Chopperfest is the backyard garage mechanics’ dream. A place where you can bring your hand-built creation and find an enthusiastic audience for it. It’s a Harley lover’s paradise, a show for the regular guy, a good time had by all.
Chopperfest is ostensibly held in memory of the Easyriders magazine artist Dave Mann, who defined the ‘art of the chopper’. This helmet is painted as an homage to Mann’s imagery by Ira Cosmos. [Andy Romanoff]
Founded in memory of David Mann who painted the big bike free-riding lifestyle of the seventies, Chopperfest is now in its twenty-first year and it does his memory proud.
Not Dave Mann: a tank riffing on Frida Kahlo’s surrealist paintings. [Andy Romanoff]
The first thing you need to know is that Chopper Fest is not an exclusionary high-end only event. It’s open entry to all with twenty-two classes and over fifty awards given out. So don’t expect to find pristine lawns set in front of a fancy hotel. Instead, there’s what feels like a carnival midway filled with hundreds of vendors selling motors and frames, biker legal services and god knows what else.
There are guys in hobo biker clown outfits offering fun conversation while sitting behind tables filled with motorcycle scraps and other tables with laid back guys sitting behind a few choice pieces. [Andy Romanoff]Part midway, part swap meet, part art show, part bike show. There’s a lot going on. Here our Vintagent feature artist Jamie Nelson poses beside her amazing chopper. [Andy Romanoff]Inside the Quonset huts there are artists showing their work, painting on tanks and helmets, offering posters and original art. Here’s Lyndell Dean Wolff showing off his work – all about the Cyclone. [Andy Romanoff]Ready for Coffee? Get some from Andy Myers who starting broke and homeless a few years ago is now the owner of seven businesses including Motorcycles and Coffee. Andy’s a serious rider too. [Andy Romanoff][Andy Romanoff]
Oh yeah, and there are tons of custom bikes, and crowds of people walking among them admiring the skill and art that have gone into making them. The people watching alone is worth the price of admission so here’s a few pictures of who you might be bumping elbows with if you go there.
My personal favorite is this one of a kind by Slim’s Fab out of Yucaipa CA. and I wasn’t alone in liking it cause it won Third Place for Radical Design. It breaks every rule of building custom except one, break some rules along the way. Be sure to check out what’s written on the throttle cranking those twin two-strokes. Somebody was having fun when they built this bike, and it seems to me that’s the spirit of Chopper Fest. [Andy Romanoff]Or Throw Back Cholo, this extraordinarily painted and engraved Harley built in his garage by Ricardo Simentel. It won First Place for Radical Design. [Andy Romanoff]And finally there are bikes, plenty of them, with machines by builders like Freeman Choppers of Chico CA who collaborated with Joe Norkin to build this beautiful Panny. It won First Place for Best Panhead. [Andy Romanoff]
I think you get the picture. Lots of choppers and a fun afternoon. Here’s more of the bikes and the goings on at Chopperfest this year. It’s my kind of show.
Vintagent Contributor Andy Romanoff started out as a biker/photographer, then had a long career in Hollywood, including years working with Panavision. He’s a member of The Academy, and is now back to his biker/photographer roots. Follow these links for his Bike Pictures for sale and his Bike Gallery.
