“I love it,” said Ray Wheeler, the former Bikernet Performance Editor. “It reminds me of the ‘60s.” Born Free Number 8 rocked Oak Canyon Park behind the almost dry Irvine Lake Park this year. Each year, it shifts and evolves. The Born Free of today is nothing like the first free event in an alley behind an industrial park adjacent to a Triumph shop sharing the facility with Circle City Hot Rods. It was completely free, with no vendors and maybe beer and tacos.
The bikes were all hand-built, bobbers, very old school choppers and a handful of vintage bikes. In a short eight years, it has evolved into a Harley-Davidson sponsored bike show with hundreds of vendors from the big dogs like Performance Machine, Roland Sands and S&S to the little guys, such as Chop Cult, Dice, Noise Cycles and Loser Machine. Some were immediately disillusioned by corporate consumption.
“I’m not coming back,” said Yaniv of Power Plant, who hosted one of two pre-parties on Melrose in Hollywood Friday night.
In today’s day and age, shit happens fast, too fast. According to Buddha, everything is changing constantly, so get used to it. Also, everything is coming or going. There’s no way to stop it. Shit grows, and then it dies, bada-bing. The key is to enjoy and celebrate everything for a myriad of reasons, while we can.
“Born Free is the Woodstock of events,” said an anonymous donor. “You see more Knuckleheads there than at any other event, and I don’t mean the two-legged version.”
So, come to the party, embrace it, honor it, dig it, and ride. If you get tired of it, or it goes in a direction you don’t care for, ride to another party. There are five new gigs busting out every weekend around Los Angeles. But currently, Born Free is the hippest bit in town and all the cool cats came out, including Arlen Ness, Cory Ness, Willie G and Nancy Davidson, and Bert and Lisa Baker.
“We needed to find an event on the West Coast representing the custom industry,” Lisa said. “We had to check this out.”
Unfortunately, it’s not free anymore, and there’s a growing rulebook, including no colors. Ah, but Grant cut a deal with the park to minimize the traffic, congestion and enhance parking. That was a serious break for spectators. In order to grow and continue to succeed, the promoters, who include Grant Peterson and Mike Davis, must stay flexible, malleable and willing to adapt and change quickly.
Journalists came from far and wide to cover BF-8 but Mike called them free-loaders as he was forced to hand out complimentary (free) passes to the working press devoting their weekends away from their families to document the happenings.
Here’s an example of another quick venue change. Where it was previously all about the garage-built bikes, FXRs are now honored with their own area handled by San Diego Customs. More and more Dynas and baggers rolled into the event. And the show bikes changed from basket bobbers to slick Bondo-coated choppers with tall sissybars from the ‘60s right down to long-haired fury seats 2 inches wide as they slithered up old narrow ribbed fenders to a chromed-out sissybar reaching for the stars.
Brothers commented, “You won’t be riding these bikes very far.”
“Maybe to the bar or grocery store, but then you couldn’t buy a six-pack. No place to put it.”
Fortunately, there were classic barn-find relic Knucklehead flat trackers and a couple of the late-model high-performance racers from Suicide Machine on Signal Hill in Long Beach. This crew races with Roland Sands on hopped-up Indian Scouts at all the Hooligan class flat track events. They taught me to change my thinking when it came to the new world available to FXRs.
I grew up around lowered cars and long choppers, but they seek a new hot-rod performance-handling alternative with tall shocks, performance front suspension kits, or upside down front ends, Sons of Anarchy fairings and super hopped-up Evo engines.
Eric Bennett from Bennett’s Performance in Long Beach wandered the isles checking new products and styles.
“I love seeing the new spins on old custom notions,” Eric said. “They may not be my cup of tea, but I enjoy seeing new innovations.” Eric is all about performance and generally late model bikes from Evos up. If you want a hot rod FXR, Dyna, or dresser, these guys know the drill and can build anything. They love modifying an FXR chassis to accept a monster touring Twin Cam. He played in the Road Kill Kings band at one of the pre-parties.
“Born Free is one of the directions for the future of the motorcycling hobby that needs tapping into,” said Ben Lamboeuf, Bikernet’s Advertising Director and carver of vast canyons on fast motorcycles.
Born Free has quickly become the place for old and young from all over the world to ride in, see, and talk about old iron for two days. This year, 25,000 folks showed up. Over 150 vendors and sponsors peppered the park with activities including live music, the Wall of Death, and an AMCA regional swap meet. Over 6000 show and spectator bikes graced the grounds, while that many were parked outside.
“I’ve been attending Born Free for the last half dozen years and this was by far the most sorted out version to date” said David Zemla from S&S. “Born Free is a great mix of vintage and contemporary bike enthusiasts. A perfect fit for S&S Cycle.”
Inside the show there is a special Invited Builder area where 25 up and coming motorcycle builders from all around the world showed off the bikes they’ve been building just for this event over the past year.
“These guys are craftsmen, small shop owners, and garage builders doing their best to push themselves to build something truly unique,” said Grant.
Best In Show gets a trip for themselves and their motorcycle to the Mooneyes Hot Rod & Custom show in Yokohama, Japan in December!
“Disorganized was the word of the day,” said Ben Kudon, the Executive Director of Rivera/Primo. “Fortunately that did not translate into a bad show; in fact, quite the opposite. I liked it! Questions were mostly for the older vintage type products we sell, i.e. Pan & Shovel stuff.”
One of the rules this year included no camping on the site, but they did set up Born Free Camping down the street. It may be the last time, though. “The Born free campsite got out of control,” said a wounded veteran. “This is a gathering of righteous folks having a righteous time, while not endangering the lives of others.”
Let’s see how this culmination of vintage and today’s iron evolves into Born Free 9.
Best In Show Jeff Leighton 1942 Harley UL
Invited Builder First Place-Kiyo’s Garage dual engine CB750
Invited Builder Second Place-Arie Vee 1941 Knucklehead
Invited Builder Third Place-Jeff Leighton 1942 Harley UL
People’s Choice-Ryan Grossman 1947 Harley Knucklehead
Best Chopper- Ryan Grossman 1947 Harley Knucklehead
Born-Free Award-Dalton Walker Triumph PreUnit
Founder’s Pick-Prism Motorcycles 1941 Harley Knucklehead
Best Knucklehead-Arie Vee 1941 Harley Knucklehead
Best Panhead-Max Schaaf
Best Shovelhead-Andy Carter
Best Sportster-F’N’A Cycles
Best Falthead-Mike Silvio Harley 45
Best Bobber-Go Takamine 1939 Indian
AMCA Pick- Matt Walksler 1928 Harley JDH
Best Original-Matt Walksler Harley Knucklehead
Coker Tire Award-Matt Walksler 1928 Harley JDH
Best Japanese-Kiyo’s Garage dual engine CB750
Best Indian- Brian Bell Indian Chout
Best PreUnit-Brian Thompson
Best British-Choppahead
Best Modern-Oliver Jones FXR
Best Competition-Justin Walls 1927 Harley JD
Best Paint-Matt Motorcycle Tire Center Dyna
Arlen Ness Digger Show
First-Dalton Walker Harley Panhead
Second-Pascal Boyer Harley Shovelhead
Thrid-Eric Allard
San Diego Customs FXR Show
Home Built
First-Carey Hart
Shop Built
First-Oliver Jones
Mason Burke won the 1953 Panhead we gave away Saturday, Phoenix Peterson won the 1940 Knucklehead and Jacob Johnston won the 2016 Dyna Lowrider S we gave away Sunday.
