Wednesday, July 1, 2015

Born-Free 7 Invited Builders Part 1

These photos are from Saturday. The semi cloudy weather was nice but made taking good photos a bit difficult while dodging the crowds of spectators.

This first post shows half of Invited Builders Bikes starting with my four favorites.
I didn't hear who won best builder but (to me), this bike pretty much stole the center stage. A lot of us have seen the David Mann Roth poster Building a Chopper this bike is based on, but what a great idea and really good foresight to actually build it. Looking at the poster I always thought it was a weird design with it's winged tank and never really liked this type of seat or a curved springer, but it all works when it comes together. 

This is one wicked chopper! I call it a fifteen year old's dream since it's the kind of chopper that would rock your world if seen at that age. It goes against all my adult sensibilities but really re-kindles what's left of my dwindling teenage spirit. A big tip of the hat goes out to it's builder Arie Vanscyndel.

Big Scott's Banana Cream Dream (un-official name). It would be right at home at a sixties era show.

Scott is re-living his own teenage passions with it's Schwinn Sting Ray inspired elements. Besides the seat and bars, note the risers.

Jason Weber's Booger Sugar panhead was another sixties style favorite.

Despite being somewhat squeezed into a tight corner of the display field, I believe it earned 'Peoples Choice'.

Jeff Leighton's white Triumph rounds out my top four. Another jewel of a bike that would be right at home in a sixties era show. 

It's also another bike that would have shown better had it been in the center of the field instead of at the end by a fence.  I think bikes can get a kind of overlooked when on the end of the line up.  I had to shoot over the end barrier fence to get this shot.  In the future I'd suggest making sure the bikes on the ends get a bit more walk around space.

Bobby Middleton's blown Shovster digger didn't like it's picture taken. Every shot I took (except the one below), came out blurred. 

Lane splitter?... Not... with that far out carb!

Dalton Walker's Panhead was another Digger that didn't like it's picture taken. While I'm not the biggest fan of the Digger style, I will say he was very sucessful at capturing that late 70's early 80's vibe. The fabrication skills are impressive.

Jon Rispante's Heavenly Blues. In my opinion the extreme high bars and the scalopped tank both distract from the bikes overall good looks. His builder video on the Born-Free blog is a clever take off of the Wild Angels film's opening. 

Anyone who has seen Jon's bikes already knows he's a 60's Triumph show bike fan. The furry smokey display brings it home.

Jordan Dickinson's Knucklehead appeared to be unfinished. The bare metal shows off the metal fab skills but let's hope it gets painted.

The Show Class (People's Champ), by J.P. Rodman. Tons of work and fab skills but sorry... I don't get it... especially that seat?

Kyle Edgar's Flathead is nice but the pipes and narrow bars don't quite cut it for me. If the bottom pipe was longer it would look more balanced. Maybe I'm just an old coot but I don't get the obession with extemely narrow bars a lot of guys have these days.


That will do it for now. More Invited Builder's Bikes will be coming shortly....

2 comments:

the Dutch said...

Lookin forward to Part 2. I cant imagine walkin around all day w my head blown n eyeballs poppin out... Its givin me a headache just thinkin about it. How many bikes were at the show? Is it like Disney where u have to run thru it to see it all n miss every detail in the "its a small world after all" ride? Great pics. Thanks for takin the time to post em!

Chris K said...

Yeah, sort of a Disneyland of bikes. There are probably more panheads knuckleheads etc. in one show then anywhere else. I'd guess around 5-7 thousand bikes or so. Total attendance around 10 to 15 thousand. Lots of people come in cars. You really can't take it all in in one day. Yes it's two days now, but the attendees will be somewhat different each day.