Portland Easyriders Centerfold Bike Show
March 31, 2007
Portland Easyriders Centerfold Bike Show
3/29/2007
By Bart Madson
The Oregon Convention Center, located near Portland’s Rose Quarter, played host to a bevy of custom motorcycles as the latest stop on the 2007 Easyriders Centerfold Tour. Featuring the latest looks in the V-Twin custom market, the Easyriders shows give fans an opportunity to check out what’s fresh in the custom world.
The Portland crowd was made up of the general cruiser folks you would expect to show up at a big-city bike show. The $16 ticket price didn’t keep a healthy assembly of two-wheeled aficionados from congregating, and there was some diversity in attendees, with patch-wearing tuffs rubbing shoulders next to baseball cap-wearing teenagers.
The first bike to greet spectators as they walked through the gates was none other than Captain America. Not too quick on the uptake, our first inclination upon seeing the raked out chopper with red-white-and-blue fuel tank was an interior monologue that went something along the lines of: “Hey that looks kind of like the bike in that one movie - the cool hippie movie with Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, and Jack Nicholson. The motorcycle film where they do a lot of drugs and then rednecks end up killing them in the final scene… ‘Easy Rider!’”
‘Art on Wheels’ rolls into Gaylord
March 31, 2007
Custom motorcycle show expected to draw 30,000
March 31, 2007
Custom motorcycle show expected to draw 30,000
The Business Journal of Phoenix - 4:36 PM MST Friday, March 30, 2007
by Chris Casacchia
The Business Journal
A chance encounter has led to the one of the country’s largest weekend-long gatherings of custom motorcycles, vendors and exhibitors, daily freestyle motorcycle stunts and music exhibitions.
And it’s in our backyard.
Nitro Syndicate is holding “Westside Motorcycle Expo” this weekend at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, and the event will feature more than 300 vendors and exhibitors representing custom motorcycles and accessory brands such as Metzeler, Big Bear Choppers, Bassani and Küryakyn.
More than 30,000 spectators are expected to attend the event.
Special musical acts will perform all day, including Grammy nominee Buckcherry, set to perform Friday. Army of Anyone takes the stage on Saturday and Sunday nights at 9.
“We wanted to combine the biggest expo of custom bikes and vendors the Valley has ever seen with a weekend-long rock concert,” said Mike Logan, founder and president of Nitro Syndicate and creator of the event.
Bismarck Bike Show
March 31, 2007
Bike show revs up this weekend
By GORDON WEIXEL
Bismarck Tribune
Hot paint jobs, gleaming chrome and big V-twin engines are expected to draw big crowds to the 27th annual Freedom Riders Motorcycle Club Bike Show this weekend.
Bismarck’s Ramkota Inn will again be the site of the motorcycle show, which will run from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday. Nearly 60 bikes will take part in the judged portion of the show, but there will be many more put on display by area vendors.
Damian Bean and Tim Kellar are co-chairmen of the show, which has been in the works since last year’s ended.
“People don’t realize how big a show this is, or how much time and work the Freedom Riders put into it,” Kellar said. “We usually draw between 3,600 to 3,800 people over the weekend. We want to provide the best show you can find in the upper Midwest.”
Tommy Graves Customs SMACKDOWN!
March 30, 2007
(Tommy and Julie)
Chitchat: Biker dude smack down in town
By Sally Pollak
Free Press Staff Writer
March 30, 2007
JEFFERSONVILLE — Tommy Graves was a 10-year-old kid in Jericho when he dug up a mini-bike at the town dump.
He brought it home, took it apart into hundreds of little pieces, cleaned it up, removed the rust, and put the bike back together. Tommy didn’t have a clue what he was doing, but he knew he was having fun.
Fun became the thrill-of-a-lifetime when the mini-bike started. Tearing it up on Foothills Drive and Raceway Road took the thrill-seeking to a new level: The mini-bike had no breaks; Tommy had to stop the bike with his feet. It had no throttle; he had to put his has hand down on the carburetor to make it go.
“It was pretty scary,” Graves, now 42, said. “My parents saw no future in that. Little did they know, 32 years later, I would’ve built a $150,000 bike on a TV show.”
Graves’ most recent motorcycle design-and-build project produced Smackdown, a one-of-a-kind, customized, radical, modified, out-of-this-world, looks-like-the- Green-Goblin-would-ride- it-in-a-Hollywood-blockbuster, chrome-and-sparkly-paint piece of rideable art.
RPM Magazine Premiere Issue!
March 30, 2007
RPM will be distributing after 6 tomorrow March 30th. I will be also distributing between the dates of the event below. Bikes Blues and Tattoos. Miss RPM will be joining us for a bit. Come get your copy there.
Biker Build-Off Compton vs Williams
March 30, 2007
Hey,
BBO finally appeared tonight on schedule. That, in and of itself was a pleasant surprise. I thought the show was interesting and fun. James and Andrew are cool guys. You have to like them.
James Compton played fullback at the University of Washington. He got the “bug” after school and this was just the second custom he had ever built. He has a lot of skill but you never really find out where he acquired these skills. He spent the first 3 days of the build doing everything himself. He had a small crew but they really didn’t do much until about half way. He took a japanese frame, modified it, customized everything. The engine was a four stack.The engine was a modified Suzuki. He had built his first bike called Crusher and this was basically Crusher”2″. This episode was about drag bikes so, basically, they have to be custom. You can’t pull into a motorcycle dealer and buy one of these things.The judging was simply mano vs mano in a best 2 out of 3. We saw the same type of thing in the first of this series when Jay Hart took on Gard Hollinger. I thought that 2 out of six builds with the very same format was a little much but the guys made it fun. James built his radiator ala Roger Goldammer and I was really charmed by the guys talent and personality. He eats health foods, has four kids and builds out of his garage. The motorcycle he built wouldn’t do well for a long ride but this was about speed and the bike was cool.The gas tank was under the seat,200 h.p.There was a bunch of carbon fiber and in the end he got 137 m.p.h. out of it.Kudos to Hugh for putting James on t.v.
Andrew Williams is the head guy at Departure Bike Works in the great state of Virginia. He has been building for a long time and is a master. There is a story here as the owner’s son passed in 2001 and he and his wife basically were devastated.They gave it up and Andrew took over. He too was devastated by the loss of his lifelong friend and building partner. He said that the first episode of BBO got him hungry for the business again, hungrier than ever.
The boys at Departure also fabbed and customized almost everything. They chose to use a 1969 Harley Panhead which was basically brand new. The guys built a cool bike.The bike again was built for drag racing and not for aesthetics. It still looked good with a sharp paint job.The painter was “the riddler”. The “Virginian” kicked right over when Andrew started her. So far so good.
The race took place in Louisiana. The guys only had to do a hundred miles which was a good thing as they were riding drag bikes.Hugh made his entance on an air boat. It was funny to see him go from water then over land. The departure bike did an unexpected wheelie when they tried to race her and that really set the tone for what would happen.They bent an axle. James won the first race as a spark plug on Andrew’s ride shorted out the engine. The departure guys fixed the problem but in a very close second run Compton got there first. That was it. Two out of three.
Next week we should get to see Scott Webster and Dawn Nowarkis. That’s a wrap for this run of BBO. There is supposed to be a motorcycle mania on April 15 and we will see if the schedule holds.
Over Easy
Beach
Metric Revolution Motorcycle Build Off Season Premiere
March 29, 2007
Metric Revolution
Motorcycle Build Off
Season Premiere Saturday March 31, 11am EST
Special thanks to our sponsors; Suzuki Motor Corp. USA, Progressive Insurance, Cruiser Customizing, National Cycle Inc., Kuryakyn, Cycle Trader, Wyotech, ST Machine.
Biker Build-Off, Record Month
March 29, 2007
Hey,
According to my t.v. schedule Biker Build-Off will return tomorrow night( thurs) at 10:pm e.s.t. The show should feature our friend and master builder Scott Webster and the crew against Dawn Norakas and her crew.The ride takes place on the west coast and there is a bunch of rain. We guarantee nothing as T.L.C. has no credability with us anymore. We are hoping they don’t let us down again. This will be episode 5 out of 6 for this run. The last episode will be next thursday( maybe). We know that Hugh King was hoping for a renewal of the series but we have no information that it will happen.When/if we hear something we will share it with you.
We have been advised that the Metric Revolution build-off will premier on Saturday. The time slot is not a good one 11:30 a.m. e.s.t. on espn 2. Most people are out and about on Saturday at this time but we hope it goes well. I am sure there will be repeats. We will post the information tomorrow.
The Beachcuiser is having another record month in terms of visits and we are well over another million hits with 3 days to go. Baker Drivetrain has become a sponsor and we will be in a new magazine. That’s a pretty good month in my book and I want to thank everyone who supports us in any way.We’ll release the figures when the month is officially over as we are very proud and grateful.
Stay Tuned
Beach
Sucker Punch Sallys New Pics
March 28, 2007
We just got our hands on some pics of the new Sucker Punch Sallys lineup we told you about a few days ago. Please be sure to check out their site and let them know TheBeachCruiser sent ya! ;-)
(Please note that these image files are huge so if you click on them, give them a moment to download completely. Thanks!)
