The Inaugural Bookend To Bike Week

t takes some balls to create a new event on the heels of Bike Week in a city nearly an hour north, but that i is just what the guys at Alleyway Kustoms did, and it was a success! The event took place in beautiful St. Augustine, FL, at Adamec Harley Davidson. It was great to have a dealer not only step up to sponsor the event but very refreshing to have them welcome chopper jockeys, and custom motorcycles of every make, model, and style.

Fish Alcorn, the mastermind behind Alleyway Kustoms, did a fine job selecting the builders that joined the Pro Invitational. The invitees included Hang Em High Customs, Bling’s Cycles, Johnny 99, Freakshow Fabrication, Death Metal Racing, It’ll Ride Choppers, Ray Rice Fabrications, Copper Top Garage, LeFevre Cycles, Weems Motor Co, MadPen Cycles, Buttera’s Metal Werx, and Providence Cycle Worx. The open portion of the bike show didn’t disappoint either. I was pleased to see that it brought some stunners as well and filled the spectrum with a diverse grouping. A panel of judges went through the field of contenders for quite a while before choosing the final winners of the day, which are as follows: Best Paint – Ray Llanes; Best Chopper

Pre 1983 – Foundation Moto; Best Vintage – Earl Jordan; Best Dyna/FXR – Adam Devine; Best Chopper Post 1983 – Foundation Moto; Best Bagger – Joel Yandrick; Cycle Source Pick – It’ll Ride Choppers (Shovelhead Chopper); Best of Show – Bling’s Cycles (Panhead Chopper ‘Pandemic’)

The inaugural year brought plenty for the crowds in attendance to do with bikes, vendors, cold beer, food trucks, and last-butnot-least the Ives Brothers motorcycle riders and their Wall-of-Death! The folks at Adamec had a beautiful display of antique and vintage motorcycles lining the sidewalk for all to see. Not to mention, inside, you could walk around the store and find the history of the dealership documented in beautiful large format prints adorning the walls. I couldn’t wipe the grin off my face after watching the Ives Brothers snatching $20 bills from people’s fingers while riding around on the wall of what amounted to a rickety fish barrel and on the next goaround tossing one of their shirts back at you – that’s service!

The weather this Bike Week was a bit cooler and windier in Florida than is typical during March, but on this last day, the wind finally died down, and the temperature was in the upper 70’s. You really couldn’t have picked a more beautiful day. Chris Callen put it best when he said, “it’s the perfect bookend to bike week.” Compared to a lot of the Daytona events that can get pretty rowdy, the Alleyway event was a relaxed and family-friendly event and a great way to unwind from a hectic week. It was a great opportunity to suck down an ice-cold pina colada while talking to a professional builder one-on-one and get up close with some of the bikes that were winning events all week long.

This will be a yearly event, so make sure you plan to be here next year to wrap up Bike Week - you better believe Cycle Source will be!