You learn from what's killing you.

July 6, 2008

The Bikes I like from the S&S 50th

Bike contests aren't really my deal, I can't get around building something with winning in mind. I'd rather build what I like, the way I like, and if people seem to like it, great, if not, I really don't give a shit.

This contest brought together 50 builders, small one man shops like me (Even though my bike was in it because some one pulled out last minute and my bike was a last minute addition) and Church of Choppers, to high end shops like Bourgets or OCC.
There were some neat bikes, but to be honest, in my opinion, really only 15 bikes that I liked, I am still a die hard traditionalist that really thinks that bikes should be really built to ride, a motorcycle that can't be ridden anywhere is an art piece, and an art piece only.

One thing that really struck me with this show is that it was a deal for S&S, to celebrate their heritage, something that I really appreciate, yet so many "High End builders" didn't carry that into their builds. One of the pre-requisites for the show was to pay homage to S&S somewhere on the bike, in any way.
Yet a bunch of bikes that were in the show had S&S nowhere on them, all the bikes that didn't were there by big name builders who, in my view, don't really seem to care and seemed to pull bikes off their showroom floors for the show.
Like, oh yeah, we need a bike for the S&S show, take that one.
That bothered me, me personally, as I had almost no time to make the changes i wanted to for the show and was stoked that the tank I made had the "Powered by S&S" on it as that in my eyes works well.

All the smaller shops, who were honored to be there, as I was, really did their best to try and represent S&S with their builds.
I don't get it, is the industry really as jaded as I think it is?
Wait, of course it is.

Below and above will be my kooky pix of the 15 bikes I liked from the show, if you were in the show and you aren't here, don't take my opinion personally, who the fuck am I, really.

A few of the bikes I liked I even have problems with!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hey Dave! What did you think about the only swedish contribution, from Hogtech?