With its near-vertical hills, heavy traffic, and slippery grooved trolley rails,San Franciscocan be a tough place to ride, but it’s an awesome place to enjoy great food and fun hangouts.  Get north of the City by the Bay though, and you’ve got some of the most beautiful riding on earth.  Route 1,Mt.Tamalpais,Napa,Sonoma, Mendocino… it’s just a giant buffet of dazzling coastal views, tranquil country roads, and sinister switchbacks all for the taking.

The folks at HorsePower Promotions always seem to put on a quality event, and this year’s Grand National Show was no exception.  With NorCal’s unpredictable weather it made sense to hold the show indoors.  Aside from the customs, additional entertainment was provided by live cover bands, the Road Rage fashion show, and trials rider extraordinaire, Davis Chavez.

Keeping Johnny Chop’s memory alive seemed to be a real rallying cry for the show, and a few of his customs immediately stole my attention, especially the “Stay Gold” bike.  A strong personal statement rhyming with “duck you” was embossed on the tank in multi-colored metallic leaf, and a pair of exposed jumbo wingnuts seemed to attach it to the frame. Twin gold-tipped exhausts snaked through the open primary belt, and a billet piston capped the behind-the-leg jockey shift. 

Old-school to the core with its sissy bar and kickstart, the “True Blue” bike sported roses as gas caps and handsome filigree work scrolling lengthwise down the banded tank.  Exoticly intertwined pipes exiting at the front of the frame were clearly products of a wicked sick mind at work, and I mean that as the highest form of praise. 

A gold sparkle Johnny Chop tribute bike was also being raffled off to raise money for his family, and the charities and special interests that were near and dear to him.  Built with contributions from Mitch Bergeron, Kirk Taylor, Tom Foster, The Count and Shannon from Counts Kustoms, and many others, a lucky guy named Vince Defalco claimed the one-off creation.

John Farr’s far out Skeleton Bike got lots of attention from the crowd, and the fellas from The Crypt scored major bonus points in my book of super cool cats for allowing everyone who wanted their picture taken sitting on the bike to do so.  I don’t wanna knock other builders for refusing to allow Joe Public and his wife and kids to straddle their pride and joy, but it was really heartwarming to see face after face light up as they sank into the saddle and grabbed the grips.  Good Karma shooters all around for you guys.  I’m buying!

In my opinion, Todd’s Cycle entered the nicest bike in the show.  No gauche grabs for attention here, just a perfectly executed nouveau retro styled custom, decorated in candy lime green glitter and black paint with chrome accents drilled to expose sparkling gold.  I thought the elements really came together synergistically.  I would have congratulated Todd Silicato on his craftsmanship, but he was off grabbing some zzzz’s in exhaustion after apparently completing the build in a last minute blitz just prior to the show!

There were plenty of other entertaining entries to gawk at too.  A pink unicycle with an ultra-wide drag racing tire gave me a giggle.  Someone had incorporated four hot rod transmission coolers in sequence as a radiator for a giant Honda engine.  A bubble gum pink custom sported a heart-shaped seat made of white alligator and purple stingray skin.  Alan Thordsen brought a pair of chopper mini-bikes running 250cc & 570cc Briggs& Stratton V-Twins respectively.  Trevelen of Super Company Customs brought his Biker Build Off winning filigree fantasy knucklehead, “El Peligroso”.  David Anthony displayed a unique style that frequently brain-stormed the playful shapes and colors of children’s toys into his work.  Satya Kraus let his leaf spring fetish out of the closet, as he deployed them to suspend the seat, and dampen the front wheel using some ingenious configurations. 

I loved the fact that the Grand Nationals Show created all sorts of fun categories for their contests, such as the lowbrow “dirt bag” bikes, featuring Corona Extra boxes for bodywork, chrome customs that required sunglasses to avoid scorching your retinas, the vastly underappreciated metrics, antique, old-school… 18 winners were recognized in all.  And I had a blast taking it all in!