I just wanted to share this article from an old Hot Rod magazine I have in my collection, being a hot rod and salt flats racing enthusiast as well as a motorcycle buff, I always thought this was slick as hell. Now I have to see if I can find a Triumph powered one out there.....
Denis Manning’s motorcycles have been chasing world land speed records for over three decades and now the BUB 7 Streamliner he designed and built is the fastest motorcycle on the planet. Chris Carr set a new FIM world record & AMA national record at 367.382 mph thru the mile with an exit speed of 372.534 mph at the Cook Private Meet at the Bonneville Salt Flats Utah.
We got a chance to not only look over the car at the V Twin expo and talk to the BUB team, but the Biltwell/Lowbrow Customs booth was set up directly across from their display.....which meant I just drooled all weekend over this....
The Engine: The BUB Seven is powered by a custom V-4 engine. This engine is purpose built for motorcycle land speed racing. From a blank sheet of paper this engine was designed for one thing, power the world's fastest motorcycle. The maximum limit for this land speed racing is 3000cc. The engine also needs to fit in a space 18 inch x 28 inched so part of the initial design is to fit this compact space. The V-4 concept was used for two reasons, one to fit into the packaging and two the unique surface of the salt flats requires a engine with traction control. The engine is a big bang type so that the engine can gain traction then relax and then transfer power with the next power pulse.
Specs:
Just a preview of the show, alot of crap but there was some pretty cool stuff too, a ton of great people from the chopper scene showed too from all over the country. We definately made our presence known in this normally pretty mainstream show. Whe we get back I will post a biunch more pics and siome coverage of the Bro-Down which was super fucking inasane and the talk of the whole weekend!
Well now I'm pretty much healed up and the snow is a fallin' here in Ohio....not the best weather...but damn am I looking forward to spring, and show season, daytona bike week, please FL be nice and warm for us North-Coasters!!
Just a couple of pics from Chris in Norristown, PA who sent us some pics of his Sporty with Biltwell Keysone bars and black header exhaust wrap. Lookin damn good and what a difference a few hours in the garage can make! Keep it up man!
In May 1964 News stories stated that mods and rockers were jailed in seaside resort towns on the south coast of England, such as Margate, Brighton, Bournemout, and Clacton for large scale fighting, public rioting, and destruction. Although this was true, the media distorted these altercations massively. It can be safely said that the media itself may have helped to instigate these confrontations. The persistent media reporting created a sharp division between the Mods and Rockers. Prior to the reporting, there was no major rivalry or hatred between the Mods and Rockers. Through the media's distortion and manipulation of the event, the rivalry between the Mods and Rockers was amplified and a moral panic was created amongst the public. That is, as a result of the exaggerated media reports, the general public imagined the Mods and Rockers to be deviants, and became outraged at their behavior.
Fights occurred where territories overlapped or rival factions happened upon each other. There was an urban–rural split, meaning that the groups could only fight if brought together for some reason – most often the seaside during summer. Common weapons carried were blackjacks, chains and switch blades. On Easter weekend in 1964, the rivalry created by the media between the Mods and Rockers finally boiled over in the town of Clacton. The fight between the two gangs resulted in several broken windows and the destruction of some beach huts. However, the media reported the altercation in national newspapers, suggesting there had been large scale riots and wholesale breakdown of public order. In actual fact, the incidents were not serious and gained little attention in the local press. It seems that in the absence of other newsworthy material, the national press, including the "New York Times" and "New York Herald Tribune", focused upon these rather harmless events. Headlines such as "they are hell-bent for destruction" were created as well as feature articles which suggested that the Mods and Rockers had intentionally set out to cause serious trouble.
Round two took place on the south coast of England, where Londoners head for seaside resorts on Bank Holidays. Over the Whitsun weekend (May 18 and 19, 1964), thousands of mods descended upon Margate,Broadstairs and Brighton to find that an inordinately large number of rockers had made the same holiday plans. Within a short time, marauding gangs of mods and rockers were openly fighting, often using pieces of deckchairs. The worst violence was at Brighton, where fights lasted two days and moved along the coast to Hastings and back. A small number of rockers were isolated on Brighton beach where they – despite being protected by police – were overwhelmed and assaulted by mods. The Brighton riots were later immortalised as the centrepiece of the cult film ‘Quadrophenia’.
Newspapers described the mod and rocker clashes as being of "disastrous proportions", and labelled mods and rockers as "sawdust Caesars", "vermin" and "louts". Newspaper editorials fanned the flames of hysteria, such as a Birmingham Post editorial in May 1964, which warned that mods and rockers were "internal enemies" in the UK who would "bring about disintegration of a nation's character". As a result of this media coverage, two British Members of Parliament travelled to the seaside areas to survey the damage, and MP Harold Gurden called for a resolution for intensified measures to control hooliganism.
The term mod derives from modernist, which was a term used in the 1950s to describe modern jazz musicians and fans. Jobling and Crowley called the mod subculture a "fashion-obsessed and hedonistic cult of the hyper-cool" young adults who lived in metropolitan London or the new towns of the south. Due to the increasing affluence of post-war Britain, the youths of the early 1960s were one of the first generations that did not have to contribute their money from after-school jobs to the family finances. As mod teens and young adults began using their disposable income to buy stylish clothes, the first youth-targeted boutique clothing stores opened in London in the Carnaby Street and Kings Road districts.(wikipedia)
Scooters were also a practical and accessible form of transportation for 1960s teens. In the early 1960s, public transport stopped relatively early in the night, and so having scooters allowed mods to stay out all night at dance clubs and coffee shops. To keep their expensive suits clean and keep warm while riding, mods often wore long army parkas. For teens with low-end jobs, scooters were cheaper than cars, and they could be bought on a payment plan through newly-available Hire purchase plans. After a law was passed requiring at least one mirror be attached to every motorcycle, mods were known to add four, ten, or as many as 30 mirrors to their scooters. The cover of The Who's album Quadrophenia, (which includes themes related to mods and rockers), depicts a young man on a Vespa GS with four mirrors attached.
Like most gangs of their time, The Mods had a very distinct, yet common interest in music. While the Beatles were enjoying immense popularity and success among Britain's mainstream society in the early 1960's, the first-wave of Mods pursued a different sound, modern jazz. They were attracted to the "cool" demeanor and clothing possessed by jazz musicians, and strived to emulate their style. As jazz grew in popularity, Mods began listening to Blues, Soul, Rhythm & Blues, and then moved on to Jamaican Bluebeat and Ska to stay ahead of the mainstream. The Mods sparked a nationwide enthusiasm for Rhythm & Blues music that surpassed Jazz as the music of choice for young adults. They preferred the British bands who played a Rhythm & Blues style of music, such as The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds, The Pretty Things, The Kinks, The Cyril Davis All-Stars, The Downliners, and The Small Faces.The most popular and revolutionary band who could be labeled as Mods themselves were the High Numbers, later renamed The Who. They wore Mod outfits, had Mod hairstyles, and sang blues-based songs about being Mods, such as "I'm the Face", and "My Generation".
Here’s a quote from Trailblazers about Bud’s racing career:
Bud & Steve McQueen at the start of the 1964 Greenhorn Enduro
Definition-"Hillclimbs are essentially one-person drag race up the face of a challenging hill, with each rider allowed at least two attempts to conquer the hill. The winner is the rider who climbs the hill the quickest or, if no one reaches the top, makes it the farthest." 
The Ton-Up Boys were a British biker subculture that started in the 1950s and were successors to theTeddy Boys in attitude, language and values. However, instead of mock-Edwardian clothing styles, they took their style from Marlon Brando's film The Wild Ones, and from Royal Air Force pilots of World War II. They rode British motorcycles, traveled in packs and hung out in transport cafes. Ton-Up is a slang term coming from the cafe racer culture of 1950s England, referring to the 100 mph speed limit.
The subculture was heavily influenced by American rockabilly music. Musicians who were popular among Ton-Up boys included Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran, Billy Fury, and Elvis Presley. Ton-Up Boys commonly wore leather motorcycle jackets, Levi 501 jeans or leather trousers, and engineer boots, tall motorcycle boots or creeper shoes. Helmets, although not required at the beginning of the 1950s, later became compulsory. Ton-Up Boys usually wore jet helmets, often with aviator goggles for night riding. The look was accentuated with a silk scarf worn around the neck for protection against the elements, and long wool socks pulled over the top of the boots, both of these looks were borrowed from the RAF.
The main difference between Ton-Up Boys of the 1950s and the Rockers they evolved into in 1960s were the heavily studded, patched and pinned leather jackets that Rockers wore, whereas the Ton-Up Boys usually preferred their jackets clean or with painted motifs on the back, a look that was adopted from World War II pilots. The film The Leather Boys (1964) acurately portrays the bikes and styles of the original Ton-Up Boys.
The 1913 motorcycle championship races were moved to a dirt track because dirt was safer. The national organization overseeing motorcycle racing on board tracks banned all competitions on board tracks shorter than 1-mile in 1919. Board tracks slowly faded away by the 1920s and 1930s. A damn shame....
I think Bill form Biltwell snapped this rad pic of Tyler riding down to the salton sea on Mcgoo's Bmw
Here we go! The lowbrowcustoms blog is up and running! We are going to post info on new products, whats going on with us and in our world, show info, whats new in our scene. Pics of customers projects, stuff we like and stuff that makes us laugh! So keep an eye open.
