The Rally That Smashed Records

from Cycle Source Magazine- Issue 285 - June /July 21

by Cycle Source Magazine

It Doesn't Have To Be Just One Day

like family, and hey, who doesn’t love Steel City Pizza and Wings!!

We had Monday off to get our shit together. Since this was the first time we had seen the mobile command center in a year and a half, we took a little time to settle into the groove of tiny house living where it was set up and waiting for us at Nova Campground (Thanks Missi & Camel).

Tuesday was the Cycle Source Bike Show, now in its eleventh year in Daytona. Co-promoted this year again by Bling’s Cycles and sponsored by Spectro Oils, Stevensons Cycle, Cycle Stop USA, Twisted Tea, Alleyway Kustoms, S&S Cycles & Twin Power. Thanks to them all for their help in keeping such a great Daytona Tradition alive. We changed things up this year and brought the winners and their bikes up for awards, which caused a little back up in the band schedule, for which I have to apologize to Stone Senate. Best of Show was taken by Brock Bridges for an incredible Ironhead that was separated, divorced, and rotated. Not sure what that means? Watch for a feature in an upcoming issue. You can see all the winners on page 16.

Wednesday, of course, was the Perewitz Paint Show, and the Spoke was packed again but with an entirely different crowd. Jeff Holt held a V-Twin Visionary show at Destination that kicked ass, and Chop Docs threw a Chopper Show at Last Resort. To say it was a crazy day is keeping it light. We took the day mostly to work at Willie’s to prepare for the insanity that Thursday morning would bring. Thursday came, and it was on!!! The greatest chopper show on earth started to fill up to what would be a record crowd by day’s end. Chopper Time at Tropical Tattoo was all it had been speculated to be… an f’n madhouse. This was the first time I can remember having to shut down registration at Willie’s for lack of space. He had just installed nice cold patch blacktop, so even the backyard had plenty of clean bike parking, and brother, they used it all. You can see all of Willie’s winners on page 28, but on behalf of everyone from Tropical, thanks to all who attended and made Willie’s efforts for the Veteran’s Support Fund so successful. If you missed it, here is a link to some live coverage we did - https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=sOfoX3nhyhY.

Friday, we hit the Dennis Kirk Garage Build Show at the Broken Spoke. This year we did things a

little different there too. One at a time, we took Garage Builders off to the side for video interviews. Dennis Kirk is a serious effort behind the Garage Builder and wanted to do more than just another show. So, take a minute and check out some killer stories from the day - https://youtu. be/hOmEH21dnl0 If you’re looking at our digital mag, that’s just a click away! Even Mr. Rusty Wallace and his partner Brian Patrick Wade were on hand with their Southern Country Customs bikes and spent some time with us. I have to take a second to apologize to the guy who should have been the winner of a class they didn’t have, Radical Bagger. I helped judge this show. Honestly, his bike looked too professional, executed at beyond a professional level for this show. The truth is the young buck (Picture to the left) even programmed the massive wheel on the front of the bike and had done all the work himself.

Saturday came, and man, it was the day I had been waiting for. Alleyway was hosting a show up in St. Augustine, which you can see in this issue, but for me, it was the day I’d get to ride. Of course, like most of these things, it started with like 20 people wanting to get together to ride, but, like most of these things, it wound up being me and Roadside taking a morning and just riding the coastline up from Daytona. It was a nice break and an excellent time to test out the new tuning on the Shovelhead.

The other details about Daytona that need to be mentioned here are as follows. The AMCA Swap Meet and Show the first weekend was killer. It seemed like everyone we knew was there, and it was killing me not to be on hand since I’m looking for some Panhead stuff.

Rhett Rotten was set up at Destination Daytona under the pavilion and gave shows and history talks all week. At the end of Bike Week, he started his quest for a record number of hours consecutively riding the Wall Of Death. Right now, it’s held by Martin Blume of Berlin, Germany, of 7 hours and 13 seconds, set in 1981. This was a test run of sorts, and Rhett ended up with just over three hours into the run when his camelback exploded, making it unsafe to continue. This is an exciting proposition, and you can believe that Rhett is far from finished with this quest.

As far as what was really important was the simple fact that we were once again in the company of friends and

family from the motorcycle world who were at Bike Week. I had almost forgotten that it was a year ago that we had said goodbye to these folks with no idea what was in store for us as we all went home to a new normal under COVID Guidelines. Don’t get me wrong, by the end of the week, I was still bitchin every time we ended up in traffic on US1 because so many people were in town. Still, it was a welcome change from the traffic jam in my house the past year for whose turn it was to use the bathroom. At the dinner Willie throws for everyone that helps out with Chopper Time, Cochise said it best. He mentioned those who weren’t at the table this year and reminded us that we might not all be there at the next. Chilling to think that a short time later, one of those close to the Tropical Tattoo family would lose his life before we all got back home. Godspeed to Tino and our prayers to his family.

I would like to say thank you to everyone that helped out this year in Daytona. Doing our little dog and pony show takes a lot of help, and some of our friends threw in a shoulder to get it all done. Special thanks to Doug and Polly, who ran our booth at Willies, Jason Hallman, that did almost every job under the sun with us that week. Steve Broyles served as cameraman a few times and his lady Tanya ran the booth at our bike show. Missi, Roadside, Willie, Benny Stucker, and Warren Lane for lending us his son for the little bike feature shoot. Melissa and the team at Broken Spoke. Steve Penland for my little amp, The Dennis Kirk Crew, Rebecca Cunningham, Austin Andrella, who serves as equipment manager most of the time, and last but not least Billy Grotto, who constantly provides inspiration to keep it on the tracks.

Of course, all of this is due to you maniacs who keep building incredible bikes and riding the shit outta them. Here’s to the next time we all get to gather in celebration of the two-wheeled disease!

Cycle Source - Blings Daytona '21 Custom Bike Show Winners

The Annual Custom Bike Show That Startred At The Skatepark And Has Become A Daytona Tradition Over A Decade Of Bike Week.

the 11th Annual Cycle Source brought over 100 bikes to the lot this year. Let me tell you, there wasn’t a dog in the bunch and the judging was no easy task. Now we aren’t ones that believe in trophies for participation but on this day it would have been justified.

In the end we awarded 25 trophies, all of which were well deserved. Hope To

See Yours There Next Year!