"If they don't hurry, we'll be able to hear it happening, but we won't be able to see it," I overheard someone say during the helicopter introduction of Custom Chrome's newest designer bike. As the sun set on that October day, the crowd patiently stood in anticipation of the event, but there's no way anyone was leaving--the beer was free!

Welcome to the house chrome built (with a little help from its friends billet and stainless). Custom Chrome's 68,000 sq./ft. headquarters is located 70 miles south of San Francisco in the city of Morgan Hill. It's the aftermarket manufacturer's 17th annual dealer show, and the company held nothing back in regards to entertaining its guests professionally and frivolously.

"It was by far the best show we've ever done in regards to attendance by vendors and dealers, as well as according to dealer satisfaction," says CC's John Sullivan.

Business

Almost 1,000 individual shops toured the show's 141 vendors during the two-day affair. The order writing room was a shuffle of paperwork and handshakes.

Explains Sullivan: "The Cincinnati and Indianapolis trade shows are not order writing shows for us, whereas this one is. Sunday night at 5:00 when the show was ending, there were still people sitting around writing orders; the order writing didn't stop until 7."

Besides vendors and order writing, Custom Chrome featured its streetware brand of clothing during daily fashion shows, and live interviews with industry specialists were fed through closed-circuit television sets located throughout the building.

Custom bikes and their builders were on display around every corner. Arlen and Corey Ness, Billy Lane, Paul Yaffe and Chica, already established names in the motorcycle industry but who have now been vaulted into mainstream biker stardom by various cable shows, were all present. The duo from Orange County Choppers was supposed to attend, but concerns about finishing Jay Leno's new ride on time roadblocked their departure.

(If reality shows are a trend, then these custom bike building shows are a fad, but a least they're a damn good fad!--see "Confessions Of A Customer," page 18.)

"I can't wait to tell my son who I was hanging out with!" exclaimed a thrilled Greg Brannick, industry manager for Diamond Chain Co., after speaking with Indian Larry.

Pleasure

Contrary to last year's traveling sideshow, CC returned to a single location format for this year's exhibit. Dealers didn't even have to travel the 20 minutes up to San Jose for the evening's entertainment because CC erected a 33,000 sq./ft. tent in which to house all the frivolities, such as Smash Mouth's gig on Friday night. The big-name band performed at the dealer show in gratitude of the two custom show bikes CC donated to the charity Smash Mouth supports.

Inside the massive tent, the company served dinner and free beer to every famished soul in the house for three evenings straight. And on Saturday night, Arlen Ness was presented with Custom Chrome's first lifetime achievement award, which will be awarded annually.

"Essentially the weekend was divided into three categories," says Global's event manager, David Sadler. "The first night was entertainment with Smash Mouth, during the second we focused on the industry, and Sunday night was a thank-you reception where we gave away $124,000 in merchandise credit to dealers."

Outdoors, tethered to the underside of a whirlybird, CC's new 2004 custom kit bike, the "V," was drop-shipped in front of the crowd at dusk Saturday night. The John Reed-designed machine sports a 6-speed transmission and Marchesini wheels, and features CC's new 110-inch motor (see "Toolmaker By Trade").

Although availability is an unspecified time in 2004, and price was also unknown, the introduction was used to gauge the response from the dealers and enthusiasts present. "The general consensus from dealers is the bike is what every Buell rider thought he was getting when he bought a Buell," Sullivan points out. Two other kit bikes, the Hardcore ll and Ares, were also introduced over the weekend, just not with the same production budget as the V.

Other weekend attractions included numerous performances by the Globe Of Death stunt team and wheelie king Bubba Blackwell. The show concluded with a night of gambling and a big-money giveaway. "It was a substantial investment that we made, but because it is an order writing show, we can gauge the percentage of what we spend against the business that we got, and it was a very good return," says Sullivan. "It exceeded our expectations."

Sullivan explained that CC is not under the gun to surpass the 2003 show, but the company will focus on refining it. So if you didn't make it this year, mark the weekend of October 9 on your '04 calendar. If your business revolves around V-Twins, and especially customs, it's a show you don't want to miss.

RELATED ARTICLE: Toolmaker by trade.

The 50th Anniversary Sturgis Bike is a virgin-white Heritage Softail Classic with 24-karat-gold plating. The motorcycle is part of the exhibit at the National Motorcycle Museum And Hall Of Fame in Anamosa, Iowa. Its creator, 2001 inductee John Reed, is also on display.

Reed's been employed by Custom Chrome for 17 years--12 of which he's worked from the comfort of his own home. "It's been said I tell the truth with complete disregard to my own personal safety or career, and that's not really a good attitude to have working for a corporation. So I work from home and that suits me good, and them real, real good," explains Reed.

Reed's training began in 1960 at the Atomic Energy Authority in England, where he spent six years as an apprentice researcher and experimental toolmaker. The next 13 years Reed worked the nightshift as a toolmaker for British Leyland. During this time he constructed, rode and reconstructed numerous motorcycles.

"In those days we were rockers," says Reed. "We put clip-on handlebars on our BSAs to make roadrace bikes, but the engines used to blow up a lot. When an engine blew up I'd find another engine of any sort and make some cardboard motor mounts. I'd take those to work and construct new ones from aluminum. So I got really good at fitting different engines into different bikes. My career wasn't cultivated," he says, "it just happened."

In addition to trials and sidehack motocross, Reed competed for three years as driver of a Vincent-powered sidecar roadrace team. "I had a lot of accidents on that sumbitch. The thing is, I've always had a huge pair of balls, but they were never joined to my brain," Reed says of his racing experiences. He competed as a soloist for another four years before retiring from competition.

Although Reed's garage is full of customs, the new V is only the second complete bike he has developed for Custom Chrome. As he has no interest in designing normal customs, he got excited when asked to develop a performance custom. But his real satisfaction comes from the smaller, individual parts he develops.

"Every month I see how many of my parts they've sold and I think, 'Holy sh**! Twelve hundred people walked into shops to look at mirrors, and out of all the mirrors they liked mine the best, and to prove it they handed over $40," he says. "That's my biggest rush."

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COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group