I didn't ride much this weekend, as my ST3 sits languishing on the street, and on Sunday afternoon I was sitting, reading on my balcony, when I saw an email from Union Garage mentioning the Distinguished Gentleman's Ride next weekend, and the 7th Annual Brooklyn Invitational Custom Motorcycle Rally today, which I had totally forgotten.

I had gone to the Brooklyn Invitational last year, which was fairly impressive, but somebody in a minivan clipped me in the bike lane, and I almost went down.
 At the same time, the bikes are always pretty sick, so I decided to go.

Custom Chrome Ducati 900SS

I roused myself, and asked a bunch of friends if anyone was interested.

I rode over to pure mayhem around 4pm, to see that the police had roped off several streets.

The crowd was about double that of last year, with thousands of bikes.

The entire block along 15th Street and Wyeth was blocked off, with vendor booths, all sorts of choppers and brats on display (of course), and even live music in front of Indian Larry Motorcycles.

My friend Schaefer showed up, and we started to explore.

Though this was a slightly different kind of motorcycle crowd than my normal crew... I think that the show "Sons of Anarchy" has exponentially increased the hipsterish "mayhem-aspirant" biker scene," though I shouldn't be too surprised to find this in north Williamsburg.

 Both Schaefer and I were wearing Union Garage t-shirts, and someone (who presumably works there) gave us free tickets to the motorcycle show.

The Show

 or this beautiful museum-quality BMW R Nine T

 Custom naked Victory Pikes Peak Project 156 
1973 Norton Monocoque Frames Racer
 Ehinger Kraftrad’s Speedster.

Shinya Kimura, Custom Motorcycle Artist

Go Takamine’s Indian “Chout” (a Scout chassis with larger Chief engine)

Vincent cafe racer named "Widow Jane"

 The Rest

 My superbike, accompanied by another lonely Ducati. 
There were innumerable custom bikes... too many to name.


 Indian Larry's
















© 2015 Tigh Loughhead

 I had to make a quick stop last night at one of New York City's most iconic shopping locations, Bloomingdales in Midtown on 59th and Lexington Avenue in the cosmetics aisle.  While I prefer to spend my money on Italian bikes, I couldn't keep from stopping to gape at the cherry-blue 1947 Harley Davidson "Knuckehead" on display somewhere in the Men's section.