Dice magazine was the inspiration for Sideburn, but we've waited until issue 99 to stock it. And we've chosen now because the editor's Harris Magnum II is featured, with photos by Sam Christmas. A lot of people ask about that bike, and wonder when Sideburn is going to feature it. Well, we're not, because it's not a Sideburn kind of bike. So this is the next best.
Dice originally launched when the two founders Dean Micetich, and the late Matt Davis, were both living in London, before the pair relocated to the US, where they settle. The mag is imported from the USA, 132 pages and the most influential motorcycle magazine for the last 30 years of more.
The content of Dice 99 is an eclectic mix of old kinds of bikes from choppers (what they're most linked with) to a Dick Mann replica CB750, desert sled & barn find Triumph twins, plus a lot of lifestyle and some pin-up photography.
If foreign readers don't know about Harris, but think they recognise the name it might be because Harris have made all the chassis for Royal Enfield Twin FT that Johnny Lewis races in AFT. They are a famous and well-respected British chassis specialist, who also ran race teams in World Superbike and GP, where they created aluminium beam frames for privateer Yamaha YZR500 two-stroke V4s in the 1990s. The company worked as consultants for Royal Enfield, before being acquired by the Indian company in 2015.
The Magnum range of frame kits were based on the company's extensive world endurance experience, and were a race chassis for the road, based around popular Japanese superbike engines, at a time when Japanese frames were not on a par with their engines. It's a Reynolds 531 chromoly frame, holding a Kawasaki Z1000 MkII. And I love it.