[1] The 2011/12 series of Ultimate Builder custom shows hosted at the Progressive International Motorcycle Shows began at the weekend in San Mateo, California.

As last year, classes were offered for Freestyle, Modified Harley-Davison (stock engine and frame retaining original geometry) and Performance Custom, and introduced a new class, ‘Retro Mod’, for builds based on bikes over 25 years old.

This year’s Freestyle class winner was Dalton Walker of Split Image Kustoms. His hand-built custom bike took 9 months’ work and features a 1946 Shovel/Knuckle, Burkhardt Magneto, one-off frame, custom forks, wheels, sheet metal, seat, exhaust, sissy bar, cloth wiring, internal throttle and aluminum oil tank. Runner-up was current AMD Performance Custom World Champion AFT Customs with ‘Sentoh’, and third place was taken by Rick Bedford of BAM-Ink with ‘The Interchangeable’.

The Modified Harley class was won by Roger Vaughn with ‘King of Kings’. AFT Customs picked up a second trophy as ‘Asumati’ won the Performance Custom class, and Kirk Taylor of Custom Design Studios became the very first winner of the Retro Mod class with ‘Sacred’.

The Ultimate Builder series continues over the weekend of December 2-4 in Dallas, Texas, and then moves to Long Beach, California, on December 9-11.