Choppertown Live dominates Thunder by the Bay!
What do you get when you combine a good healthy mix of outrageous choppers, vans, hotrods, skateboards, great builders, beautiful women and perfect Florida weather? You get Choppertown Live! We hosted a royal feast of a chopper show at Thunder by the Bay on Feb.19, 20 and 21st and we have got to say, it was an amazing event!
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With the hot hits of the 1970s pumping way in the background, and an impressive line-up of custom choppers to drool all over, the 11,000 square foot building was filled to the rafters on all three days with chopper lovers and people young and old alike, who just look back to the ’70’s as that special time period they really connect with.
The sound of dirty thunder filled the air on a beautiful, sunny Saturday with biker rolling in to checkout Choppertown Live. Over 50 amazing custom bike builders brought us a plethora of choppers for the 10 Class Ride-In Chopper Show. All the first-place winners received $100.00 cash courtesy of All Steel Buildings and the Best in Show winner received the cash and a $150.00 Gift Card from the good people at Mid-USA Motorcycle Parts.
Sunday was capped off by the ‘Bill Dodge Award of Excellence Builder’s Choice Award’. With a building full of almost 60 beautiful choppers, the choice was a very tough one to make. In the end, there were two very clear-cut favorites, but the 1951 Panhead build named ‘Francine’ meticulously crafted by James Alcorn of Alleyway Kustoms took home $1,000 from FTW and a beautiful custom springer handcrafted for us by Mondo of Denver’s Choppers.
Second Place and a hardtail frame from @paughcoparts went to George Casale of Good Looking Customs. His eye-popping 1970 Shovelhead had more bling than a strip club in Vegas on New Year’s Eve! Third Place went to @m_stevens1 for his beautiful 1946 EL Knucklehead. Fourth Place went to Richard Ruck of It’ll Ride Choppers for his ‘Red Devil’ of a 1975 Shovelhead, and the Fifth Spot went to Weems Motor Co. for a legendary 1952 Triumph Twin Speed, David Mann replica build.
The craftsmanship for all the builds was truly over the top. We can’t wait to see all the cool choppers that show up for next year’s event. Special thanks goes out to our friend Bill Dodge of Bling’s Cycles for helping us out with the judging from home. He wanted to be there, but he is still healing up from his accident. Bill, we will see you at the next one. Take care of yourself and focus on getting better!
Was there a better way to start our year off with a ‘bang’? We may be a little biased, but after a year of disappointments and show cancellations, we think Choppertown Live was just the kick in the ass that 2021 needed to start things off right. To those of you who missed the fun, stay tuned. Choppertown Live 2022 is already in the planning stages.
