What do you get when you add one part art installation, one part bike show, and a mountain of alcohol? You get the Brooklyn Invitational. This bike show has come a long way from its humble beginnings of just three years ago. It started out humble enough with a few NYC bike builders and riders banding together in hopes to put on a show to showcase a few bikes they felt deserved to be on public display. The event has now evolved into the undisputed real-deal chopper show on the East Coast.
This year’s Brooklyn Invitational was a one-day affair that was held in the Williamsburg area of NYC. The motorcycles featured were a true invite-only affair with the bikes being shown more as two-wheeled works of art rather than transportation. The motorcycles, which hailed from all over the USA, were displayed on white floors while beer was swilled in a huge art gallery that is usually reserved for sculptures and wine sipping. The walls were filled with both skilled and up-and-coming photographers capturing moments in time some of what this scene is all about: riding, friendship, and hot half-naked girls. In another room Steve Bonge supplied an installation of his personal club memorabilia that stretched back some 30 years. In the adjacent hall there were various vendors hawking their wares, and even some skin art was being done by the staff of Brooklyn’s own Flyrite Tattoo.
Outside, hundreds of killer bikes from all over the East Coast were shined up and ridden in while a whole New York City block was being taken over by two-wheeled street machines. The taxi cab drivers and the legions of hipsters who stumbled upon the 14th Street location had no idea what hit them. It was chopperiffic!
With uncorked pipes echoing sweet music through the borough’s streets, the all-day event lasted until midnight with more than a few after-parties running till daylight.
Big ups to John Copeland, Wes Lang and the rest of the White Nights in the House of Color, as well as Keino Sasaki for their hard work and dedication! See ya’ll next year! STC