SF202

Streetfighters issue 202 is grinding its way through the printing presses as we speak, ready for departure on Pat's van on Thursday to head to subscribers front door mats.
Containing dynamic pics of streetfightered motorcycles from aroud the globe (the Blackbird on the cover, an LC from the Midlands, a Gixer from the east coast, an ultra trick GSX1400, a Katana-style Bandit, a Yam from the flatlands of Holland and one of the maddest GSX-Rs you've ever seen, amongst others) reports from the European Stunt Competition and north-east America's FighterFest, plus the regular updates on drag racing, circuit racing and the onrunning project bikes, it's essential bedtime reading for the cold Autumn evenings...
SF202, on sale in newsagents from Thursday November 4th.

South West Stunters

We'll be bringing you the full details of the European Stunt Competition from the South West Motorcycle Show in the next issue (out next week, hint hint), but here's a taster video courtesy of Kiff at Deviant Videos...

A Quick Breather...

... from the deadline chaos, means we can drop in a few pics from the Custom Paint Shop...









We'll be bringing yoummore more details on the Custom Paint Shop in the next issue!

SF201 Fighting Talk

While we've always been more than happy to get involved in political rants in our Fighting Talk editorial column, here at Streetfighters we're not really the sort of mag to plagiarise other publications' publicity drives, and we tend to leave the motorcycle industry to get on with its own self-promotion too.
Recently, there's been something of a drive by both the MCIA (Motorcycle Industry Association) and Britain's Most Popular Motorcycling newspaper (ie Britain's only motorcycling paper) to encourage more people to take up motorcycling, both as a hobby and as an environmentally-friendly and economic way to commute to work. And they have good reason.
The number of new riders coming into motorcycling has plummeted faster than Shell Petroleum's street cred over the last year or so (estimates suggest that the number of completed tests in the UK is down by 60%, that's fifty thousand fewer people gaining their bike licence over just one year!), partly due to the horrendous weather last winter, but primarily due to the new half-arsed approach to the testing system, as brought in in April last year. Not only were the number of test centres reduced (thus forcing some people to have to travel in excess of 100 miles to get to their nearest centre), but changes in the test itself (including a compulsory 'brake and swerve' test that had to be undertaken, even in wet weather) dissuaded many people from bothering. Fortunately, it appears that the testing procedure is now being reviewed, but is this too little, too late?
Now, no-one who reads this magazine got into motorcycling because of economic reasons or environmental concerns, but because it is FUN. Nobody who has ever ridden motorcycles needs to be told how great they are (although our little corner of biking is particularly exciting, thanks to all the one-off machinery and some rather extreme engineering and power outputs). But, it could also be said, that many of us have become a bit jaded with bikes over the years – we've accepted that modern bikes have prodigious amounts of power, razor-sharp handling and brakes that can stop the world from spinning on its axis, but many of us can't remember what it was like to just get out on a bike, any bike, and the liberating sense of freedom that it brings...

Read the rest of this Fighting Talk in SF 201, on sale now

Bonehead

There's several reasons why so many people chose a Suzuki Bandit when they're thinking of owning a naked performance bike. There's the fact that they wheelie like a good un; the engine is emminently tunable; it's a piece of gateaux to swap the front end for something trick and upside-down; and there's probably more bolt-on parts available than any other model of bike.
But it's never, ever for the reason of putting on a headlight like this one...

Sorcerer's Apprentice...

Many of you will remember the utterly superb 'Judge' - the turbocharged ZX-9R as built by Australia's Extreme Creations. Since we featured the bike, it's remained in use, and recently went for a check up on the dyno...

Ouch. As you can see, oil pouring out of a huge hole ripped in the crankcases by a conrod that didn't want to be in there anymore was ignited when it splattered over the turbo. The incident was caused by an oil filter collapsing and restricting oil flow to the bottom end of the motor. Remember people, disposable filters that are changed regularly are that way for a reason...

For those of you who can devote a bit more time at work to watching videos, here's the full footage of the dyno day. The Judge is on at about 2 mins 30...

Exteme Performance Bike Weekend

This weekend, the 9th and 10th October, sees the finals of the Straightliners drag race championship and ACU drag bike championship, as well as the Straightliners Stunt Championship, at Santa Pod Raceway.
Both ACU and Straightliners classes (but not RWYB) have the Eurodragster.com / Speedflow 'Perfect Light' award with £50 for the first person to run a 0.000 reaction time, and the Eurodragster.com / Gold RV 'Perfect ET' award to the first rider to run a prefect bracket or dial-in time (ie a 10.100 in the Straightliners 10.10 class) and there's fifty quid up for grabs there too, although to qualify the bike must carry a Eurodragster.com/Gold RV sticker, available from the siging-on office.
The running order is here

Streetfighter Trophy up for grabs at Brightona!

This weekend (10th October) we're sponsoring the Streetfighter Trophy in the custom show at Brightona, which will be held this Sunday (10th October) in - yep, you guessed it - Brighton.

Brightona's a huge event and raises lots of cash for the Sussex Heart Charity (in 2009 it raised over £21,000), and one of the star attractions is Harrison BILLET's custom show. If you want to enter your pukka fighter in the show and be in with the chance of a trophy, just find a marshal when you arrive and tell them that you want to display your bike.

Other attractions include live bands, hot rods, trade stands and a Wall of Death, whilst entry is £5 on a bike (or free on foot).

More details on the event at: http://brightona.brighton-rock.net/

Ohm, Ohm On The Range...

One of the most impressive sights on the quarter mile is that of Top Fuel motorcycles, with Larry 'Spiderman' McBride being the most famous, and most successful, contender in the sport.
As such, Larry was drafted in to ride a bike that is almost the antithesis of the nitromethane-breathing, earth-shaking, bowel-moving Fuelers - an electric drag bike... The sound is strange, the numbers impressive!

Due to the low sound level of the electric motor, in comparison to a nitro motor, you can actually hear how hard the rear tyre is working!

Charity Build

Those of you who have been following the progress of the Little Lives GSX-R in the pages of the magazine will know the reasoning behind its build.
The driving force behind the project is Dave 'Emoe' East, and with the generous support of various members of the streetfighting community, he's building a tricked-up GSX-R 750 which will be raffled off to generate a fat wad of cash to donate to the neonatal unit at Milton Keynes hospital.
Now, the plan was to raffle off the bike, plus varous goodies donated to the cause, on the 1st November, with the lucky punter collecting the bike from the International Motorcycle Show at the NEC in December.
However, due to Emoe's baby son, Hayden, having some serious health problems, the project has (rightfully) taken a back seat for a while, and while the raffle will indeed take place on November 1st, the bike build may take longer than originally intended...
Even so, the winner will gain himself (or herself) a fully-finished bespoke 'fighter, with stacks of trick goodies, as the build-up thread on Emoe's website shows (here). There's also additional pruizes in the form of a pair of his 'n hers Sartso jeans from Wildandwicked.com, a tee shirt and hoodie from Moorespeed Racing and a year's subscription to Streetfighters magazine. So, four prizes and a worthy cause to which to donate your money. Head here to get yourself your tickets.