BRACKLEY KUSTOM KARNIVAL

To celebrate ten years in business, Sooty’s Customs will this year be sponsoring the Brackley Festival of Motorcycling’s custom bike show, the Kustom Karnival on 22nd August 2010.

All bikes entered into the show must be taxed and roadworthy (and entrants will be expected to ride it up Brack High Street for the delectation of the Northamptonshire public. The show will start at 10am and bikes must be entered by midday. It’s all in aid of charity (the Air Ambulance and Autism Concern) so there’ll be no cash prizes, but Sooty’s Customs and Hairy Andy’s Custom Paint will be making the trophies which sound like they’ll be a bit good.

Entry is £3 (or a fiver for two people, so find a mate quick), while custom show entrants get in free. As well as the custom bikes, there will be stunt shows on Brackley High Street, the Wall of Death and loads more besides. You can find more details at Brackley Festival of Motorcycling.

BSH 317 ABOUT TO BREAK COVER!

We're pleased to announced that BSH 317 has been poked into shape with pointy sticks, given a quick lesson on etiquette and is now ready to face a waiting world. As ever, it's stuffed full of Good Things, including a massive eight-page spread on the Farmyard Party, indepth coverage of the Chop 'n' Rod Show, Goodwood and Norrtalje, while the bikes are a sprightly mix of flavours. On the cover and centrespread is a lovely barhopping Triumph, built by Griz. Griz is twenty-one years old. There's Tom's lovely Medusa, a Harton (you'll have to read the magazine to find out), a cracking XS650, the 'Dark Knight' Yamaha trike and loads more besides, all overseen by Mr Ogri. It'll be coming to a good newsagents near you next Thursday.

LATEST FROM ONE WORLD STUDIOS

Zack Coffman and Scott di Lalla. Two men having way too much fun.

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN...

Well, not so much the Caribbean as the North Sea, and not so much sea as the high street of Hemsby. Photos of this weekend's cruise by the East Coast Pirates from our Norfolk bureau, Mizz Jess.

CRAZY CHOPPERS FOR A FRIDAY AFTERNOON

'Cause there's no such thing as too long!

PARKING CHARGES LEGAL IN WESTMINSTER

The High Court rules today that Westminster City Council’s scheme to charge for motorcycle parking is legal. The judgment implied that Westminster Council did not need to make any special justification for bringing in charges for motorcycle parking as motorcycles could be treated in the same way as cars. The charges have been the subject of a vociferous and active campaign which has seen Trafalgar Square blocked by members of the ‘No To Bike Parking Tax’ group.

However, in his judgement, Lord Justice Pitchford said charges had been justified and that "The Council has been assiduous in the performance of its responsibility to consult specifically upon the motorcycle parking and charging scheme. Far from ignoring the responses received, appropriate concessions have been made and the scheme amended." He then went on to say, "The judgment which objections have failed to undermine, is that the volume of traffic using the roads in the City of Westminster requires management by the selective introduction of charging for on-street parking contemporaneously with the provision of free off-street parking."

The BMF has warned that this ruling could set a precedent and undermine the provision of free bike parking across the country.

WINDOW SHOPPING

Selfridges, the London department store, is currently hosting an unusual window display in the shape of two Honda Fireblades - one complete and one disassembled, the work of artist Kyle Bean. You can read the full story in the next issue of BSH, but, for now, enjoy how it all came together.

AUSSIE FORD AD...

Given that Australia appears to be trying to outlaw bikers, perhaps Ford is on the mark with its new ad...

JAY LENO AND THE FROGMAN

Jay Leno is one of the world's greatest petrolheads with a phenomenal collection of bikes, cars and weird vehicles to his credit. His excellent web site gives you tours not only around his collection, but includes interviews with other interesting people, and one of the most entertaining of all is with the wonderful Tim 'Frogman' Cotterill that we bring you here. But, much to our delight, 2 minutes and 55 seconds in, there's a shot of Mr Leno holding up a copy of BSH. Cool or what?

THE VIRAL VIRUS

If you have an email account, at some point you will have been sent a viral email – the modern version of a Round Robin letter, which, like a game of Chinese whispers, frequently becomes more exaggerated with constant retelling. But, of recent, the blog has become more interested not in the actual emails themselves, but the way that the contents have been subverted to support a certain cause or belief.

Two which are motorcycle-related have popped into the inbox at BSH Towers in the last month. The first, which many of you will have seen, is a photograph of a crumpled written-off Volkswagen Golf. On closer inspection of the picture, you see that there is a motorcycle inside the car. The story is that the bike hit the car side on at high speed, crashing through the VW and killing both elderly passengers and the rider, and has been displayed by the Swedish police at car shows to warn of the dangers of high speed crashes.

Now, on further investigation, that’s all true. But, by the time the viral email reached us, the sender had put their own slant on the accident, and declared that it was a demonstration of the perils of mobile phone use, and that the driver of the VW had been using a phone. The blog has seen the original police and newspaper reports on the accident in 2003, and nowhere is the use of a phone mentioned, whether incidentally or as a causal effect. While it can’t be disputed that using mobile phones while driving can be a deadly distraction, it was not an element in this accident.

Just a couple of days ago, the blog received a particularly gory and distressing email relating the story of a biker who crashed into the back of a lorry at 120mph and was dragged, trapped by his neck, by the unsuspecting trucker for four miles. The email has photos taken at the time (google something along the lines of ‘Tulsa motorcycle truck accident’ if you feel you have to see). But what was especially unpleasant about the version we received was that, at the bottom, it stated ‘THE GUY SURVIVED. It pays to have a good quality helmet when riding a motorcycle’.

26-year-old Brandon Lee of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, was killed in the accident (as no-one who’s seen the photos could doubt). Whether this was someone trying to make a gratuitous story out of something already shocking, or whether it was the helmet lobby trying to make distasteful currency out of the incident, how much more distressing must it be for Brandon Lee’s family that the photos of his death are not only being circulated for mass entertainment, but with the lie that he lived?

SONS OF ANARCHY COMES TO BELFAST

The city of Belfast is set to be one of the stars of the third series of American hit TV series, ‘Sons of Anarchy’. The show’s producers are searching for lookalikes for the show’s main characters in a significant storyline that will take place in Northern Ireland.

Links between Northern Ireland and the fictional motorcycle club have already been established in the previous two series, and producer Kevin Jackson (who previously worked for BBC Northern Ireland) says; "Because of the nature of the show it is going to be a little 'mean streets' Belfast because there is a chapter of Sons of Anarchy that was established in Belfast. That is why the California chapter comes here to enlist the help of them. We will also be in the beautiful rural countryside because one of the key things is to establish Northern Ireland and its beauty as well as its contrasts in the city."

A casting call is due to take place at the Holiday Inn on Belfast's Ormeau Avenue on July 13 and 14th.Filming will take place in the third week of July and anyone who is interested will need to be available between July 15th and 23rd.

Details should be sent, along with photos and vital statistics if possible,to plennis@me.com.

NEWS OF THE SCREWS

Many of you will be aware of the News of the World piece, ‘Hell on Wheels’, that was published last Sunday.

Written by Sophy Ridge, this article claimed that there were 6000 bike accidents every day, that 1 in 8 – or 182,000 bikers – have been involved in an accident in the last month, 12% drive when over the limit and that 20% of the UK’s bikers were riding illegally. Ridge claimed that the source for these figures was a survey commissioned for Post Office Motorcycle Insurance. So, after the blog had stopped laughing at Ridge’s ludicrous claims, we asked for a copy of the alleged survey. No dice. It is, apparently, not available on line, nor was the Post Office press office prepared to supply us with a copy. How odd – a cynical person might suggest that anyone could say that they had a survey proving anything they liked…

The blog suspects extremely sloppy research on the part of researchers, OnePoll - if it actually took place. One of the key points is that 'one in ten bikers admits to driving with no lights at night and the same proportion jump red lights'. 10% of bikers riding without lights? Perhaps not quite so incredible if you swap motorcyclists for cyclists... Sloppy journalism on top of sloppy research, and there's a few more lines filled for Ridge, regardless of the truth.

Incidentally, in 1999, the Department of Transport carried out an in-depth study of motorcycle accidents. During that year, 26,192 bike accidents were reported. If the Post Office and Ms Ridge are to be believed, motorcycling has become almost 85 times more dangerous in just ten years. Cripes. Fortunately, the blog never believes what it reads in the News of the World, and nor should you.

Sophy Ridge is the Consumer Correspondent for the News of the World, a position which obviously carries some gravitas as befits an Oxford graduate (Ridge studied at St Edmund Hall, an experience that, she says, ‘contributed to my career by transforming me from a bright-eyed teenager to a confident young woman.’ Aww). She appears to have found her natural home at the NotW, having already been at the centre of gutter press allegations by MEP Tom Wise after she posed as a work experience student to covertly film the MEP and his office.

ALLERT'S AUTOCYCLE

It may look like something out of The Flintstones, but you have to admire the work behind Dutch vehicle designer’s latest project, the ‘Aerocycle’.

Built over three years on a budget of less than £3000, the Aerocycle is based around a Honda 125cc with a fully aerodynamic streamliner body kit made of fibreglass which results in an impressive fuel consumption of some 214 miles to the gallon (although Allert is aiming for 235mph!). You can read about the construction of the Aerocycle at AEROCYCLE.

AUSSIE POLICE SEEK TO OUTLAW HAMC

In Australia, New South Wales police yesterday applied to the state’s Supreme Court to have the Hells Angels declared a criminal organisation.

Last March, the NSW parliament rushed through controversial anti-biker laws – the Organised Crime (Control) Act, but this constitutes the first attempt to put those laws into action. If the Supreme Courts passes the application, the declaration of the Hells Angels as an outlaw group would enable the police to seek control orders on members, restricting their movements and activities and leaving them facing up to five years in jail without having been convicted of any other criminal offence.
However, not all of the bureaucrats in the state are in favour of the move. NSW’s Director of Public Prosecutions, Nicholas Cowdery QC, who has condemned the Organised Crime (Control) Act as a giant leap backwards for human rights and the separation of powers.

The application to the NSW Supreme Court was announced by the commander of the gangs squad, Mal Lanyon, who said that police had evidence of serious criminal activity ‘ranging from murder to drug trafficking’ to support their application. The NSW legislation allows the police to effectively outlaw any organisation on the basis of criminal intelligence (which the court is obliged to keep confidential) including by hearing it in the absence of the parties and their legal representatives.

The act defines an organisation as any group of two or more people, not necessarily ‘bikies’. They can be declared if an eligible judge is satisfied the organisation associates in order to organise, plan, facilitate, support or encourage serious criminal activity, and poses a risk to public safety and order. The judge does not have to give their reasons and the intelligence the declaration is based on may never be made public.

NEW SHOW IN TOWN ... SORT OF...

This November, there’s a new show in town. Well, an old show with a new name, to be precise.

MCI Exhibitions Ltd has just announced that Birmigham’s International Motorcycle & Scooter Show will, from this year, be known as Carole Nash Motorcycle Live. The name change is accompanied by a new logo featuring the insurance company which has been involved in the overall show for three consecutive years. At nine days, 2010’s show will also be shorter than in previous years, running from 27th November to 5th December.

Finlay McAllan, Managing Director of Carole Nash Motorcycle Live, says: “We undertook a great deal of research after last year’s event and spent a very long time with manufacturers and other exhibitors to design an entirely new experience for visitors. I can promise all motorcyclists, whether they’re old, new or something in between, that Carole Nash Motorcycle Live will have something specific and really exciting for them to come back for.”

One thing that I think we can promise is that, whether it’s called the International Motorcycle Show or Carole Nash Motorcycle Live, everyone will still refer to it as the NEC Bike Show.