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Beast of the East Expo The second annual Beast of the East show in Salisbury, MD was, in some ways, your typical medium-sized bike show. In some ways, it was a cut above. There were some big-time builders on hand as well as a number of local custom builders with some interesting hardware. The incentive, was $10,000 / $5,000 / $2,500 prizes to be awarded to the top three entrants in a show-wide contest. Show attendees were given a ballot to vote for their favorite bike. My favorite builder, out of character among all of the over-the-top barely ridable choppers, was Stone Cycles, from Stevensville, MD. Their custom bikes were in some ways, nothing extraordinary. They were built to be ridden. There were several bikes on display, all of them customer bikes, and all of them with significant miles on the clock. "Our bikes are 'Dyna engineered.' The rubber mount engine cuts down on the vibration and helps make a bike that you can ride all day."
While my favorite was the understated rider's bikes from Stone Cycles, the winner of the grand prize was the Jack Daniels theme bike by Savage Cycles.
The bike played a lot of whimsey with the theme in every detail.
I was particular bemused by this bike with the radical supercharged intake, and the dollar sign theme.
The head breathers with the dollar signs were particularly poignant.
Not be left out baggers in full custom regalia were represented.
Milwaukee Iron was there with several remarkable bikes. This sidecar machine was a real head-turner.
Independent Tattoo from Selbyville, DE and Obbey Tattoo of Delmar, DE, held a tattoo contest with color commentary by Jungle Jim of Independent tattoo. The number of entrants was small, but the tattoos were incredible.
During the tattoo contest, I struck up conversation with "Shadow," who was there covering the show for Thunder Press. The threatening weather that morning had inspired her to leave her ride at the hotel, so she donned my spare helmet, and we rode off the "Pork in the Park," a barbecue festival that was being held nearby. Shadow was easily able to schmooze a free rack of ribs for us from the winner of the barbecue contest, jack McDavid. While we were stuffing ourselves with some of the best ribs you'll ever eat, the sky opened up with the deluge that had been threatening to break out all day. It was dusk at that point, so we just hung in there under the pavilion until it slacked off to a gentle, warm rain. We had a pleasant, if wet, return to the expo center. I had about an hour and a half ride to get back to Lewes, DE where I was staying the night. It was wet, but warm, and I found the ride wholly enjoyable. I made it back to Lewes in time to catch three sets of music by The Tom Larson Trio at Irish Eyes. |
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