“Custom” (really?) bike show in DC
by: Sprbeast

Ok, this is a do-over. I was into my 8th page and just started to cover my take on the customs at the show when ye’ole program locked up. It auto saved but only the first few pages. Now with a time crunch, here is my abridged take on the weekend. And no doubt probably more interesting. What your not getting, are the stories about a dirty diaper being thrown into a packed elevator, a valet parked my buddies car into a bush, a close mishap with a Honda Rig, a couple overly enjoying each other’s company across the hall, a tale of 133oz beer, a woman dropping a new Suzuki bike at the show, a crazy minibike stunt show, run ins with some internet folks, and pushing my bike a few blocks down the sidewalk.

Now I’ll just get to the basics. We arrived on Friday morning and got the bike set up at the custom bike area. I checked out my competition and ran into a decent guy named Jeremy from RAM cycles in Gaithersburg, Md. He was polishing their one of 5 or so entries at the show and this one was my favorite of his, a Green R6 with an extravagant list of “high end” parts. I’ll start with the superbike spec gage set and radiator, follow with full Brembo master’s and calipers, stainless everything, trick rearsets, and an undertail exhaust that exited in the spot where the taillight use to be. They notched and boxed the swinger to allow the midpipe to tuck in behind the rearset and allow the bike to still flow well. However you’ll notice that there is no seat pad, which got me thinking about the practicality of a build like this. Which in turn, got me to look closer at every ones builds. The more I looked at the details the more shocked I was, especially at the “High End” builders that make a living doing this stuff. Believe me, I wouldn’t consider myself a pro, but I would think those that would modify and customize their bikes for shows and such would have more understanding of what makes sense. Of course their were a slew of lowered stretched sportbikes that, for the most part I glossed over and didn’t take pics. Overall there were in the upwards of 20 or so bikes in the sportbike class and only 6 or so in the twins section. (One of which was a hyosung trike and a M109 that wasn’t really custom). I am not sure if this was a result of the venue or the losing of interest in the OCC & Jesse James thing. Time will tell. I figured the best way to portray my thoughts was to take some pics and point out my observations. So here goes:

These were the ones that really surprised me when it came to flawed builds. Being that they are built by professional builders, I wouldn’t have expected the items to be overlooked.

I don’t want to come off as a pessimist but, if you were going to enter a bike into a show, wouldn’t you try your best to show the work that you are capable of? Some of the easiest stuff was the most skipped and if you were to mod your bike would you intentionally remove or alter that which makes your bike stop safely? Just some observations from yours truly. Now back to the show. There were a lot of nice bikes and awesome paint. The bike that most sticks out in my mind as far as paintwork was the one that took the win in the twin class, the “Beatles bike”. Phenomenal paintwork and attention to detail. I must say I am not a real big fan of the Beatles but this bike was pretty spectacular.

After the “award” presentation for the show winners. We packed up and got the heck out of dodge. After I got home I was curious where I may have “placed” since there was only one winner. I contacted the event coordinator and was pleased to hear that I would have been 5th, out of that many bikes means something. Especially with the way the voting was set up. From what I understood, there were two Hayabusas that ran away with the votes. They had pads of entry slips on tables that you filled out and put in the boxes provided. Unfortunately we witnessed people filling out many slips. Not pointing fingers, but there could have been a way to restrict the voting to one per showgoer.

Overall, I must say the wifey and I had a fantastic weekend. Which is saying a lot since she very quickly gets tired of the motorbike thing. We relaxed, walked a lot, met many great people, saw many a different bike, and spent too much money. However that being said, we will definitely be back next year, hopefully with a new bike to enter.

As for the average motorcyclist, I would recommend going to a Cycle World International Motorcycle Show. There is a great blend things to see, info to pick up, and bikes to sit on. A real nice time for a weekend or daytrip in the middle of January. (Especially in the northern states) oh yea, here is the 133oz beer!