2018 AMD World Championship

2018 AMD World Championship forms are available online a year early

Due to the hugely positive reaction to the 2016 AMD World Championship of Custom Bike Building and the debut of ‘INTERMOT Customized’ as the new international headquarters event for the custom industry, we have taken the unusual step of making the 2018 Championship entry forms available online a year earlier than normal.

At this stage the classes planned are the same as in previous years – the Freestyle class from which the AMD World Champion is chosen by the competitors, Modified Harley-Davidson, Retro Mod, Street Performance and Cafe Racer, however, keep an eye out for news about any changes or additions.
Already we have two entries (from Switzerland and the UK), and with Jordan Dickinson of Union Speed Cycle winning the Championship of the Americas at AIMExpo in Florida in October, we know of three bikes (from three different countries already) who will be competing in October 2018.

INTERMOT organizer Keolnmesse (The Cologne Exhibition Center) is a very generous host and a strong supporter of the AMD World Championship, giving us a substantial space allocation, but with an increased demand for Hall 10 booth space already in evidence, getting your entry nailed sooner rather than later will help us to make sure that there is enough space for all those who want to be a part of ‘AMD XIII’.

To find the entry forms and class definitions, along with information about competing at the AMD World Championship, follow the links at www.AMDchampionship.com

2017 show season

The 2017 show season - a selection

The ‘majors’ may be over for another year (two years in the case of INTERMOT), where ‘INTERMOT Customized’ showed that there is now custom action on the biggest of stages, but now is the time of year when the spotlight falls on the dealer, specialty and custom shows.

The new year kicked-off with Motor Bike Expo (MBE) and Sweden’s annual show, MC-Massan in January.  

Meanwhile, in the United States the annual specialty V-Twin Expo will take place at its usual downtown exhibition center venue in Cincinnati, Ohio (Saturday January 28 and Sunday 29 (www.vtwin-expo.com).
Billed as “The Only Show of its Kind,” which it is, V-Twin Expo remains the only independently owned and operated dealer show for the Harley-Davidson aftermarket and custom V-twin parts and accessory industry. Owned and operated by Easyriders Events, their winter 2017 Bike Show Tour reaches a crescendo at Columbas, Ohio, on February 11-12 after stops at Sacramento, CA; Charlotte, NC; Nashville, TN; and Atlantic City, NJ.
At the same time as V-Twin Expo, from 12:00 noon to 12:00 midnight on Saturday January 28th, Garage Brewed (www.garagebrewed.com) at the Rhinegeist Brewery, Cincinnati, kicks off a busy few weeks for motorcycle dealers and riders in the United States and internationally.

The market’s two major parts and accessory distributors are holding their own dealer shows in February: Tucker Rocky/Bikers Choice are playing host to their dealers in Texas on Wednesday 8 and Thursday 9 of February, and just 10 days later Parts Unlimited/Drag Specialties set up shop at the RCA Dome, Indianapolis, Saturday 18 and Sunday 19 February.
In fact, that weekend there are at least four motorcycle industry events in play that we know of, with the annual MCN London Motorcycle Show taking place from January 17-19, featuring the Zodiac/Harrison Billet London Custom Bike Show
  (www.mcnmotorcycleshow.com), the excellent Swiss Moto being staged at Zurich from February 16-19 (www.swiss-moto.ch), and the increasingly popular Mama Tried at Milwaukee from 17-19 February (www.mamatriedshow.com).

The following weekend sees the largest annual show in the Netherlands, Motorbeurs, taking place from 23-25 January at Utrecht (www.motorbeursutrecht.nl).

Highlights in March and April include (but are not limited to!) the biennial Carole Nash Irish Motorbike & Scooter Show, taking place at Dublin, Ireland, from March 3-5. Always a popular show that not only dominates the small but growing Irish market, but that also pulls in exhibitors internationally, ‘Dublin’ is an AMD World Championship of Custom Bike Building affiliate show and has provided a former World Champion (Don Cronin, Medaza Cycles, with ‘Rondine’ in 2013) www.irishmotorbikeshow.com.


After that MotoSalon and Motocykl (featuring the Bohemian Custom Bike Show), both at Prague, both March 2-5 (www.bvv.cz and www.motocykl-praha.cz), and Moto Days, Rome, March 9-12 (www.motodays.it) and the Radical Custombike Show organized by MC Pecquencourt in north Eastern France, March 11-12 (www.mc-pecquencourt.com) all overlap with Daytona Bike Week, Florida, USA, March 10-19 (www.officialbikeweek.com).
The focus then shifts MotoMadrid in Spain from March 24-26 (www.salonmotomadrid.com), followed by the 30th annual Donnie Smith Bike & Car Show at St Paul, MN, on March 25-26 (www.donniesmithbikeshow.com), followed by the Tokyo Motorcycle Show, March 24-26 (www.motorcycleshow.org); InaBike, Jakarta, Indonesia, March 29-April 1 (www.inabike.net); Custom Show Emirates at Abu Dhabi’s National Exhibition Center, UAE, on March 30-April 1st (www.customshowemirates.com); Arizona Bike Week, April 5-9 (www.azbikeweek.com); Motorcycle Taiwan, 20-23 April (www.motorcycletaiwan.com.tw); with the Moscow Custom and Tuning Show, another AMD World Championship affiliate event, from 21-23 April.

The annual Handbuilt Motorcycle Show, Austin, TX, will be staged concurrent with the US MotoGP on April 22-23 (probably! www.revivalcycles.com); the Laughlin River Run, April 26-29 (www.laughlinriverrun.com); Biker Fest in Italy, May 18-21, another AMD World Championship of Custom Bike Building affiliate (www.bikerfest.it); the increasingly popular and well respected Bike Shed in London, May 26-28 (www.thebikeshed.cc); the European Super Rally in the Czech Republic, May 31-June 4 (www.superrally.com) and another of the 2017 AMD World Championship affiliate events, the internationally renowned one day Custom Bike Show staged by Twin Club MC at Norrtalje, Sweden, on June 3rd (www.custombikeshow.se).

J&P Cycles Ultimate Builder

J&P Cycles Ultimate Builder - Dallas

Kyle Shorey of Speed Foundry took the win in the FreeStyle class of the J&P Ultimate Builder show as the IMS series went to Dallas, with ‘My Pal’.
A 1979 Harley-Davidson FX sled, it features a metal flake cream paint job with brass accents throughout. Kyle built the handlebars, custom grips, footboards, handshift shift gate, dash and exhaust himself. The Texan took home a check for $2,000.

He will be heading to Chicago for the US Championship and to compete for the “KING of the Builders” award and a share of the $50,000 in cash and prizes on offer there.
Runner-up was Junior Burrell, Retro Moto, with ‘The Bee Hotch’, a 1978 Yamaha Sr500.
The Modified Harley class win was taken by Dell Battle, of Dangerous Dezigns/Snake Alley, Chicago, with a 1991 Sportster, with Young Lace, Power House Custom Cycles, taking second place with ‘Ecstasy’.

The black and red paint on Dell Battle’s 1991 Sportster is eye-catching and features include billet wheels, custom exhaust, intake, custom tank, controls and swingarm. Air ride front and back allows the bike to look aggressive while at rest.
Harley-Davidson is the presenting class sponsor, with J&M Motorcycle Audio and K&N Filters providing product sponsorship.
Roy Martin of Roy’s Toys took the Modified Retro win with ‘Warrior Voices’, built for a charity of the same name. Proceeds from this raffle bike provides veterans with training to assist them in getting back in the workforce. 

The 1979 Ironhead Shovel rigid features a torpedo headlight and matching grips, Harley-Davidson hand controls with a brushed finish, switch deletes by LC Fabrications, ammo cans for saddlebags, a brass microphone converted to a taillight, Shovel motor with split rocker boxes and springer front end, with powder-coat by Pristine Powdering.
Runner-up was Ron Pearce with ‘CB500 Café’, a 1972 Honda CB500. Royal Enfield is the presenting class sponsor, with K&N Filters providing product sponsorship in the class.
The Modified Custom class win was taken by Motone Customs, who were contracted for a custom build from Speed Foundry of Texas. Kyle Shorey’s ‘MahaKala’ is a 2004 T100 Triumph, with a seat fabricated by Working Man Customs. Tony Lewis of Eurosports Cycles provided overbore, porting and polishing of the heads. Cycles One fabricated the hard tail, and the gas tank was sourced from the Motone Customs parts bin. The metal work was completed by Speed Foundry, and paint is by Liquid Illusions. 

Runner-up was Chop Shop Motorsports with their 2004 Harley-Davidson Sportster.

The People’s Choice and Ingenuity award went to Bryan Stalcup for his custom ‘Convertible’ – it changes from a cruiser to a sportbike at the touch of a button!

The Originality award went to Tim Scates for his ‘El Dorado’
1972 Moto Guzzi based 850 Bobber

Jeremy Cupp of LC Fabrications won the FreeStyle class with LC Speedster at the prior weekend’s Washington DC J&P Ultimate Builder/IMS event, having come second in New York 

2017 AMD Events Year Planner

Did you get yours?

Limited extra copies of the 2017 AMD Events Year Planner will be available until the end of February … “just ask and you shall receive”! 
contact sara@dealer-world.com

Michael Naumann

Naumann the ‘New Man’

One with quite a pedigree too, because Michael Naumann, now master of his own destiny at his own Naumann & Co emporium at Schermbeck, Germany (north of Duisburg), honed his trade at a classy school, having worked for no less than former AMD World Champion Andreas Bergerforth of Thunderbike fame for many years.

Michael’s AMD World Championship debut came in 2013 at Essen, Germany, with two bikes in the Top 20 of the Freestyle class at what was the first iteration of the AMD World Championship in Europe at Big Bike Europe, Essen.
The S&S Knuckle engined ’52-Stick’ was voted 10th, with ‘King Bling’, an S&S engined 1958 Shovel, coming 19th.
A year later, with the AMD World Championship at INTERMOT, Cologne, for the first time, ‘Mr Flatty’ (a 1942 WLC) gave Michael another 10th place, with ‘Virus’, an early Harley engined Shovel from 1958, making it a repeat-double in 19th place.

Given that success, and describing his second place in 2016 with ‘Simple Iron’ as his breakout year, is to do his success to date and the quality of his prior bikes a massive disservice.
However, with many people figuring his modified Ironhead Sportster (with German made TTS spoke wheels) as a short-odds win favorite before the Saturday judging (along with Larry Moore from the United States), it certainly caps off a remarkable 41 months of AMD World Championship success.
www.naumann.bike

Comment by Editor, Robin Bradley

Window into the soul of the market …

With the custom bike show season headed to a spring crescendo, looking back at prior AMD World Championship of Custom Bike Building results for the ‘Custom World’ 8-page center section in this month’s AMD Magazine was a scarily interesting process.
Scarily, simply because it was a graphic reminder just how quickly time flies, interesting because it also graphically showed just how quickly custom bike styles change and morph.
I still think of myself as a “newbie” in this business, and still eye the archive of AMD World Championship bikes we have built up online at the event website (www.AMDchampionship.com) as something that may be of value, one day, perhaps.
In truth, it actually only took six or seven years before we started meeting people who said they found it one of the most informative and important reference resources available, but now, with the 12th AMD World Championship loaded, it really has become a powerful window into the soul of the market.

Roger Goldammer’s Board Tracker, the first AMD World Championship winning bike, still looks fresh and innovative today, bearing a lot more in common with the leading customs of a decade later than it did with those of a decade earlier, when it burst onto the scene like a Red Bombshell in 2004

We have a suite of photography for each bike that has ever entered any of the 12 (so far) AMD World Championships (well, over 95 percent of them), and the six of the AMD European Championships we operated in conjunction with Custom Chrome in Europe, consisting of five pictures and a basic ‘Tech Spec’ shown.
They number something in the region of 1,200 unique custom motorcycles with about 6,000 studio grade photographs taken by internationally respected custom industry photographers such as Horst Roesler, Frank Sander and Onno Wieringa.
I was delving deeply back into the archive in order to trace the prior AMD World Championship appearances of some of the 2016 competitors who have become regulars - acclaimed custom motorcycle designers and engineers such as prior World Champions Fred Bertrand and Andreas Bergerforth, and some who surely will become World Champions one day, such as Yuri Shif and Larry Houghton.
In doing so, it was interesting to see how builders’ own personal styles have evolved, sometimes radically, sometimes more subtly, and to see how the trends in the market itself have evolved through the “Peak Custom” chrome and paint job fest that were the boom years, through the harder times that replaced them, into a market today that (certainly outside the United States) is definitely in a robust state of recovery.
With ‘Retro’ now the default ‘vibe’ of the market, indeed with some saying that we have already passed “Peak Hipster”, it was interesting to be reminded that the ‘AMD’ crash-landed into the middle of the custom bike scene in 2004 like a rock, creating enthusiasm and opprobrium in equal measure with its fancy new class concepts, voting and judging systems, and insistence on treating all participants equally, fairly and honestly.
Yes, that made us as many enemies as it did friends, I’m afraid to say, but with impeccable timing, the win of Canadian Roger Goldammer (the first of his three wins) with his “2004 Goldammer Board Tracker” caught a wave in just the same way that the “new gen” shows of recent years (The One Show, Mama Tried, the Handbuilt and the like) did a decade later.
However, Roger’s homage to the racing culture of the early 20th century was a radical departure from the dominant chopper culture of the time, from the catalog bikes and trailer queens that had dominated since the first crate motors and rolling chassis kits had started to emerge a decade before that.
Goldammer’s “Little Red Lovely” is often referenced as ‘ground zero’ for what has become known as the “retro” movement, but the “new gen” bikes and their builders share much more in common with the trend that got kick-started then, and still dominates to this day what Roger and his “Old School” fellow travellers did to the generation they were challenging at that time.
The present developments we have been seeing in custom motorcycle design and engineering have been much more of an evolution, with their foundations firmly rooted in the changes that hit the market then, than the revolution that the advent of “retro” represented.
Regrettably much of the “I’m too sexy for my shirt” arrogance that got the so-called “builder community” into so much trouble and debt in the post build-off, post Lehman years has persisted – with some of the so-called “new gen” of custom shop proprietors appearing to put more effort into their beards than their craftsmanship.
That said though, the evolution, the fascinating change that has taken place, is that the collapse in available investment capital and discretionary leisure Dollar spend that defined the landscape against which dark became the new shiny has responded to the over-inflated, absurdly unrealistic and, frankly, dishonest price points that brought about the market’s downfall by falling back on the very simplicity of design and affordable and accessible platforms that gave rise to the market in the first place.
So far from bad news for the parts and accessory industry they are currently eschewing, in the long term the “new gen” riders represent rebirth and renewal. As I have said before, once the waistlines and wallet books fatten and the mid-forties median demographic comes to be recognized as a self-replenishing gift that just keeps giving, then the spend will return, the price points will increase, and, crucially, sales of factory customs will grow again.
The big question remains though, as we await Harley’s 2016 financials (due for release towards the end of January 2017), what kind of share of that market Harley-Davidson will have. Here is a stunning little factoid for you – as things stand, it is quite possible that 2017 will see BMW sell as many, if not more, of its R nineT parallel twin platform variants as Harley will sell Softails.
In which connection, and apropos our cover story this month about Harley’s share price staging a near 60 percent recovery in calendar year 2016 … as this edition went to press, guess what? Yes, that’s right, the share price was back down into the upper $50.00 region, headed towards a two-month low!

2017 Carole Nash Irish Motorbike and Scooter Show

Ahhh, it’s 2017, that means it’s Dublin again!

Always one of the favorite AMD World Championship affiliate events, 2017 means that it is a “Dublin Year again”!

Staged biennially in Dublin, Ireland, the 2017 Carole Nash Irish Motorbike and Scooter Show will be hosted at the Royal Dublin Society show halls from 3 – 5 March, and will again feature the Zodiac International sponsored Irish AMD International Custom Bike Competition, with the national/Irish Champion winning €3,000 cash to cover expenses for competing at the 2018 AMD World Championship in Germany.

Former AMD World Champions Mick O’Shea and Don Cronin (‘Rondine’, 2013) won the Steet Performance Class in 2016 with ‘Road Fever’, a 1987 Ducati 750

The international winner gets €2,000 and qualification for the AMD World Championship.
Additional show features in 2017 will include a 'Race of Gentlemen' in the sand arena, where the flat trackers will also be racing over the 3 days. The ‘Race of Gentlemen’ will be a homage to the 1930s racing in the USA between the legendary Harley-Davison and Indian teams, which have been re-enacted in California recently.
Rusty Pistons from the Czech Republic will sponsor the Rockabilly Stage (www.rustypistons.eu), and the show will deploy many of the now ubiquitous hallmarks of the current ‘Hipster Vibe’ – including a 3-station Barbershop with suitable memorabilia and décor, massage girls and a ‘Gentleman’s Club’ ambiance! 

The first E-bike to compete in the AMD World Championship, Noel Connolly’s remarkable ‘Strom’ finished 11th in the Freestyle Class in 2016

Ace Cafe London will be mounting their regular display of classic era authentic bikes with mods and rockers and the 59 Club memorabilia and staging the Ace Cafe Global Stunt Starz Competition with 25 top stunt riders from Ireland, UK and Europe battling it out for a €5,000.00 prize fund and the 'Ace of Aces' title.
At the time of writing, the two halls of the show are pretty much sold out as Ireland starts to share in the motorcycle market recovery seen elsewhere in Europe, resulting in a third hall being added as the 2017 ‘Dublin Show’ gets set for record exhibitor and visitor numbers.

The Irish market continues also to emerge on the international stage as a vibrant source of design and engineering craftsmanship and creativity. In 2013 the Irish Motorbike and Scooter Show affiliate winners Mick O’Shea and Don Cronin scooped the AMD World Champion title with the much admired ‘Rondine’ – an exquisitely customized 1971 Moto Guzzi.
This year they again spearheaded an Irish invasion at Cologne that saw Mick and Don take home the Street Performance class win with ‘Road Fever’, a 1987 Ducati 750, and saw Noel Connolly add to the Irish trophy cabinet with an 11th place in the Freestyle Class for the remarkable ‘Strom’ – the first ever E-Bike to compete at ‘The AMD’.

Modified Harley-Davidson winner

MODIFIED HARLEY WINNER
German Motorcycle Authority
 ‘Milwaukee Mile’


Modified Harley-Davidson winner Christoph Madaus is an AMD World Championship local – his German Motorcycle Authority is based in Cologne, and his ‘Milwaukee Mile’ won in a very tight vote in a very competitive class.
As permitted by the class rules, the engine is a 1340cc 1986 Evo, updated with S&S heads, single pump camshafts, dry sump lubrication, 12 Volt alternator, gel battery, multi-disc oil bath clutch, five-speed transmission, primary and secondary drive chain.
This was Christophe’s second time in the AMD World Championship, having won the AMD Affiliate event in Hall 10 at INTERMOT in 2008 and gone on to finish just outside the Top 20 at Sturgis in 2009 with ‘Twintrax Power Plus’.

Twintrax Power Plus

 

Christophe Madaus took the Modified Harley class win with ‘Milwaukee Mile’ – proof that a “radical performance pedigree is the perfect background for a streetable performance solution”

One of the most radical and advanced bikes ever seen in the Championship program at that stage, it was a Drag Race inspired twin Evo style S&S 80”/1340cc engined power breathing monster with the four heads feeding into a single collector, then into two SuperTrapp disc mufflers.
‘Milwaukee Mile’ may look tame by comparison, but it is true to the aim of the Modified Harley class – to show that a radical performance pedigree is the perfect background for a streetable performance solution.

www.german-motorcycle-authority.com

 

Zodiac

Zodiac #41 ‘Bikers Book’ for 2017

This brand new issue #41 of the Zodiac Bikers Book “contains more parts and more pages than ever before,” according to the Mijdrecht, Netherlands headquartered distributor.

At over 1,600 pages and more than 34,000 part numbers, Zodiac has again expanded their product line with almost 5,000 new parts and accessories from vendors all around the world. There are hundreds of new and exclusive Genuine Zodiac parts and accessories (with 2-year warranty) as well as products from well-known and new, emerging vendors.
New products include sound-adjustable slip-on mufflers from Italian exhaust maker MCJ, the complete new product line from Ciro, Galfer ‘skulled’ disc brake rotors (a Zodiac exclusive), Chopper Kulture parts and accessories, OttoDiCuori suspension components and accessories from Italy, T-Bags biker luggage with lifetime warranty, Italian made Mupo and Bitubo shock absorbers, stock replacement parts for the vintage 45CI Sidevalve, performance parts for Sportster, Big Twin, Twin Cam, and even the Milwaukee Eight models from S&S Cycle, Freedom Performance Exhaust, ThunderMax, JIMS, Kibblewhite Precision Machining, SuperTrapp/Kerker, Mikuni and many others.
Zodiac say they will also have all the new parts and accessories from iconic brands such as Arlen Ness, Biltwell, Kustom Tech, Le Pera, Performance Machine and Roland Sands Design in stock, along with new lines from Aquatic and Cycle Sounds (radios and audio related equipment), La Rosa spring seat mounting kits, and hundreds of selected parts and accessories for model-specific and universal use.
Zodiac has sales offices throughout Europe and produces its annual catalogs and regular dealer bulletins and newsletters in English, German, French, Italian and Spanish.

www.zodiac.nl

S&S Cycle

S&S secure E9 certification for ‘Stealth’ air cleaners

Viola, Wisconsin based S&S Cycle has released details of the first of what looks set to be a series of EC approval product announcements.

Their popular Stealth air cleaner kits are now available E9 approved for cable or throttle by wire throttle body 103 and 110 inch Dyna and Softail models, as well as EFi 883 and 1200cc Sportsters.

With a choice of optional Air 1, Tri-Spoke and Torker and a variety of other cover options covers also available, ‘Stealth’ air cleaners offer an increased filter area, combined with an air horn like radiused inlet and unique S&S Stinger cone to allow smoother and faster air flow.
They can be run with or without an air cleaner cover; they can also be run with the stock 1999-up Big Twin air cleaner cover for a “sleeper” look, or without a cover at all. The kit includes back plate, filter element, top cover, hardware and instructions.

www.sscycle.com