Cherokee Blue Ridge Run, September 7-9Bob Kay has news - great news for custom builders in the United States. The Blue Ridge Run AMD Custom Bike Show, held at the Cherokee Blue Ridge Run in September is the newest event to join AMD’s World Championship Affiliate Program with prizing to compete in Germany in 2020, and Bob is back organizing the J&P Cycles Ultimate Builder custom bike shows at the IMS series again this winter ...
I have worked with my friend Robin Bradley since the first AMD World Championship of Custom Bike Building was held more than 10 years ago, and Robin has probably had the biggest influence on the way I have structured bike shows since 2009.
Previously I had basically split my show classes between radical and mild, plus different Harley-Davidson production models. Since then I have been involved in numerous rally and trade event custom bike shows that do not necessarily focus on one brand or style, but rather what can be built from a specific platform. During the Sturgis years of the AMD World Championship I got more directly involved in the rules, the administration and the overall event - one that brought so many fine European, Asian, South American and from wherever in the world builders to Sturgis, South Dakota.
With global economies slowing down and hitting the motorcycle industry square between the eyes, the decision was taken to move the AMD World Championship to Europe, specifically to Germany. Since then it has been my goal to give American builders the opportunity to travel to Germany with their custom creations and compete with many of the world’s best builders.
Back in the day, I organized my first charity bike show in the mid-eighties, during the Laconia Rally. I continued charity bike shows in Sturgis alongside the community center. I worked for Nempco then, so most of our shows were based around the current Harley trends. I think we had 15 classes and rewarded back to third place in each category. Our vendors were more than generous with merchandise sponsorship support. After all, 100% of our proceeds went to Muscular Dystrophy, a local charity we were thrilled to support.
The impending downturn started to affect the market as early as 2005, the weakening economy took its toll on the custom industry, forcing builders to consider less expensive, more stripped down bobbers and alternative power plants. The industry struggled to adjust, and in 2008 a new show format emerged in Born Free.
At about that time Robin invited me to Europe for a closer look at the European bike show scene. Subsequently, in 2010 I helped revamp the Ultimate Builder custom bike show series to be more reflective of the changes taking place in the custom scene.
Our first change was to base our classes on specific platforms. FreeStyle, the open platform class format pioneered by AMD, represented the elite builders, giving them the freedom to produce a custom bike limited only by their imagination and resources. We then came up with the Custom Street class, requiring the builder to start with an OEM chassis and drivetrain.
We even offered a Harley-Davidson version of this class - Mod Harley. One of the most popular classes has been our Custom Retro for all ‘84 and earlier bikes of any brand with an original engine (no reproduction engines here), but that allows for a modified or custom chassis. The other aspect we introduced was a peer group judging system, taken directly from the AMD World Championship. What we discovered over the years is that peer judging works best with 50 plus judging entries, so in some of the smaller shows we will also have a committee for overview and to double check the results.
I am currently involved with ROT, the Republic of Texas Rally Kustom Kulture Bike Show as a stepping stone to the Cherokee Blue Ridge Run, which will send its Freestyle champion to INTERMOT in Cologne, Germany, to compete in the 2020 AMD World Championship of Custom Bike Building. This year’s Blue Ridge Run AMD Custom Bike Show will be held in North Carolina September 7-9 during the revived Cherokee Blue Ridge Run.
In July we held the first Golden Bolt at L.A.’s The House of Machines, where we experimented with a new judging system. This system had three expert judges vote on each bike, but only in their area of expertise. With Chip Foose, Miguel Galuzzi and Mark Prosser as judges, it worked like a charm. Whether or not we can adapt this to other shows only time will tell, but the point is we are always trying to stay relevant to the current market, and maybe we can talk The House of Machines into sponsoring a West Coast AMD qualifier.
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| Larry Moore came fourth in the Freestyle class in the 2016 World Championship |
I am also thrilled to tell you that I have been invited to return to running the J&P Ultimate Builder custom bike shows for 2018/19.
Up until now we have brought three Americans to compete in Germany, Jon Shipley, Larry Moore and George Stinsman. This year I am bringing Jordan Dickinson from Union Speed and Tim Dixon from Gas Axe Chop Shop, sponsored by AIMExpo.
The AMD World Championship of Custom Bike Building represents the heart and soul of custom bike builders worldwide. I am proud to be associated with this global effort that lets builders choose the direction they wish to take to showcase their talents. The Cherokee Blue Ridge Run has made a long- term commitment to support this custom builder exchange effort.
INTERMOT Customized is the INTERMOT show-within-show concept for Hall 10 at the Cologne expo center where the ‘AMD’ is staged. It is an entire custom hall with everything from parts, accessory and performance component manufacturers, the leading distributors in Europe and dealers (custom shops as well as Harley) right through to lifestyle exhibits, clothing, helmets, garage scene activity areas and several of the major OEs with secondary expo booths specifically to showcase their custom style programs.
Whatever the future will bring for the custom motorcycle world, one thing that I can promise you is that Robin Bradley, Neil Blaber, myself and the entire AMD team will be working hard to support it and take the message to the widest possible audience. In 2016 some 150,000 active, high-mileage riders visited INTERMOT Customized and saw first-hand what the custom market has for them.