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    • Dec 28, 2023

Best SB Art of 2023



Following on from the best Sideburn photos of 2023, here are my choices of favourite art and illustration from the last 12 months. They're from the four issues we made this year: SB52-55. We have sold out of SB52, but our friends at Adventure Spec have stocks of all this year's issues in their UK, EU and US warehouses.


When choosing I try to pick artwork we have commissioned, but I usually break my own rules. Issue 52 was our first (and last) art and illustration special, but it was mostly filled with existing works we requested to use, not illustrations we commissioned.


If you ever bought anything from Sideburn you helped us support these artists in a small way.


Click these links for previous 'Best of' posts.



Thanks for your support over the years. Keep tuned for exciting Sideburn stuff in 2024.


Gary Inman

Sideburn founder


1. Erik Gundersen by Ryan Quickfall

Sideburn 55 is a round-up of greatest stuff from Sideburn's wider orbit, while we were trying to not be too predictable. Hayden Roberts chose the Danish speedway rider, Erik Gundersen, who he idolised as a boy growing up in the English West Midlands. I knew I wanted Ryan 'Roadkill' Quickfall in the final quarterly issue of the mag and Ryan supplied this full-page action shot of 'Wunder Gunder' in action, with an industrial background.


2. Tokyo Connection FTR by Cheetah

This project cast a long and glorious shadow over Sideburn's year. This is the original concept sketch sent by Cheetah, long before he started cutting metal, and the finished FTR was incredibly close to the sketch, only the front fender didn't end up being made. Indian Motorcycle made the sketch into stickers, cap, T-shirts and a cool tote bag. The stylised 'I' on the tank was refined and also found it's way onto a range of collab merch we made with Indian Motorcycle. A dream project from start to finish.

See the last few bits of Indian x Sideburn x Cheetah merch we have in stock

See the finished FTR in Sideburn 54


3. Tommy Duma by Mark Ward

UK artist Mark Ward nailed it with this image of national level flat track racer turned jeweller, Tommy 'Thom' Duma for Sideburn 52. Bejewelled hot shoe and helmet, wheels made from the championship rings Duma makes for the AFT National Champions, plus a roost of precious gems. I love the Marvin the Martian style eyes on the prize too.


4. Herald Brute by Andy Garside

Sideburn's art editor, since issue 44, Andy Garside is also a talented illustrator, and created this self-portrait to accompany a Herald Brute 500 road test he wrote for Sideburn 52, the Art & Illustration Special. He's even wearing an almost stitch-perfect Hebtroco Pata Negra denim vest


5. Dirt Quake USA by EBoy

Eight years old, but included in the Greatest issue so it can be included here. This is the greatest motorcycle event poster ever (IMO). Thor Drake of See See/One Show and our partner in the rollicking, unhinged, unforgettable Dirt Quake USA events came up with the idea of approaching Eboy to create the poster for the second DQ USA. To my surprise they agreed. We spent more on this poster than any other in Sideburn's history, but it was worth it.


6. Shinsuke Takizawa by Maxwell Paternoster

Maxwell is far better known for his more cartoonish and surreal illustrations, but I knew he'd make a great job of this portrait of the founder of Japanese streetwear juggernaut, Neighborhood. We featured 'Sin's' stunning XR1000 street tracker in Sideburn 54, and had Death Spray Custom write a brief, personal bio of Neighborhood to accompany the bike feature.


7. Riding with the Wolves by John F Malta

The cover of Sideburn 52 had to be an illustration, because it was the art and illustration special. I hadn't heard of John F Malta until I saw his Icon helmet included in the 21 Helmets exhibition (and also in the 21 Helmets feature in the SB52). I had no idea what to expect, and I certainly didn't expect this. There is no much derivative motorcycle art, people blindly regurgitating other styles, or worse, ripping them off. This art came from so far out of leftfield it didn't look like anything else I'd ever seen in the moto world.



8. Burt Furnace by Lincoln Design Co

Thor Drake's dummkopf alter-ego is an underground cult hero. Pacific Northwest Design agency, Lincoln Design, had created this beautifully simple artwork and we borrowed it for our greatest issue, that Burt contributed too.


9. Jason by Chris Watson

One of Jason's bikes was featured in Sideburn 1. Chris Watson's art was featured in Sideburn 1. It was nice to round out Sideburn 55 with Chris Watson art of Jason, on the BSA we featured in Sideburn 46.

10. Sportster Dude by Jeremy Berger

We featured a portfolio of art by Californian native Jeremy of Blaken Press in SB54. This playful cartoon ticks all my boxes. The art is so simple, but strangely accurate that I can recognise that the bike is a new-gen Sportster S; the cartoon is mid-century goofy and the hand-drawn text is perfect too. I wish this was a Sideburn T-shirt design (but Jeremy has done one for us in the past and that was great too).


    • Dec 24, 2023

Best SB Photos of 2023

Updated: Dec 28, 2023



This had become something of a recent tradition, but is going to be the last, now we are no longer printing four magazines a year. As with previous years I haven't chosen vintage or archive photos, even though we've used some beauties. These are all either commissioned by us, or contemporary photos we've used. They're from the four issues we made this year: SB52-55. We have sold out of SB52, but our friends at Adventure Spec have stocks of all this year's issues in their UK, EU and US warehouses.


We will be posting the ten best artworks of 2023 and our art editor, Andy Garside will be weighing in with the favourite spreads he has designed in the preceding 12 months, too.


Click these links for previous 'Best of' posts. Excuse me while I blow our trumpet, but we produced some really good stuff.



Thanks for your support over the years. Keep tuned for exciting Sideburn stuff in 2024.


Gary Inman

Sideburn founder


1. Dimitri v Gille by Kayadaek

Shot at the El Rollo race at Wheels & Waves in Spain (that Sideburn acted as consultants for the very first El Rollo, just saying...), this photo sums up the very best of Europe's innovative take on 21st century flat track, for me at least. Two hard riders, the unique Dimitri Coste and Belgian Gille Leenknegt, with their own vintage motorcycle aesthetic going hard on a pair of Meriden Triumph twins in front of a big, enthusiastic crowd at an event that incorporated flat track as part of a bigger event. Europe led with that, in modern times at least.

The shot was taken by Kati Dalek, one of the nicest and most enthusiastic fans of the custom and racing scene you could ever meet.

2. Ryan Wells by Tristan Afre

The MotoAnatomy x Royal Enfield racer Ryan Wells flying at the Arizona TT. Proper, proper air from a twin. This photo was part of Tristan Afre's Photo Portfolio. Is Wells 8ft in the air? The landing broke some of the Enfield Twin FT's components. They weren't meant to jump like a CRF450.

What an impact (excuse the pun) Royal Enfield has had in the sport. We've followed this project since it was a concept bike, and they've stepped up to SuperTwins in a way that few would have expected from an air-cooled twin made by a company with no relevant race experience.

3. Travis Newbold by Jon Wallace

I first met Travis in Las Vegas, at one of Gene Romero's indoor races, in January 2010. He looked like he just spent three weeks on tour as part of the brass section of a hard-drinking ska band. Brimmed hat, stubble, work jacket with patches, loose-limbed charm, a twinkle in his eyes and a smile on lips. He was there racing a junkyard XS650 (that he still races and wins on, more than a decade later). We've been friends ever since, meeting up both in the UK and US.

This photo encapsulates Travis. The Trackmaster frame was left to him in a will. Travis made the deranged expansion chamber himself. He's out there ragging it, with a goofy smile on his face, in his shorts, with Maggie the border collie setting the pace. The sunlight, the freight train, the composition, all captured beautifully by Travis's good friend, Jon Wallace.

4. Hero by Gary Inman

I've never chosen one of my own photos before, but this was from a trip to Rajasthan in January 2023. I'd been invited on the trip by Vintage Rides, and was part of a small group of French riders, and an Indian guide, riding Enfield 500s around the Northern Indian state. A couple of the riders, who were very competent on the road and good riding at close quarters in groups, were struggling badly with the small sections of deep sand and the mud, and we were making slow going at times. This was one such moment.

The confident riders in the group got through the sand, then waited for the strugglers. Meanwhile, this young woman rode through, feet up, like the surface was as smooth and predictable as the back straight at Brands Hatch. She was slightly amused by the tourists making a meal of her local lanes.

The trip was so great, we have partnered with Vintage Rides to offer it as a Sideburn trip for March 2024. We have a couple of spaces left. Details about Sideburn Trails of Rajasthan 2024.

Read the report in Sideburn 53

5. Cheetah Meteor by Kazuo Matsumoto

The best photos make you wish you were there, and this one delivers that feeling in spades. Cheetah built this incredible Harley WL750 for the Born Free Custom Show, and shipped it from Tokyo to California for the event. Unlike a lot of the show bikes, Cheetah couldn't wait to ride it and get some desert dust into all its nooks and crannies.

6. Billy Ross by Kristen Lassen/AFT

We used a tight crop of this photo on a page for the Top Threes regular we ran for a few issues. It's hard to read the young racer's face. At first I thought it was the self-confidence of a young man near the top of his game, but now think it's mixed with the resignation and disappointment of being towards the back of a fast SuperTwins grid. Whatever, I hope Billy has the brain space to store these moments, lining up at the pinnacle of the sport he loves, at a time he is young, fit and good-looking, and has just about everything ahead of him.

7. Godspeed by Tom Bing

Tom Bing showed me some of his shots outside Rusty Gold in Amsterdam the day after he took them and I was, and remain, gutted I didn't know about the shoot. The photos, including this one, were taken during a night of filming a proof of concept short film for a bigger movie project called Godspeed. These two characters are part of a wholly imagined violent bike gang in a near-future world.

Read about the movie project in Sideburn 55

8. Gille by Braking Point Images

Fast rider, gorgeous bike, cool celebration, great location, just enough motion in the tyres: Jon Braking Point had the sense to remain, or head to, the Greenfield TT's jump to catch Gille with the checkers.

Read about the bike in Sideburn 53

9. Toria by Ava D'Antimo

We ran a feature of artists with their motorcycles in the Art Special, Sideburn 52. This is UK artist Toria Jaymes, with her new KTM in her new British Columbia home. I like it so much because there weren't a lot of women in motorcycle magazines (unless they were paid models in various state of undress), or women in motorcycling in general when Sideburn started. Flat track, custom bikes, and motorcycling is still predominantly male, but there are a lot more women involved, and that is nothing but good.

10. Tokyo Connection by Sam Christmas

Taken by our old mate Sam Christmas outside Tobacco Dock, East London, on set-up day for the Bike Shed show, at the end of a hectic week. The week before this shot was taken, the Indian FTR was completely stock. I spent the day removing the standard bodywork, exhaust and fitting the new 19in wheels, that Hagon laced up for us, and Dunlop had supplied DT4s for. On Sunday I collected Cheetah from Heathrow. He'd flown in with the bodywork. We fitted it and filmed a video (below) on the Monday (with the help of Steve Nichols on the spanners), then Cheetah and I want on a tour of the UK, before dropping him off with Leftie in London for a couple of days. We met back up on Thursday before the Bike Shed and the bike's presentation. Cheetah is the best and I love this shot of two friends pleased with a plan that had come together.

Read about the bike in Sideburn 54.



    • Dec 18, 2023

For Sale: Bultaco Astro




Reader Ad


Bultaco Astro 146 model, it is a 360cc. It is in original condition, running perfect (because engine is totally new) and it is ready for race, The exahust it is a Blaze Racing and the suspensions are Hagon. Lectron carburetor.  AA originals brake. New tyres. Bike are located in Barcelona (Spain) The price is  8.800€.

Frame is 146 and Engine is 146 too, but it is not matching all the numbers.



My phone contact is 00 34 620 253 811, my email is ferranmas1975@gmail.com and my instagram @ferrigas.




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