Monster Drift: Vaughn Gittin Jr. gets nuts in his backyard!

Vaughn Gittin Jr gives you a personal tour of his garage of toys including some important pieces of drift history. Then he shows the kind of fun he and his crew have in his backyard. Drift cars can also play in the dirt.

BULL CYCLES’ HARLEY NIGHTSTER

I’ve always thought that the older Nightsters are the best-looking Harley Sportster variant. The mix of dark finishes, wire wheels and blacked-out hubs gave them a subtle, low-key vibe.

This custom Nightster is anything but subtle, though. And none the worse for it. Nicknamed ‘Traffic,’ it’s the work of Chicago-based Bull Cycles, the shop run by fabrication specialist Justin Powers.

Justin describes his inspiration as “modern muscle car with a twist of café. In my mind, it’s what a modern Sportster should look like.” He adds: “I use the term cafe lightly, as not to offend the purists! However, everyone calls it a cafe racer at first glance, so I’ll let the public decide.”

The base bike was a 2007-model Nightster. Fuel injected reliability was a big deal on this bike, so the ’07 was a must. The tank was sectioned two inches and the pump reconfigured to allow for a lower stance.

It’s far from a bolt-on special: the tail unit and side panels are hand-fabricated, and the under-mount tracker bars and LED projector headlight surround are Bull’s own design. The stock belt drive has been swapped out for a chain, and allows room for the 180-section rear rim. The paint is a flat anodized silver, and works beautifully.

“There are lots of little details that make up the difference,” says Justin, who cheerfully admits to being a control freak and micro-manager. And that’s fine by us: this is one of those rare customs that rewards extremely close inspection.

See more of Justin Powers’ work on the Bull Cycles website.

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BSMC GEAR GUIDE # 7

PRODUCT REVIEW – BILTWELL GRINGO LE HELMET

As the new wave custom scene blossoms, there are a number of companies that have cottoned on and started gearing their products towards this expanding market. Biltwell are different, they grew out of the scene. Their products are designed from the bottom up for builders both shed and professional, and those who ride their custom machines. They are the real deal.

Founded in 2005, the Biltwell crew rebelled against the excesses of the conventional custom scene and the mainstream motorcycle corporations. Growing up surfing, skating and falling off BMXs gave them a healthy disregard for authority and the established rules of the game. They set out to make quality, practical products that represent good value to those who share their ethos.

“Forget the fashi

BSMC III 2014

Go Big or Go Home is the mantra for this year’s BSMC III Exhibition Event 2014. After enjoying the hospitality of the wonderful Shoreditch Studios venue and team we realised that our third event just wasn’t going to fit the space, so we’ve spent several months looking for a bigger place with as much character, somewhere that would allow us to keep the easy-going, hang-out-all-day, non trade-show vibe.

TOBACCO DOCK

The new venue is the 200 year old, grade-one listed Tobacco Dock, just two miles south of Shoreditch near Tower Bridge on the North side of the river.

We have 4x the floor space we had last time around, so expect the exhibition to be 4x bigger with more bikes, more art, more photography, more top-quality gear on sale, more food, more barrista coffee, more beer, plus the usual barbershop & tattoos.

Whether you’re an old school Ace Cafe Rocker on a Triton, an ex-sportbike rider with a modern-retro cafe racer or scrambler, or a cool 20-something doing their own thing with a Shed-built R80 Boxer Brat, this is a show about you and the culture surrounding the scene, but it’s an event for everyone interested in two wheels.

This page will grow over the next few weeks, with info on the builders, the bikes, the art, photography and film, plus details on the brands and retailers coming on board, and the high quality food and drink.

We’re selling the tickets in advance this year, so buy yours HERE. The price is £10 which includes VAT (sorry, but the taxman wants his share these days) including a free coat & helmet check, and there is limited free on-site motorcycle parking for advance ticket holders to get there early. We can fit at least 100 bikes on the dockside.

For the over-spill, and for cars, there is a public car park opposite the Tobacco Dock gates on Wapping Lane (thegreen square) which is just a £5 a day for cars, and we hope to do a Motorcycle rate deal on the weekend.

Loads more info soon, so bookmark this page and come back again. Meanwhile, here’s how last October’s eventwent down.

CONFIRMED BUILDERS INCLUDE

Spirit of the Seventies

Untitled Motorcycles

Kevils Speedshop

Old Empire Motorcycles

Down & Out Cafe Racers

De Bolex

Foundry MC

Lamb Engineering

RB Kustoms

Jack Lilley

Krazy Horse Customs

Robinson’s Speedshop

Moto Strada

Sette Nero

Oily Rag

Volts Mechanix

Pete’s Café Racers

CMBL

Muff Customs

Kingdom of Kicks

RETAIL EXHIBITORS

Moto Legends

Ruby

ODFU

Maple Jeans

Foundry MC

Rev It

Muff Customs

CONFIRMED ARTISTS & PHOTOGRAPHERS INCLUDE

Conrad Leach

Holographic Hammer

Martin Squires

Kev Taggart (Spirit of the 70s)

…this list/page will now be updated daily…