Applications for the 2027 SmokeOut Garage Build-off are open November 1 through December 1, 2026. If your garage is where your best ideas turn into motorcycles, this is your chance to put your work in front of the SmokeOut crowd. Bring your imagination, your skills and a build you can stand behind.
All makes, models and styles are welcome under the posted rules. The challenge is to build within a $10,000 budget, plus the donor bike. What you make, how you solve problems and how the finished motorcycle works all become part of your story.
Apply for the 2027 SmokeOut Garage Build-off
The application is available on the official SmokeOut Garage Build-off page. Tell us who you are, what you do for a living, how many bikes you have built and why you want to take on the challenge. The form also asks whether you have attended SmokeOut before, along with your contact information and social accounts.
Have a photo of yourself ready, plus photos of motorcycles you have built, if applicable. Read the rules and the image-use permission on the form before submitting.
Read the rules and submit your Garage Build-off application here.
A budget, a build sheet and a bike that rides
The posted rules require builders to turn in a build sheet and receipts one week prior. Bartered parts and services count toward the budget. Individual sponsorships also count unless the same deal is available to all builders. Participants may get help from other Garage Build-off builders.
The mandatory shakedown ride matters: a motorcycle that does not complete it can be displayed, but it will not be judged. After the ride, bikes remain on display for the duration of the event.
Share the process and show your work
Builders are required to post at least once a week on social media, tagging SmokeOut Rally and the other garage builders. That gives the community a chance to follow the work as the motorcycles come together.
Under the posted event rules, builders present their motorcycles to peers and judges Thursday night, take part in main-stage introductions Friday night, and turn in judging sheets by noon Saturday.
How the judging works
The published voting system gives 20 percent of the vote to SmokeOut attendees, 40 percent to invited builders from the Legends Invitational and 40 percent to members of the trades, including painters, welders, fabricators and machinists.
The official page is the source for current requirements. An application is a request to participate; it is not confirmation that you have been selected. The application window runs November 1 through December 1, 2026. Submit your application during that window.
Put your name in
You have been thinking about that next build long enough. If you are ready to take on the SmokeOut Garage Build-off, tell us what you want to bring to it.
Apply now on the official SmokeOut website. Social comments are welcome, but the application belongs in the website form.
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