International Motorcycle Show Notes

As this silly photo illustrates, the CRM crew has just returned from the annual Progressive International Motorcycle Show in Cleveland and what an interesting time was had. First of all, we’ve been remiss in not getting away from our duties at the garage and office as of late. Between building bikes, working on tech features and generally struggling to meet the constant deadlines of publishing, we’d forgotten how much fun it can be just getting out there, meeting you, the reader. We learned quite a bit from the hundreds of folks who stopped by our booth about what sort of stories you dig and which ones you’d like to see and it was a treat to see some familiar faces who’ve been reading Cafe Racer since way back in 2008. Best of all, we had a chance to meet some of the very talented and riven young builders who were displaying their machines in the IMS’ custom builder’s showcase. Their wares represented everything from old school bobbers to ton-up bikes and a bit of everything in between. There’s ample coverage of some of the trophy winners from the Long Beach, New York and Dallas rounds coming up in the February/March issue that’s on sale later this week, while the custom masterpieces we saw last weekend in Cleveland will be featured come April/May’s magazine. We had so much fun, contributing editor Blair Powell (seen above) is already insisting we attend next year’s Long Beach IMS, but he’s maybe just a little drunk on all the fun he had…