The World Championship of Custom Bike Building was first staged at Custom Chrome's annual dealer show at their Morgan Hill, California, headquarters, in October 2004, where it attracted 48 competitors fielding 63 bikes.
The second annual Official World Championship of Custom Bike Building was staged at Advanstar's Big Twin West Dealer Expo in Las Vegas, November 2005. The support of both these organizations in assisting with the costs of staging the first two World Championships is gratefully acknowledged. The 2005 World Championship attracted 166 top-class entries, from 110 competitors, drawn from 14 countries and was, by common acclaim, the greatest custom bike show ever staged or seen anywhere.
Last year the Championship was hosted at Thunder Road, Sturgis, over August 5th to 7th. 100 bikes were entered by 77 competitors drawn from 11 countries, and the standard of entries was acknowledged to be even higher than that of 2005.
This year saw a move to Champions Hall, our own purpose-built facility on Lazelle Street, and attracted 77 entries from 71 competitors, again from 11 countries, with a record 25 international entries. Continuing the trend of a raised standard of entries at each subsequent show, this year's competition was agreed by the competitors to be the toughest yet.
Judging of the event is done by 'peer review', in that all competitors collectively decide the World Champion, together with a select VIP panel drawn from the press and aftermarket industry, all votes counting equally towards the final result.
The event features two initiatives – the World Championship Affiliate Program, in which the winners of associated shows around the world have expenses paid to compete in the World Championship, and the Partner Program which is explained more fully in 'Partner Program.doc' which has allowed the World Championship to become financially independent rather than dependent on a single sponsor.
Affilate shows whose winners competed this year were:
Bike Expo, Padova, Italy
Canadian Championship of Bike Building, Olds, Alberta
Cool-Breaker, Yokohama, Japan
Custom Bike Show, Norrtelje, Sweden
European Championship of Custom Bike Building, Mainz, Germany
Fantasy Bike Show, Sestao, Spain
Irish Motorbike and Scooter Show, Dublin, Ireland
In addition, the winners of the Asian International Motorcyle Expo held in Kuala Lumpur, Malayasia, and BigTwin Bike Show & Expo in the Netherlands will compete in the 2008 World Championship.
www.amdchampionship.com
Freestyle (World Championship)
This class is for one-off, ground up customs. Any design or modification is accepted. The winner of this class will be declared World Champion Custom Bike Builder for the period of one year.
Modified Harley-Davison
Frame and motor must be original equipment Harley-Davidson. Any modification to an original H-D frame and motor is accepted. Engine case must be Harley-Davidson, but modified or changed heads or cylinders are acceptable.
Production Manufacturer
Entry must be based on a production motorcycle with over 50 units of the model produced annually. Any modifications are accepted. This class is designed for entrants whose principal business is selling production motorcycles.
Metric World Championship
Entry must be built around an import metric based motor. Any modifications are accepted. The winner of this class will be declared Metric World Champion Custom Bike Builder for the period of one year.
2007 World Championship Of Custom Bike Building… RESULTS!
In baseball there's the World Series, a competition dominated by American teams.In custom bike building there's the AMD World Championship, contested by a truly global collection of bike builders. The international flavor of the event was further reinforced by the number of countries represented in the top 20 places; 10 different nationalities were included.
Top honors in the 2007 World Championship was taken by Stellan Egeland, of SE Service, out of Skogås, Sweden. Stellan, who last year placed third with only the second bike he'd ever built, this year wowed the crowds with a speedway inspired board tracker, featuring hand made cylinders and heads on a Knucklehead bottom end.
His bike – Hulster 8-valve – takes engineering excellence to a new level. The one-off, four-valve cylinder heads had the cooling fins filed by hand and the ports manually cut, drilled and then filed to shape. With the intricate engine work completed Stellan then reworked a Norton gearbox to handle transmission duties, before adding a generator to the frame which is driven by a second chain, driven off the rear wheel.
In one of the closest results in the event's history, returning World Champion Chicara Nagata of Japan's Chicara Motorcycles, polled enough votes to take second place with Chicara Art Two. Building on the design cues of his winning bike of last year, Chicara rose to the challenge of the World Championship once again by building a bike around a Flathead motor.
The brazing showing through a fine layer of chrome, and the unique front suspension remaining from last year, but this time the frame was suspended with a single shock on the rear. As with Stellan, Chicara looked to British motorcycles for his choice of transmission; his solution was a four-speed box from a Triumph. Continuing the Old School feel of the bike is a set of 28in spoked wheels.
Chicara's countryman Keiji Kawakita, of Hot-Dock Custom Cycles, Tokyo, lifted the third place trophy thanks to his Red Gladiator bike. It takes elements of traditional Bobber and mixes in European Streetfighter styling for a truly unique machine.
At the heart of the bike is a Hot-Dock engineered HR4V engine, which takes a H-D motor and adds four-valve heads and custom fuel injection.
Dave Cook of Cook Customs, out of Milwaukee, flies the flag for the USA in fourth place with his softail bike with hidden suspension and perimeter brakes. With the exception of the motor and trans, the entire bike was fabricated by Dave in his workshop.
Sapka Muvek, the Hungarian shop who took first place in the 2007 European Championship of Custom Bike Building, claimed fifth place with Time Machine, a build based on HG Wells' story of the same name. The bike redefines the term Old School with features such as handmade wooden wheels.
Furthering the international flavor of the event, in sixth place is Paul Stewart of Dynamic Choppers, an Englishman based in Las Vegas. The stainless steel framed Epic gathered a crowd as soon as it rolled into the show hall on its 34.5in wheels.
Taking inspiration from racing bikes, Frenchman Cyril Gautier uses a Sportster engine as a stressed member in the frame of his seventh placed bike – Rock 'n' Bike.The ultra low, completely rigid bike mixes in hot rod styling, even using a complete set of Panhard PL17 hubcaps as wheel covers.
Bucking the trend for traditional styling is Jolly Roger Customs with the Jolly Roger. Built by Mario Audia and Darrion Tefft, the futuristically and organically styled machine runs a 196in Hawaya billet motor.
The top ten is rounded out by former two times World Champion of Custom Bike Building Roger Goldammer. His build Nortorious takes the idea of British café racers and in particular bikes like Norton's Manx and gives it his unique touch. Known for ignoring conventions, Roger once again took a v-twin motor and removed the rear cylinder, putting a super charger in its place. He then reworked the redundant rear head to fit the front cylinder before adding fuel injection.
Christian Dotson took tenth place with his first-ever bike, which also won “America's Most Beautiful Motorcycle” award at the Oakland Grand National Roadster Show in January.
World Championship of Custom Bike Building
Tel: +44 1892 511516 (toll free from USA/Canada: 866 849 5704)
Email: neil@amdchampionship.com
Website: www.amdchampionship.com
