Party within a Party: Born Free 6th and the Garage Company Team Up

 

 

If you ride motorcycles of any kind, street, dirt, race track, cruisers, café racer, dragster, dual-purpose, you most likely share a common denominator when it comes to motorcycle parties.  Basically any reason is good enough to call together your buddies, be it to ride for morning pancakes, benefit a worthy charity, or, what the hell, let’s do the Iron Butt Run, it’s all good. For decades the Sturgis Rally, Daytona Bike Week, and Biketoberfest have stood out as the iconic mega-bike events, but there’s a relatively new kid on the block that’s establishing itself as the next generation’s must-do rally and show. And maybe naturally enough it takes place in Southern California where the sun never sets on riding, surfing, skateboarding or doing the SoCal hi-energy thing. 

 

 

 

 

 

This new mover and shaker biker party goes by the name of the Born Free Vintage Choppers and Classic Bike Show or simply Born Free. This June it will be celebrating its Sixth Annual event. Last year 25,000 people showed up, the numbers have more than doubled each year. The word has definitely gone out, literally around the planet, and it’s has been tagged as the Woodstock of Choppers and The Sturgis of the Next Generation.

 

They say all great movements, revolutions, inventions, bands, whatever start with an idea and the determination needed to bring it to life. This started with two young guys, Grant Petersen and Mike Davis, who happened to like motorcycles but really couldn’t find anything near enough or cool enough to get their motors running. So like they say, if we build it, they will come. At first it wasn’t exactly a mad dash.

 

 

 

 

“We had about 200 bikes for the first show,” says Grant. “The second party we had 2000 bikes. By the third rally, we had 4000 bikes and about 10,000 people, people riding in from all over the U.S. and as far as Canada. For 2013, we had 25,000 people show up. We want to help bring the younger guys into vintage bikes and also the older guys who are now are looking to get back in, bringing their bikes out again.

 

There’s also a lot of counter-culture cross over from the skateboarders, surfers and snowboarders. Mike and I just wanted to put a show together that we ourselves would like to go too. Now we try to make it better and to keep it fun and exciting. Since we’re getting ready for the Sixth Born Free rally, we got things started with a Pre-Party with Yoshi at the Garage Company which has supported us and brings so much to the motorcycle community.”

 

 

 

 

 

There are bike museums around the country that are must-sees, everything from the massive Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum outside Birmingham, AL to the Dale Walksler’s Wheels Through Time Museum in Magee Valley, NC and a host of others. But if you get anywhere near Los Angeles, you just have to pay a visit to The Garage Company located in El Segundo, CA and a few minutes from the L.A. airport. Its creator/curator/bike designer/racer Yoshi Kosaka has created a 25,000 sq. ft. “wonderland” of vintage and classic motorcycles as well as a treasure trove of rare parts.  It’s what Willy Wonka would have built if he was into motorcycles.

 

 

 

 

 

Born Free and The Garage Company teamed up to throw the pre-party for the upcoming Born Free 6th rally and as it turned out it was the biggest pre-party party to date with over a 1000 people showing up.  The street outside the Garage Company literally paved in bikes of all kinds, years and personalities. And yes, it looked like a mini-Sturgis. Inside Yoshi and his wife Kyoko and the Garage Company staff brought out a banquet for all to enjoy. A DJ spun the tunes and Born Free 6 tickets and t-shirts were offered along with a ton of raffle prizes.

 

 

 

 

 

We learned that because the Born Free rally is drawing so many people from all over North and South America as well as Europe and Japan, that the event founders, Grant and Mike, have amped up the single day show to a two day, Friday-Saturday shindig. Born Free was totally free for all participants for the previously five years, but with the increased logistics and complexity of putting on the ever-expanding event, there’s now a $10 admission charge each day which is pretty nominal.

 

 

 

 

We asked Grant if there had been changes in the free bike giveaway, and he says, “With it now a two-day show we want to give a bike away for both days, so instead of one bike as before, it’s two bikes this year, the winner will get to pick any of the bikes specially built for this event by some of the best builders out there.”

 

 

 

 

Part of the Born Free overall plan is to showcase new bike building talent, spotlighting the next generation of gearheads and designers that will set the world spinning.  The emphasis is on “home built” rather than mega-bling machines, focusing on bikes with patina and character and budget minded but bikes that you can ride in the real world.

 

There’s some 25 builders invited to debut bikes at the show and roughly a dozen will be placing their bikes up for grabs to be given free to the lucky ticket holder, who gets to check out the menu of freshly minted one-offs, and then take one home. This will happen on both the Saturday and Sunday of the event, so there will be two winners. In the past those bikes have included Harleys 50-90 years old, vintage Triumphs, classic Hondas, you name it; it could show up as this is a bike event that values all motorcycles and the people that love them. 

 

 

How successful is the show? Well, Harley-Davidson is their top sponsor. Says Grant, “They really got behind what we do and realized we are linked to the youth market which will be their buyers of the next generation.”  Another sponsor that literally fits the youth market bill is Van Shoes. A number of major industry companies will also be showing their products, 100 vendors having already booked out all available spaces. Treasure hunting is another high light, since the AMCA will also be conducting their regional swap meet. Entertainment includes three bands per day as well as full-time DJ’s for the family oriented weekend along with a smorgasbord of food and drink from barbecue ribs to vegan specialties.

 

 

Oak Canyon Ranch in Silverado Canyon, Orange County.

Born Free6 info at http://bornfreeshow.blogspot.com/

Garage Co. at http://www.garagecompany.com/