Welcome to the new issue of BSH, hope you've got your woollies on?
As I sit here typing this, last night over 'ere in East Angular we had our coldest night of the winter so far - a smidge under minus 4 degrees C. Now, I know that doesn't really compare with the temperatures in certain parts of the country (Scotland, for example), where it's been so cold polar bears've started thinking about migrating south, but it's cold enough to make even the thought of riding a bike, to me anyway, a not very attractive one. Maybe I've got nesh in me old age?
I'd better get me head together though 'cos, not long after you read this, meself and a couple of mates're off to the most hardcore British rally there is - Conwy MCC's Dragon Rally, up in the mountains of North Wales. In February. Me, a bloke who doesn't really like the cold much. Don't ever believe anyone who tells you I'm a smart cookie, will you? (I know they're unlikely to, but...)
Anyway, plans for 2020 are well underway, and it looks like this year's going to be a doozy. We've confirmed two of the three venues we need for the free BSH custom shows we're planning this year (well, actually three of four if you include the one at the Ace Cafe in September), and the list of events we'll be attending is growing almost daily (and it's only feckin' February!) so if you'd like us to come to yours, please get in touch (but do it asap as the list is, as I say, filling).
Similarly, despite the fact that we were a little over-enthusiastic in bike shooting last year (if we've got pics of your bike and it hasn't been in yet, please bear with us - it will!), as soon as the weather gets a bit warmer we'll be back out on the road taking pics of the best custom bikes in the land so, if you're building something cool for this year, please let us know and we'l do our best to come and see you. Drop me an email at nik@backstreetheroes.com or come up and buttonhole me at an event, yeah?
There's been a lot of talk about car headlights getting brighter and brighter as technology moves on, and how these days they're so bright that they're quite literally blinding (and don't get me started on them feckers with the blue ones that, on bumpy roads, look like police blues-and-twos in your mirrors...bastards, they've taken years off my life, I'm convinced of it).
Apart from the obvious, that they're stupidly bright, there're another couple o' things I've noticed, both of which affect bikers. Firstly, the fact that they're so dazzling means that it's often very difficult to see the indicators of cars coming towards you as they're lost in the glare, meaning you're never quite sure if the car's turning or not. I've lost count of the number of times I've been sat at the end of my road, waiting to pull out, only to have car after car turn into it, their indicators lost in the searchlight-like beams of the headlights. You have to assume they're not turning, don't you, and just patiently
wait until you're sure, or risk being mown down by two tons of speeding steel. Me, I'm quite happy to wait until I'm quite certain but, judging from the horns being sounded behind me, other people's attitudes to road safety aren't quite as relaxed as mine, obviously.
Secondly, since the inception of daytime headlamps on bikes in 1987 (yes, I know the law doesn't say you MUST drive with your headlight on, but for all vehicles first used on or after 1st April that year the regulations in the UK stated that all new vehicles have to be equipped with a 'dim-dip' device that, effectively, is a daytime running light, and bike manufacturers found it easier to just do away with the switch that turns the lights on and off), we've kind o' got used to seeing bikes with their lights on. Now, leaving aside the arguments that say that having your lights on changes the onus of responsibility, from the driver having to actually look where they're feckin' going to the motorcyclist to make themselves more visible, the fact that most cars have their lights on all the time, and the fact that new headlights are so bloody bright, bikes've become almost as 'invisible' again as they were prior to 1987. In fact, bikes now are probably more difficult to see than they were back then because the brightness of the new car lights completely drowns out the light from a bike's headlamp - prior to '87, people who said the classic 'Sorry, mate, I didn't see you' were generally just myopic numpties, but now they genuinely can't see us 'cos (a) everyone has their lights on, which makes bikes difficult to distinguish from other traffic, and (b) they're feckin' blinded by the brightness of car headlights!
What the answer to this is I don't know - all we can really do is try to be extremely careful out there, y'know?

See you next month!
Nik