look back to the best of years past.

Have a wonderful Christmas

Yep, I've already started on the Monkey Stout and have already played Slade a couple of times today so whatever you're doing this holiday, do it safely and I hope you have a wonderful time.

Hopefully St Nick will leave something you really want under the tree.

The glory of old stuff

I've never been content living in the here-and-now. As far back as I can remember I dreamed of a different era... lived vicariously through the old objects left behind by others long gone. I had relatives who fuelled the fascination with the bygone, dusty and musty. Uncle Mac, who took my brother and I on memorable rides on the bench seat of his lowline Ford Consul (long after the last one had left Dagenham), slipping from port to starboard as we rumbled around north London's bends; and my grandad Poppa Fleming whose garage smelled of polish and leather and housed the mid-sixties Wolseley that would, at 18, become my post-test wheels.

And now, the best days are spent tinkering with old stuff. Today was one of those rare, crisp, sunny winter days that actually makes you glad to be in England. I played rockabilly to the kids as I made their their lunch (it makes them jump around in their seats; no modern music does.) Then I enjoyed a rare hour picking on my '63 Gretsch and actually worked out the breaks in Hank Harral's 'DJ Blues'... something I've been meaning to do for years.

After that I exposed the Dodge panel to the sunlight and took it on a brisk 20-miler, refreshing the fuel tank, warming the engine and rolling the wheels to avoid lay-up flat spots.

Choose old stuff. It will always make you happy.

Wild winds are blowing

There was an interesting documentary about Slade on British TV last night and though I'd seen stills of them in their 1969 skinhead days, I'd never seen this footage of them playing this track off their first album. Great band... and Noddy Holder's voice is one of the best in rock. I think their look in the glam era got in the way of how good they really were.

Get a hat, get ahead

New Otto truckers have just arrived! The first lot sold out really fast so we added some new colours:

Black/white
Red/white
Green/white
Maroon/white
Brown/tan
Blue/white

All with the GKM bulldog logo, mesh back, brass centre button and snap back. One size fits nearly all.

$25 including to shipping anywhere in the world. Buy yours HERE.

Winter hacking

Fortunately I don't need to ride for work all year round any more, but when I did, this '94 Hinckley Triumph Trident provided (almost) trouble-free winter thrashing for a number of years in London.

I loved it. But it must rank as one of the ugliest bikes I've ever owned.

Rewind: 2006

When Buzz and I first put my Pan together it looked like this for a couple of months before the back end lost some weight and width.

After many years doing this blog I am repeating myself ... sorry ... but I was really influenced by the early incarnation of Eric Webb's bike.

I still like this look.

Stock rock

It's winter, so thoughts inevitably turn to how to modify the Panhead for when the weather improves again.

This is how it looked when I bought it in 2009... and I must admit I sometimes weigh up returning it to stock.

We'll see.

Cock cakes and Christmas capers

My head still hurts. WWNWW.

Insta-winter

Bleak and beautiful here at the moment. Minus five last night. So I'm getting my head down indoors... got some new colour caps in next week and am working on some new tees.

Remember, we still have some small GKM wolfie tees on sale for just $15 including shipping. HERE.

Waisted

Just in time for this weekend's Black Widows raid on Santa's Grotto, my new belt arrived from Karl at KDS Designs.

Thanks mate. Perfect.

If you want something unique made in leather, metal or paint, now you know where to go.

Captain Oates

Super nice bike, super nice bloke.

This was from a shoot we did a couple of summers ago.

How are you Paul?

Follow my leader

Yep, Setzer was riding trad-style Knucks and Pans when everyone else was polishing their billet and seeing how many airbrushed skulls they could fit onto their tanks.

Lest we forget.