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Event Reports

MountainFest

Originally Published In The February 2011 Issue Of Cycle Source Magazine

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It would seem as if we were really starting to hit our groove with the Mountainfest Chopper Show this year. After seven years of running the largest one-day show in Pittsburgh and then moving it to its new West Virginia home at Mountainfest, we had a few years of putting it back on the map. Year after year, my brothers in the Limpnickie Lot have turned out to support this show and this year would be no exception. Nash, Led Sled and the cats from Court House Customs all came out, Steel City Choppers and Pandemonium were also on hand but this year we would have special guests in from New York City: Bobby Seeger and Matty from Indian Larry Motorcycles. They brought three of Larry’s most significant bikes with them: Rat Fink, Wild Child and his last masterpiece, The Chain of Mystery. This was a real treat for show-goers from the region. From the time the bikes rolled out of the trailer that brandishes Larry’s face on it, the crowd never stopped coming by and staring in wonder at these incredible machines. Other celebrities on hand were Rogue, who needs no introduction by the likes of me but for those of you that may not know, he is the definition of “been there, done that.” Rogue was one of the first and is still a staff writer for Easyriders. Bean’re, the biker gypsy, was also on board this year and stood smiling as fans of the legendary hat came after autographs and pictures all day long.

As for the bikes in the show, we are proud as hell of what is starting to turn out here. Some of the tri-state’s most killer bobbers, chops and antiques that you could imagine were on hand to be drooled over. It’s not an easy task to go up against what we have on the other side of our space. Year after year, Tom McKee assembles one of the best collections of antique motorcycles. In addition to the regulars, this year there were one-of-kind racers and hill climb bikes that I can only imagine were priceless. To see all of that on one end and then a full gathering of tramps and freaks just next door can blow your mind. What the two have in common is the love of motorcycles and I spent the weekend watching old timers and young dudes in deep conversation about what they dig; it was a trip. Since Rob and I had just finished the Hoka Hey, we put together a little display with the help of Sharon Miller that contained every map of the 9,100 miles’ course and a complete set of pictures for each state. Both bikes would have been there if not for the impeccable work of Barclay Transport since they botched the delivery date of my bike so Rob’s Indian would have to do. The cats at Indian Motorcycles of Chicago were nice enough to let Rob keep the bike for most of the summer so we could show it off with this display and several other Hoka Hey riders even showed up through the weekend. Mark Wilson was one of those competitors; you remember him, the hammock guy. His invention for the Hoka Hey is now in full production and man you gotta check it out.

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We ended up having a pretty full schedule for the weekend but the day of the show was a bear, like it always had been. As the traffic slowly got going, and in spite of my pacing, by noon the doors were rocking and we were piling the bikes in. David Wasserman helped out with that by sending some of his brothers down with their magnificent vintage bikes. David is a good shit and took “Best of Show” last year, so you know he has the goods. We had spent the night before as his guest where they had an informal gettogether of the finest scoots in the area. There were Pans and Knuckles everywhere you looked and just when you thought you saw it all, another would pull in. We fully intend on doing a separate article on these cats in the near future so stay tuned. So, the way our show works for those who don’t know, we break things down into three levels of custom: Street – that is bolt on parts; Mild – which is anything but radical frame altering; Radical – which as you can figure is all out customizing and hand fab work. In addition to that, we separate the pro-builders into two classes: a pro-retro and pro-modern division. From all of this we get one Best of Show from pro and one from the open classes.

Best of Show in our pro division this year went to Court House Customs with a badass little Shovel they call “Bloody Roots.” You can see it in an upcoming Cycle Source feature. In the open class we were pleased to see the Best of Show came out of the Antique Radical class and the bike was a Pan hardtail like the ones we all remembered drooling over in old copies of Easyriders. It was basic black with neon pink flames and looked like it rolled right off of those pages. By the end of the day we had given out 56 trophies in 16 classes, including hand made first place plaques from Teach at Baas Metal Craft that had been hand lettered by Steve at Steel City Choppers. It was a full day’s work to get it all done but after ten years of doing this show, the staff has it down to a science. We packed it in and headed to our second favorite happening of this show, the after-party. Karen, Barb and some of the other girls put down some killer grub and all the builders joined us at the mountain chalet for an epic party. The following is a list of the winners but tune in next month for a report on the rest of the events at Mountainfest including our annual Run Through The Hills and the first AHRMA old time motocross race. This place just keeps getting better man, and when you guys hear what they have planned for this year… well let’s just say, it’s gonna rock so don’t miss it!

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