21/12/2009 by info.

On the 24th and 25th July 2009 the second Old Indian Never Die rally took place at Traquair House in Pebbleshire, Scotland. The Rally was possibly the largest collection of vintage Indian Motocycles…

The video is a trailer for the film “Old Indians Never, Ever, Die 2″.

Old Indians Never, Ever Die Trailer

Over the weekend there were some 400 vintage machines from all over Europe, Australia and the USA. The film takes a look at the people whose lives are so bound up in these amazing machines.

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20/11/2009 by info.

Zodiac International to exhibit and sponsor World Champs Affiliate Freestyle class at Ace Cafe ‘Ally Pally’ London Custom Show
No sooner had news about the planned first annual Ace Cafe London Motorcycle & Custom Show been made public, than the first of Europe’s aftermarket majors, Zodiac International, stepped up to announce its backing for the new show project.

Zodiac will be exhibiting with their Show Truck, and has announced cash prize fund sponsorship of some 1.500,00 euro for the World Championship Affiliate Custom Bike Show Freestyle Class that will see the Best Of Show scoop the AMD Affiliate Grand Prize, of £5,000.00 (approx US 8,000/5.000,00 euro) to represent the show at next year’s 7th annual Official World Championship of Custom Bike Building.

The event is being staged at an iconic landmark venue in London, the famed Alexandra Palace, a Victorian era hill-top facility overlooking London which was originally built in 1873.

Set in 196 acres of parkland, ‘Ally Pally’ (as the facility is affectionately and almost universally known) has many claims to fame, not least that it was the home of the BBC back in the 1930’s and was where the world’s first-ever televisions broadcasts were made.

More recently ‘Ally Pally’ is no stranger to hosting motorcycle shows. The formula for this new event is being specified from the ground-up to move the so far ’stop-go’ history of attempts to establish a custom expo for the UK market into a new era.

As a follow-up to the initial promise (but ultimate disappointment) surrounding the London International Custom Show (L.I.C.S.) when it burst onto the European custom show scene for one year only in 2008, the market reaction has been enthusiastic.

The event will run for three days, from Friday February 26th to Sunday February 28th. It will feature live-action, stage entertainment, three halls of exhibitors in total, representing all sectors of the UK’s motorcycle industry, with one entire hall given over to the Ace Cafe Custom Show and v-twin industry vendors.

Judging of the custom bike show will be independently conducted and supervised by World Championship personnel to the program’s internationally recognised standards, and in addition to the well known World Championship formula Freestyle competition for the top prizes, additional classes are slated to include Modified Harley-Davidson, ‘Old Style’ bikes, Street Fighter style customs, Custom Scooters, and, in keeping with the Ace Cafe’s heritage, ‘Brit Bikes’.

Ace Cafe London Managing Director Mark Wilsmore said that “the prestigious heritage of Alexandra Palace, a venue that has hosted so many successful motorcycle shows, combined with that of Ace Cafe London brings together two iconic London landmarks with the best that motorcycling has to offer. This is going to be an event that will strengthen the UK custom market.”

The timing of the show, at the end of February, has been well received by vendors and dealers since it avoids any direct clashes with other market events and comes just as the riding season and market’s peak cash cycle is getting underway.

For Zodiac International, Vincent Pels said that “we are delighted to be part of the Ace Cafe London Motorcycle and Custom Show. The combination of the ‘Ally Pally’ and the Ace Cafe gives this new event a solid foundation from which the industry can build a world-class show. The UK needs a big annual custom show and we really think that at last this is going to be the one.”

Zodiac International has always been a company that has heavily supported Europe’s drag racing and show scenes, with founder and General Manager Ton “Godfather” Pels widely recognised as one of the legends of the European custom market who has done much to create the industry that it has become.

The Ace Cafe London has a rich heritage going back some seventy years to pre WWII London, and is a ‘must see’ destination for bikers in the UK and international visitors for who, along with the Isle of Man TT races, it is pure pilgrimage!

In recent years the Ace Cafe has been increasingly welcomed into the custom market, staging successful ‘Harley Nights’ each month, and most recently being a big Sturgis Rally feature at the Official World Championship of Custom Bike Building.

The Ace Cafe London Custom show takes it place in the world-wide network of leading custom shows that are affiliated to the World Championship, with its winner invited to compete against many of the world’s greatest custom bikes next year at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in the United States in August 2010.

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30/10/2009 by info.

London’s Ace Cafe custom bike show to be World Championship Affiliate

The legendary Ace Cafe London is to team up with the well known ‘Ally Pally’ show in London to stage a custom bike event in 2010.

The Ace Cafe London Motorcycle and Custom Show will be staged at the iconic Alexandra Palace (’Ally Pally’) venue in north London on February 26th, 27th and 28th 2010. The event will be an AMD Official World Championship of Custom Bike Building affiliate show.

Designed to build on the start made by the promising London International Custom Show (L.I.C.S.) at Earl’s Court, London in 2008, the Ace ‘Ally Pally’ Custom Show will be staged as an additional feature to a motorcycle show that already has a track record of profitability, attracting some 15,000 visitors (in 2008).

The Alexandra Palace is a popular and historic London venue (dating from the 1920’s and set in hill-top parkland with commanding views across London) that already has a 20-year pedigree of attracting British motorcyclists to shows staged there.

Further details of the event, the full range of biker attractions being planned, how to enter the custom bike show, and the classes and prizes available will appear in upcoming AMD editions, be sent out to AMD readers as further e-Club bulletins, and will appear on an event website that will be launched shortly.

Anybody interested in exhibitor opportunities should contact Chris Gothard on:

Tel (in UK) 01732 362845
Tel (international) 0044 1732 362845

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07/08/2009 by info.

For the first time since the World Championship of Custom Bike Building program made its debut in 2004, an American custom motorcycle engineer has won the market’s top honor of being able to call himself World Champion.

The winner, Dave Cook of Cook Custom Choppers in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was voted World Champion by his fellow competitors at an event that defied motorcycle industry downturn expectations with an increased field of 83 custom bikes in total (compared to 67 in 2008), and one that is widely being hailed as showcasing the most advanced and diverse display of custom motorcycle design and engineering ever seen.

The 51 year old Cook is an internationally recognized engineer and creative genius whose passion for design and engineering excellence had seen him be the winningest American in the past two years, having been fourth and highest placed American competitor behind an international top-three in both 2007 and 2008.

“This is a dream come true”, said Cook, minutes after receiving the acclaim of the large crowd of motorcycle enthusiasts and fellow industry professionals who crowded into the downtown City of Sturgis Champions Park venue.

During the build-up to the contest, Cook’s highly anticipated, exquisite, hand-crafted “Rambler” was among the early favorites to become the first American built World Champion custom bike.

However, as competitors pulled their bikes in for competition run-checks and registration at the weekend, it became apparent that competition for top-honors was going to be wide open and fierce, with up to a dozen stunning machines in contention.

“I have dedicated the best part of three years to trying to win the World Championship, and finally I have achieved the ultimate recognition of my fellow professionals. It is very humbling”, Cook went on to say.

Once described as motorcycling’s “Pulitzers, Nobels and Olympics all rolled into one”, the Official World Championship of Custom Bike Building is staged annually during the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, every August in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

It is the culmination of an annual series of worldwide events, including an annual European Championship, that sees hundreds of custom motorcycle design and engineering hopefuls embark on a quest for the opportunity to compete in USA against many of America’s finest motorcycle industry brains.

Dominated by engineers from Canada, Japan and Europe for the first five years since the Championship program’s inception in 2004, American motorcycle customizing has now convincingly broken through on its industry’s biggest stage with seven of the top ten competitors being bike builders based in USA.

Second place was scooped by another American, Kris Krome, of Freeland, Michigan.

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21/07/2009 by info.

THIS year saw in excess of 20,000 riders gather for the 28th annual Moto Clube Faro Rally on Portugal’s southern Algarve coast, and the 18th Custom Bike Show that organizers have staged.

By far the biggest motorcycle event in Portugal, the ‘Faro Rally’ is one of the largest such events in Europe as a whole and attracts riders from literally all over the continent for four days of music and riding.

This was the second time the bike show had been affiliated to the Official World Championship of Custom Bike Building, and the judging jury (custom bike journalists from around Europe) chose “The Paisa” by Team Sable of Madrid, Spain, as winner of the Radical Custom class, Best in Show, and winner of the AMD World Championship Affiliate prize.

This means that “The Paisa” will be seen competing at the 7th annual World Championship at Sturgis, Sd., in August 2010.

First seen when it scored a respectable 14th place in the 2008 European Championship, and again when it was one of the selected bikes for the ‘Mad Builders’ Show at Barcelona’s MotOH! Expo in May last year, it certainly is a “radical” approach to what can be achieved with a 1200cc Sportster engine!

www.motoclubefaro.pt
www.t-sables.es

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30/06/2009 by info.

PETER Fonda, co-writer and star of Easy Rider, will take a piece of biking history to England in a few days when he rides the Captain America Chopper at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

During the annual event, over July 3-5, Fonda will take the famous bike up the 1.16-mile hill climb course in the grounds of the English stately home of Lord March. The iconic Captain America bike will also form the center piece of a display of custom bikes in the prestigious Cartier ‘Style et Luxe’ area. Alongside the Captain America bike, UK custom shop Krazy Horse Custom Cycles will be presenting an Easy Rider Billy Bike, its own European and World Championship bike Zeroesque, Fred Krugger’s Speedbowl, the S&S 50th Anniversary bikes built by Hogtech of Sweden and SPS of the Netherlands. British builders will also be represented by Roger Almond’s radical Ducati and Destiny Cycles’ extreme trike “High Roller”, which won the International prize at the recent Affiliate show in La Clusaz, France.

This will not be the only attraction for motorcycle enthusiasts over the weekend, as there will also be a focus on the World Superbike Championship. Race teams expected to be in attendance include BMW Motorrad Motorsport, Kawasaki World Superbike R.T, Suzuki Alstare Brux and Ten Kate Honda alongside factory riders such as Troy Corser, Broc Parkes, Yukio Kagayama, Jonathon Rea, Leon Haslam and Cal Crutchlow - as well as stars from other walks of motorcycle racing such as Phil Read, Mick Doohan and Troy Bayliss.

Bikes on display and being ridden at the Festival of Speed will include the 1971 Bol d’Or winning Triumph Trident, 1984 Team Bike Honda VF750 which took class honors at Le Mans, and 1998 World Endurance Championship winning Phase One Suzuki GSX-R750 SRAD, as well as a selection of other famous endurance racing machines such as 1981 Meyer-Honda and 1986 Ducati 750 F1.

A further celebration will be taking place at the event to mark 60 years of Motorcycle Grand Prix racing, with a gathering of significant machines and famous riders; from the first 500cc championship winning AJS Porcupine, the ex-Geoff Duke Gilera 500GP and ex-Phil Read MV Agusta 500, through the ex-Johny Cecotto Yamaha OW45, ex-Freddie Spencer Honda RS500 and ex-Takazumi Katayama Yamaha YSK33, through to modern machines such as the ex-Loris Capirossi Ducati GP3 ‘Desmosedici’ and ex-Alex Hoffman Kawasaki ZXRR.

www.goodwood.co.uk

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16/06/2009 by info.

Twin Club MC’s 35th annual Custom Bike Show, one of the World Championship’s oldest Affiliate events, defied poor weather forecasts (and the recession) to pull healthy crowds and, as usual, a good standard of custom bike originality and variety.

After finishing seventh in this year’s European Championship, and narrowly missing out on World Championship prize money with a 3rd place at Norrtälje last year, the winner was Anders Göth, of Skärblacka in Sweden, whose 113 inch Ultima engined 6-speed springer rigid has won him a 5.000,00 euro expenses contribution towards competing at this year’s 6th annual Official World Championship at Sturgis from August 2nd to 5th.

Second place was taken by Andreas Jarledal, Peder Johansson’s partner in their internationally respected HogTech business in Sweden, with a classic and detail-rich chopper named “It’s a Chopper Babe” in homage to Bruce Willis’s famous remark in Pulp Fiction.

Third place was taken by Micke Jonssen of Sweden for an S&S Panhead style engined and Goldammer front-end hybrid that combined old-school styling with very contemporary thinking, an approach that is very much in keeping with the styling diversity and freestyle thinking that is at the heart of the World and European Championship program.

Andreas and Micke won expenses contributions to compete at the next (2010) Official European Championship of Custom Bike Building (at the Custom Chrome Europe Dealer Show) in Germany in March next year.

As ever we’d like to express our thanks to Twin Club MC (celebrating their 40th anniversary this year) for their generosity in putting up the prize monies and in collaboration with the City of Norrtälje, Sweden, staging an outstanding event. We’d also like to recognize Custom Chrome Europe and Motorcycle Storehouse for their generosity in supporting the event with parts and accessory contingency prizes for the class winners.

Our thanks also go to John Lillegård of Norway, Martin Domeij of Sweden, Uffe Karlsson of Twin Club in Sweden and Germany’s Horst ‘MotoGrapher’ Rösler for providing experienced, independent and international perspective in undertaking World Championship Affiliate event judging duties.

www.custombikeshow.se

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01/06/2009 by info.

In the past few years, the French market has emerged as a major ‘player’ on the European custom scene despite the difficulties that the market there faces with some of the most difficult regulations in Europe.

Builders such as Nicholas Chauvin, Claude Babot and Bertrand Dubet have been respected for years, but success at the Official European Championship and elsewhere for the likes of Xavier Chante (Riverside Motocyclettes), Cyril Gautier (Art of Racer), Jean-Claude Passetemps (School Bar Atelier), Laurent Dutruel (Zen Motorcycles) and Fred Duban (Dub Performance) has firmly placed French customizing at the ‘top table’ in innovation and creativity terms in recent years.

Indeed, 2007 saw two French builders in the top three at the Europeans, with five in the top twenty, and top ten placings at both the last World Championships.

AMD is therefore pleased to recognize the efforts of Wild Magazine in France to forge a relationship with the picturesque town of La Clusaz, in the popular motorcycle touring area of the French Alps, close to the Swiss border, in getting a new Rally underway this year which will be a World Championship Affiliate event for the French market and will take place June 19th to 21st.

The event will promote domestic French customizing and attract leading ‘international’ competitors from elsewhere in Europe by offering the International Affiliate program of two Sturgis expenses contribution prizes, one for the leading French builder, and one for the leading ‘international’ entrant.

VIVA LA CLUSAZ!
La Clusaz, Haut-Savoie, France
vivalaclusaz@live.fr
kustomlaclusaz.monsite.orange.fr

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01/06/2009 by info.

Following the recent announcement that Harley-Davidson is to be a World Championship of Custom Bike Building Official Partner and to sponsor the program’s Modified Harley Class, we are proud to announce this year will see the return of the legendary Ace Cafe London to Sturgis.

Champions Park, the downtown Sturgis venue that hosts AMD Magazine’s Official World Championship, with many of the custom motorcycle market’s finest vendors, will again be the venue for what was last year a hugely successful debut in America for Ace Cafe London.

Ace Cafe London Managing Director Mark Wilsmore said “last year was the first time that Ace Cafe London had staged a remote location exercise in its entire 70 year history anywhere. We were amazed at the enthusiastic response we got to the Ace being in America, and at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in particular, so we are delighted that we are able to continue as an integral feature of the exciting Champions Park concept.

This will be the 6th annual Official World Championship, and the third year for Champions Park, a Sturgis Motorcycle Rally feature that is quickly establishing itself with Rally visitors as a premium destination.

“It was always a natural idea to create a branded hospitality facility to add to the quality features that Rally visitors already know Champions Park for,” said AMD’s Chris McGee, the Event Director.

“The opportunity to partner with Ace Cafe London was irresistible. It is an iconic destination in its own right; one whose history is woven into the fabric of the development of 20th century motorcycle culture. Hosting Ace Cafe London at Champions Park, and having it associated with the World Championship, is a perfect fit with everything that the event and facility is about. We are proud that the Ace has decided to team up with us again for the 2009 Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.”

Ace Cafe London’s Sturgis facility will be open throughout the Rally from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm each day. Right alongside Jack Daniel’s popular Lazelle Street facility, it will be serving breakfast, lunches, snacks, meals, coffee, light refreshments and beers in a shaded inside environment with direct access into the Official World Championship of Custom Bike Building and onto Champions Park.

This year a record number of vendors have chosen Champions Park as their Sturgis Motorcycle Rally venue of choice. Ranging from S&S Cycle, Custom Chrome and Big Dog Motorcycles to Orange County Choppers Motorcycles, ProCharger and Midwest Motorcycle Supply, Champions Park has quickly established itself as the premier vendor venue for premier vendors, right at the heart of Rally visitor traffic since its inception in 2007.

Ace Cafe London offers Rally attendees a unique visitor experience. It is an opportunity to sample and enjoy a relaxed ambience that, through décor and historic displays, recalls the legendary days of the British, indeed London, motorcycle scene of the 1950’s and 1960’s; the era that truly made the Ace the legend and icon that is revered worldwide.

This rare opportunity also gives rally visitors a chance to buy sought after and highly collectable items from the unique Ace merchandise range.

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22/04/2009 by info.

The second London International Custom show (L.I.C.S.), due to be held at Earls Court this May, has been cancelled.

Whilst the number of stands booked at the event was around 100, representing over a 100% increase on last year’s show, the organizers are pointing to cash-flow issues among the potential exhibitor community in the UK as being a primary factor in the decision.

The organizers are saying that all booth payments so far are being refunded and that whilst they regret having to take this decision, the project has simply become a victim of the times.

As a start-up event last year the London International Custom Show exceeded expectations and had proven that a London venue could generate a viable attendance in the context of the UK.

The UK market has long been in need of a professionally organized custom show in order to help consolidate the growth of the past decade, and to provide a foundation for dealers, builders and vendors to take the market forward.

The event was being staged at London’s famous Earl’s Court Arena, and this year’s 2nd annual would have seen it move within the facility to prestigious and primary space, providing an environment in which the industry would have been able to showcase itself to maximum benefit to a clearly enthusiastic public.

The event was being organized by a professional and reputable show organizer, Pioneer Global Media, and that firm’s decision not to pursue the project is regretted.

AMD Magazine had endorsed the two-prize (best domestic and ‘best international’) custom bike builder competition as an Affiliate event to its Official World Championship of Custom Bike Building program, and many UK and Continental European builders have voiced their disappointment that the project will not be proceeding at this time.

Whilst there appears to be no immediate prospect of the L.I.C.S. project as such being revived, it is to be hoped that it won’t be long before the market has an alternate to rally behind.

One proposal that is finding favor is that, after the summer, those with an interest in seeing such a show emerge in the UK market gather for a market ‘town hall meeting’ to see what ideas and options could be developed for a possible event in the UK in 2010, in the hope that economic conditions will be better by then.

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