Charlotte CBA Fall Swap Meet & Bike Show

By: Lincoln Infield Robert “Bubba” Morgan said it right on Saturday November 14th, in regard to the CBA swap meet, "you don’t realize how much you will miss something until you don’t get to do it." He was spot on. The Charlotte CBA Fall Swap Meet is usually the second of the year for Swap Meet coordinator Rick Nail and the CBA crew that puts it all together. The Spring edition got cancelled at the very onset of the pandemic restrictions. Determined that this event would happen, the Swap Meet crew added “peaceful protest” to the event name. The motorcycle gods approved and provided a sunny 65˚ November day for the 48th Annual event. We arrived at the Rowan County Fair Grounds to find the parking lot jammed with motorcycles and the midway as full of vendors as I have ever seen it. I love these swap meet events. I usually don’t have anything in particular that I’m shopping for but enjoy looking over the piles of parts and random biker type stuff for a deal or something unique for the office wall. There was everything from crusty project bikes, shovel and panhead engines waiting to be a project and all the parts in between. Hell, I even saw some golf cleats. Ya never know what your gonna see! The two buildings were also full of swap meet set ups. I always check inside for new patches, stickers, rings or leathers that I might need. As always with this event, it’s not just a swap meet , but a family reunion of sorts, too. It’s hard to make it a few feet without running into one of your chums, so it may take you all day to make your way around the whole show! The Swap Meet features a 2 day bike show that is housed in one of the permanent buildings on site. This year’s bike show brought in some real beauties. I saw Flatheads, Panheads, A Knucklehead, Shovelheads, CB’s, Indians and more. The bikes ranged from rat to stock to radical and all of them were an eyeful! Three of the bikes in the show have been featured in the Carolinas’ Full Throttle Magazine including Luke Heafner’s Shovelhead Dracula chopper, The Rebel Spirit’s Boogie Nights CB 750 Chopper and Mike Morgan’s “Harley-Davidson and the “Marlboro Man” Black Death 3 replica. That final assembly was handled by the guys at Jaybird’s Custom Cycles. The rest of the bikes were stunners as well, I’m glad that I didn’t have to choose a winner! One cool side note of the day was when Luke Heafner hooked me up to shoot some photos of Diane Baldwin on his Dracula chopper. The back story there is that Luke built the chopper around a tank that came off of Click Baldwin’s (Carolina Harley-Davidson) first chopper. Click passed away in 2008 and Diane recently gave family friend, Luke Heafner, the tank for a world class build. Luke really came through and the bike is killer! It was a pleasure to meet Diane and an honor to be able to take the photos. Check out the February 2020 issue to read our interview of Luke as he was mid build on the Dracula bike. Under the live music tent, the band was cranking out the tunes for those who were taking a break from the other festivities. The tent was set up right by the grill and the food trucks. I tell you one thing, if you didn’t get a porkchop sandwich, you did the event wrong. I had ‘em make me one “all the way” that included lettuce, tomato, cheese, onions, chili, pickles and mustard. It was a hell of a mess, but it was so damn good! During set break a crowd gathered for a few contests. Up first was the Beard competition put on by the Cardinal Beard Co. Dave Smith took home 1st place and $150, Chris “Hoppy” Hopkins grabbed $100 for 2nd place and “Sleepy” Lee Payseur walked away with 3rd place and $50. Not a bad pull for standing around being scruffy! The beard competition was just a warmup for what we really wanted to see; the Pinup Contest. Three lovely ladies took the stage to win over the crowd. When the whooping and whistling ended it was clear that Heidi Hesse would take home $250 and be the pinup queen for the Fall Swap Meet. Angie Jones collected $150 for second place and the lovely Genevia Morgan came in 3rd and scooped up $100. Moral of the story is, it pays a hell of a lot better to be a hot pin up girl than a scruffy biker type. The Swap meet is an all weekend ordeal and Sunday the vendors were back at it, but the big story was the bike show. Jay Muma was the big winner with his 2008 Street Glide Classic “Dead AF”. Jay took home 1st place people’s choice, 1st place custom dresser and best display. He took home all the bragging rights, hardware and $500 cash. Other bike show winners include……

People’s Choice Winners 1st Jay Muma $500 2nd Bob Hartline $300 3rd Jason Russell $200 Stock 2nd Mike Morgan 1st Joshua Cook Bobber 2nd Heath Peeples 1st Randall Shaffer Modified 2nd Terry Kepley 1st Karen Muma Street Custom 2nd Slim 1st Luke Heafner Radical 2nd Brandon Shipwash 1st Bo Bollinger Dresser 2nd Jack Reeves 1st Buddy Kennedy Custom Dresser 2nd Joe Slimick 1st Jay Muma Competition 2nd James Bank 1st Terry Matthews Antique 2nd Brandon Shipwash 1st Jason Russell Exotic 2nd Carole Kepley 1st Bob Hartline Rat 2nd Fish 1st Zach Shipwash Best Display Jay Muma

Make sure that you keep your eye on the Carolinas’ Full Throttle Magazine cause the 49th Annual Charlotte CBA Swap Meet is coming up in March 2021. This event is a tradition and great time. Don’t miss it.