Sickboyz win Sturgis ticket at California Dreamin' Expo
Sickboyz Customs "Besame El Culo" won the Freestyle class and invitation to the 2012 AMD World Championship in Sturgis (photo by Onno Wieringa)
California Dreamin' Expo was held at the Bournemouth International Centre
California Dreamin' Expo, situated in Bournemouth, UK, attracted some 2,500 visitors in the course of its two days (May 28-29), with most exhibitors reporting a good standard of buying intent among the custom bike enthusiasts who were attracted to the first custom-specific expo to cater for the South/South West England market for some years.
Always a notoriously regional market (something that had dogged prior show attempts), the UK is one of several European markets where more than one show could prosper.
California Dreamin' attracted strong support from the authorised Harley-Davidson dealer community, with Shaw, Warr's and Guildford Harley-Davidson all supporting the event with booths and competition entries, and from aftermarket shops and businesses such as Custom Chrome Europe, Krazy Horse Customs, the European importer of the much admired and fast growing Samurai Choppers program, and The Hogfather, the UK importer of Big Dog Motorcycles.
The trophies were sponsored by Motorcycle Storehouse, and for a first-time custom show there was a healthy entry of 66 bikes in five classes with the overall standard higher than would generally be expected at a first-time event.
The pre-event favourite for top honors, Larry Houghton's "Son of a Gun", comfortably won the Best in Show prize.
However, as he had already won a ticket to Sturgis (at 'Ally Pally' in February) the Sturgis prize was scooped by Freestyle class winner Sickboyz Customs.
Judging was conducted using the World Championship peer group review system, with the vast majority of competitors returning ballot papers. Guildford Custom Cycles edged out Modified Harley World Champion Shaw Harley-Davidson and Rocket Bob's to win the Modified Harley class, with Larry Houghton picking up a second trophy by winning the Performance Custom class with "Wideboy".
Two event-specific classes were also run - Customised Daily Ride for street legal custom bikes was won by Attitude Customs' "Old Yellow" and the Traditional Style Period Chopper class win was taken by Second City Customs' "Hells' Bay".
