Custom Bike ShowTwin Club, Norrtälje, Sweden, June 1st 2019
Twin Club MC celebrated its 50th anniversary by staging the 45th annual Custom Bike Show at Norrtälje, Sweden, featuring 200 bikes entered in six classes.
This was the fifteenth year of affiliation for the longest established AMD World Championship of Custom Bike Building affiliate event, and over 7,000 visitors and 4,000 bikes from around Europe braved the rain and came to enjoy a weekend that is internationally renowned for the quality of bikes seen there.
Competing builders travelled from across Scandinavia and Europe, with bikes coming from Switzerland, France, Latvia and the Netherlands as well as the regular attendees from Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland. Reflecting the increasing international flavor of the event, 30% of the exhibitors and half of all winners were from outside Sweden.
Three separate judging systems are used to determine the winners, with a jury of industry professionals deciding on three World Championship affiliate prizes, with the competitors deciding the class prizes, and a Public Choice winner, fittingly won this year by Twin Club President Micke Sandberg for his Harley chopper.
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| Charlie Swordson, Falun, Sweden |
Following the success of the merged "Modified Standard" (including all OE stock models) and "Racer" classes introduced last year, these were retained and an additional "e-Custom" prize introduced for electric powered bikes. Three bikes were eligible for the prize, which was won by Anders Theo for Aliquis A1E, a street legal electric racer, also featuring hub-center steering.
This year's jury, which included Indian Motorcycle's Director of Product Design Ola Stenegard, renowned photographer Michael Lichter and AMD World Championship prize winner Peder Johansson of Hogtech, selected three AMD prize winners, who will all be making their World Championship debut next year.
Charlie Swordson, from Falun, Sweden, is better known for his work on cars, but won the jury's first place vote for his classic Swedish style long fork Harley-engined chopper. Second place went to Mikka Takala from Finland for his Harman girder front end Harley chopper "Personal Jesus", and third place to Daniel Andersson from Borlänge, Sweden, for his Norton 961 engined cafe racer "Darton".
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| Mikka Takala, Finland – "Personal Jesus" |
All three winning builders win expenses to compete at the 14th annual AMD World Championship of Custom Bike Building, which will take place at INTERMOT Customized in October 2020.
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| Daniel Andersson, Borlänge, Sweden – "Darton" |
The entry which attracted most interest at the show, however, was Custom class winner "Aerium", built by Peter Forsberg of Brooklyn Choppers Garage, of Gävle, Sweden - a steampunk styled "art bike" which runs on compressed air.
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| Wild Card: Peter Forsberg, Brooklyn Choppers Garage, Gävle, Sweden – "Aerium" |
The jury was impressed enough with the innovation shown to offer Peter a "wild card" invitation to Cologne in addition to the three World Championship prize winners.
Our thanks, as always, to Twin Club MC for their meticulous organization, Custom Chrome Europe, Motorcycle Storehouse and Zodiac International for their support of the event, and the City of Norrtälje authorities for their biker-friendly attitude and use of the Central Park for the event.