Venhill brake hose on BMW

Five minutes with… Pete Hodson, Siderock Cycles Custom Builder

Welcome to our "Five Minutes With..." series, where we sit down with the builders, customisers, and craftsmen who depend on Venhill products to keep their machines performing at their peak. This time, we grabbed Pete Hodson from Siderock Cycles, who's been transforming classic airhead BMW and Moto Guzzis into stunning custom builds for over 15 years. Pete has a reputation for creating some of the most elegant and purposeful customs in the scene, with his bikes regularly featured in magazines like PipeBurn and admired by enthusiasts worldwide.

We wanted to find out what inspired him to start building specials, how he maintains that perfect balance between old-school character and new-school functionality, and what advice he has for anyone considering a custom build of their own.

What's your background - have you always been a mechanic?

My background is in the motorcycle industry, but not as a mechanic. I started out as a salesman, would you believe, at Huxham's dealership in Parkstone in 1975 and worked there for about 16 years. We had Suzuki, Yamaha, Triumph - most of the major brands. I was into bikes from when I was 13 or 14, I just couldn't get enough of them. I did an engineering apprenticeship before that but decided I didn't want to spend my life on a lathe - I wanted to work with bikes.

Have you always been into modifying bikes, then? 

I got into road racing and Huxham's sponsored me, so I used to build all my bikes. Racing teaches you that - if you're not in a big team, you have to learn to strip everything down and rebuild it after each meeting or if you crash. I remember back in 1980-81, I bought a brand new GSX 1100 in a crate, pulled it out, then stripped it completely apart. Had the frame painted a different color, changed the seat, changed the wheels - did all sorts of stuff to it.

So how did Siderock Cycles come about?

About 15 years ago, I was having plumbing work done and the guy mentioned an old BMW R80 for sale in Westbourne. I bought it for a couple hundred quid and it sat in my garage for six months. Eventually I thought, I'll turn it into a café racer. Stripped it all down, built it how I wanted to, put it out there for sale and it sold straight away. I bought another airhead, did the same thing but made it better, and that sold straight away too. Then somebody asked me to build them one, and it just snowballed from there.

Why do you choose to work primarily with old airhead BMWs and Moto Guzzis - what draws you to these particular bikes?

Their simplicity really. They're great to work on - they're not one of these bikes where if you get a problem, you've got to go to the main dealer and get it plugged in, which is a big problem with modern stuff. With airheads, you can do anything you want. The customer can work on them if they get a problem down the line, and I can guide them through it. They're fairly straightforward, and you can still get all the parts.

Have you worked on anything besides BMWs and Guzzies?

I've done quite a lot of different stuff. Had a Street Triple, a Royal Enfield Himalayan that someone imported from India, quite a few Honda singles, a Honda 650 Dominator in flat track style, even a little Honda CG 125 scrambler project. But I do like working on the BMWs and Guzzies best.

Do you encourage customers to be involved in the design process, or do you prefer to work with complete creative freedom?

I do like them to get involved. You've got to get specifics out of them - colour schemes, leather colours for seats, that sort of thing. Because you could paint something and get it all done, and they go "oh, I don't like that colour." So you have to nail them down to get specific. The rest of it can be fairly creative. Most customers have got an idea of what they want - they've looked at stuff online. Then we talk through the spec, because that's a big thing. A lot of people don't realize how expensive it gets if you want good quality parts. I don't like using cheap Chinese stuff, particularly electrical components, because it always fails. I use good quality German branded stuff mainly, so you don't get reliability issues.

Have you ever had to talk a customer out of something they wanted to do to their bike?

Many times! If I don't think it's a good idea, I'll say "that probably won't work for this reason, but if we did it this way, it would work better." I can often point them at one of my previous builds and say "have a look at this one, this is what we did." With BMWs and Guzzies, I know what works and what doesn't.

What do most people want in terms of upgrades?

Most people want better brakes, better handling, better suspension, and certainly the electronic side - that's big these days. Nearly everybody goes for Motogadget control units, push button switches, that sort of thing. Then you can throw away the old 40-year-old wiring loom that's often bodged anyway, and create a new loom to suit. Everything's brand new and modern electronics.

I fit a lot of performance upgrades, bore and stroke kits, you know, taking things like the R65 from 650cc out to an 860. Bigger carbs, different camshafts and the customer can go as mad as he wants, really. 

Is it tricky maintaining the character of the classic bikes while modernising them?

I find it quite easy really. With airheads, you're a bit restricted anyway. The front end you can go mad with - upside down forks and things like that. But the rear is more difficult because of the shaft drive, so you're restricted on wheel sizes. Once people realize that, they're more realistic. BMWs lend themselves well to café racer, bobber, scrambler, or brat styles - they look good in all those forms.

Where do you hide all the electrical components to keep that super clean look you’ve become synonymous with?

I've produced a little battery box to take a lithium battery that goes under the gearbox, so the battery disappears. When we fit the Motogadget kit, we throw away the old wiring loom and produce our own custom-built one, which is much smaller and neater. I fit a different top engine cover and a lot of the M-unit and wiring goes inside that. You can also get things like tiny LED indicators now - three-in-one units smaller than your thumbnail but super bright. You can make it really clean.

You use Venhill cables and hoses - what made you choose them?

I like them because it's like a build-a-line kit - instead of having completely fixed ends, the hoses are screwed to the banjos. It's easy to fit and take apart, and if you're a little bit out with measurements, it doesn't matter because you can adjust to suit. They look great too, and you get different colours - some customers like silver, some like black. The black blends in well with a lot of builds.

And I always use stainless steel fittings. I tend to use as much stainless on the bikes as I can because it future-proofs it; nothing's going to go rusty. I built a café racer myself about 12 years ago, and there's not one rusty bolt on it. It's still lovely. 

Do you mainly use standard BMW specs or are you mixing components?

We tend to use aftermarket stuff now - not often the original BMW master cylinders because they're integral with switchgear that we don't use. If you want to upgrade to a radial pump because you've upgraded the discs, you can have custom hoses made. I don't like remote brake reservoirs - I prefer integral ones built into the lever assembly. We normally run a single line from the master cylinder to a splitter, then off to each caliper.

What's the most rewarding part of what you do?

The handover moment when you give them the keys - that's the good bit, particularly if they haven't seen the finished bike. I document my builds on Facebook as they progress, so customers can see what I'm doing, but the final reveal is special. I also do proper photo shoots with every bike and give the customer the whole file. Then I'll usually send it off to magazines like PipeBurn - they feature a lot of my bikes.

Any advice for someone thinking about having their bike customized?

Do your research. Check out whoever you're thinking of getting it done by and make sure they do a proper job. I've just picked up a bike that someone else built, and it's not very good at all: things loose, bodged parts. I get it all the time where people ask me to fix things that are wrong. It's difficult unless you know someone who's had a bike built by them, but if they're really good, they'll probably have something in a magazine or you can ask to see a build they've done. Because if you get it wrong, you end up paying for things twice over, and that becomes very expensive.

You can follow Pete's builds and see his latest projects on the Siderock Cycles Facebook page, where he documents each build as it progresses, and at http://www.siderockcycles.com/index.html