“What the F*ck Is This All About? The Dirtbag Challenge started as a reaction to the increasing perception that a custom motorcycle had to be expensive. There is a belief that custom bikes are the exclusive right of rich pretty boys and media personalities, rolling around on cookie cutter motorcycles that cost the same as a small family home. Well that’s bullshit. The Dirtbag Challenge is a low rent chopper build-off, featuring real world bikes for riding in the real world. More than that, at the heart of it is a need to do your own thing, to break away from the same old mainstream ideals. Dirtbag is about doing things your own way – without anyone’s approval, without anyone’s permission. Build the bike you want, live the life you choose. If we can do it, so can you.”

 

  Here are the Dirtbag Challenge rules: If ya don’t know ‘em, ya can’t break ‘em! You have a month build time from announcement until the show. You can spend a grand total of a grand ($1000) on your creation. On the morning of the show every entrant goes on a mass ride of about a hundred miles. You don’t go on the ride, you’re outta the show. Every bike show should have this requirement. Oh, and no MoCo bikes.

 

   This will be my third excursion into the wilds of the Hunters Point district of San Francisco to witness and record the Dirtbag Challenge. I really like the madness of the event within sight of the now abandoned CandlestickPark in the far southeastern section of the city and, so do the many hundreds of freeloaders as there is no charge to spectate. A great party for free in the priciest city in the USA? Like Andrew Dice Clay exclaimed, “Unf*ckinbelievable!”

 

For more information on the Dirtbag Challenge, click on http://www.dirtbagchallenge.com/.