| The Easyriders Bike Show Tour for 2004 kicked some serious butt! The Centerfold Tour featured many master bike builders that you may have seen on The Discovery Channel's Great Biker Build-Off series. When you attended an Easyriders Bike Show last year, you had the chance to hobnob with the likes of Indian Larry, Billy Lane, Paul Yaffe, Kendall Johnson, Eddie Trotta, Rick Fairless and Kim Suter. These builders were always happy to sign an autographed poster or even female body parts if ladies were so inclined. The Tour was such a smash hit that the Bike Show's proud papa, John Green, decided that you can never have too much fun and
added five more shows to the schedule.
An entire Fall Tour was created in order for us to bring the circus to new cities, including: Philadelphia, Indianapolis, San Diego, and Houston, ending with a two-day Invitational show in Hotlanta. Besides the usual Judged and Spectator classes, this show showcased Best of Show bikes from the 2004 Spring tour in Kansas City, Denver and Dallas. We saw amazing custom bikes from ail over the USA.
The Atlanta Invitational took place in the beautiful and spacious Georgia International Convention Center, November 20-21, Locals braved the mostly wet weekend to show up and study some of the world's best customs.
For this particular extravaganza, Billy Lane, Paul Yaffe, Kim Suter and Kendall Johnson came aboard to help us party the weekend away over two rainy nights in Georgia.
Other well-known builders in attendance were Jerry Covington, Russell Marlowe, Chip Miyler, Dawn and Butch from Stinger, Vince and the crew from Redneck Engineering and Pete G. All were ready to wake and shake Atlanta up, and we did. Screw a little rain.
Doors opened at 10 Saturday morning to a massive hall packed with hundreds of wild rides, a slew of vendors, beer and food con cession stands at the ready, and the Purrfect Angelz ready to bump and grind their way into your heart, Saturday's bands were headed by the D.B, Bryant Band, and a favorite of ours, Blackberry Smoke, Sunday's headliner was Satisfaction (a Rolling Stones tribute band).
This was one tough show for judges, I know, I was one of them. I don't think I've ever seen so many incredible custom bikes under one roof. And creating a show-winning ride is becoming harder and harder to pull off. Innovative builders keep raising the bar and a bike that would have easily been a Best of Show winner two years ago doesn't get noticed today. When the smoke cleared Sunday afternoon, our Ms. Easyriders, Alyssa, Kai Raecke and myself took to the stage along with John Green to hand out cash, prizes and trophies to the deserving winners.
Best of Show winners were paced by Pete G's Choppers, for first place Spectator class; The Judged class first place award went to Butch Mitchell of Stinger Customs; and the Invitational winner was Mike Dusold from Lewisville, Texas, for his Voodoo Digger (his first custom). A personal favorite of ours was the cool gold bobber by David Covington. Awesome stuff!
Special thanks to our sponsors of the 2004 Easyriders Bike Show Tour. They are; Carolina Custom Products, Performance Machine, Belt Drives Limited, Biker's Atlas, Avon Tires and Defiant Customs. Meet more master bike builders and other surprises, next tour when we rock 15 cities around the country (see the ad in this issue for further details).
Easyriders Fall Bike Show Tour 2004 .......... AND THE WINNERS ARE: |
Best Street Class
1. Jerry Stephenson.......0xford, N.C.............2004 Custom Pro-Street
2. Johnny Gil...................Mcallen, Texas........2004 Harley-Davidson Springer Bobber
3. Gary Hiser..................Stone Mountian, Ga.........Harley-Davidson FL
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EASYRIDERS FALL INVITATIONAL CENTERFOLD BIKE SHOW TOUR, ATLANTA, GEORGIA GEORGIA INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION CENTER, NOVEMBER 20-21,2004 |
—Dave "Phantom" Nichols
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