SO THAT' S IT, WE' RE INTO THE WINTER THEN... FROM NOW UNTIL ABOUT MARCH , THE WORLD'LL BE COLD, DARK, AND WETTER THAN AN OTTERS POCKET IN A HOTTUB.

Actually, having said that, I don't mind the winter really. No, I'm not a fan of being cold, of your fingers and toes feeling as though you've been sat with 'em in the fridge for five hours, but there're ways and means round that problem (Ipersonally favour a Keis heated waistcoat, thick gloves an' big boots), and I'm not too keen on the hybrid slippery coating of leaves and earth from the fields that tractors drag out that we get round 'ere, but that's really only a case of looking where you're going, isn't it? (It's one of the things about people whinging on social media 'bout pot-holes in the roads - do these people not look where they're feckin' going? Itry and ride round 'em, it's not rocket science . ..) It is, I s'pose, a question of mental attitude - if you go about with a 'Oh no, bloody winter ... cold, dark, wet , whinge whinge' attitude , then you're going to have a less pleasant time than someone who thinks 'Oh well', and just gets on with it, aren't you? Besides which, since we've buggered the planet with global warming, winters're nowhere near as bad as they were even in my lifetime (unless you're one of those poor sods who lives in a flooding-prone area , in which case I really feel for you). I can remember riding my ' ped up and over huge frozen snowbanks on the sides of rural roads back in the early '80s, and I'm reliably informed by folk even more geriatric than I am that it was considerably worse in the '70s and, by the way they talk, in the '50s and '60s they were having to steer round woolly mammoths and fight off sabre-toothed tigers every time they set off for the pub once the sun 'd dipped below the horizon after the autumn equinox .

Winter, for a lot of us, is the time when we do stuff to our bikes, either building new ones or fettling the one(s) we've got, and with no end to the coronavirus in sight, this one's just going to be more so, so I expect, come the spring, that there're going to be another, even larger ruck of customs than there were this year. Winter's also, if you're a mercenary get, a great time to pick up a project, especially over the next month or so, 'cos the closer it gets to

Christmas the lower the prices for such things drop so, if you're canny, keeping an eye on Facebook Marketplace, eBay, and Gumtree could be the best way to get yourself something groovy for summer 2021.

One of the most frustrating things about this year's coronavirus outbreak 's been the fact that we haven't been able to get out/round to everyone who's sent in pies of their customs, and been asked if we can come and see them. We lost about three months of photographic time, and so there're about 40 folk out there we've not been able to get to this year, and I can only apologise for that .

Thankfully, we've been able to get out and shoot enough to get through the winter and into the spring, and although it was a brief (two months or so) event season this year, we've got loads of cool stuff to show you (the YorkshirePudding Rally, the Malle Mile,Dirt Diggers, and more) in the next few issues too . We've also got a great new retro series starting next issue, using a host of old and very cool pies from the '80s and '90s taken by Mr Dave Batchelar of P&DCustoms, and they've been an absolute pleasure to look through as I scan them for the mag. It's funny, isn't it, how when you're younger, you kind o' snigger at older fork who constantly reminisce about the 'old days', but now, when you're older, you find yourself doing exactly the same thing, looking back with fondness at summers gone by? Joys of getting old, eh?

I don't know if you know, but we have a BSHYouTubechannel which we're always adding new videos to - search for Back Street Heroes on YouTube, and you can watch the 23 videos we have up there, and subscribe and you'll be notified as we add more.

Just a word on the pie at the top of the page - it's an oldie (2001? 2002?) from the late, lamented Streetfighters magazine of me and Marcus T on an XS880 motocross sidecar outfit at what was then Elsworth Motoparc near Cambridge (it's now a fishing lake or some such). Rest assured , that's me riding - I don't think there's enough leather in the world to make me a one-piece leather suit ...

Finally,and speaking of sidecars, I've just picked up a Bandit chop rolling chassis, and I have an almost overwhelming urge to put a sidecar chassis on it - someone talk me out of it!

See you next month!