Under The Big Top For The 2020 One Moto Show

My jeans still smell like 2-stroke exhaust. I slipped on icy stairs at the hotel and gashed my shin, arm and shoulder. I flew home white knuckled because of severe air turbulence with the lady behind me yelling obscenities and the flight attendants hugging a poor kid who couldn’t stop crying. All this and I’m already planning next year’s trip to The One Moto Show!

Yep, that’s how much fun The One Moto Show is. Stinky clothes, bloody and bruised and losing lunch won’t deter me. You want to know why? I give you the following 46 reasons.

THE BIKES

**Best in Show:** Carl Bjorklund is the Super Rat and creates sick motorcycles for breaking barriers. Speed barriers that is. The Cla Lambs started life as a 2004 Yamaha WR450F and now sports fuel-injection with an inner-cooled turbo. Carl has his sights set on 140 miles per hour this summer. It wasn’t the prettiest bike in the show yet it best represents what the show means to me. Pushing past boundaries with creativity, ingenuity and just the right amount of madness. It gets the Jimmy Mac On Two Wheels Best In Show award. Good luck, Carl. I hope it makes 142!

**Electrifying:** If you are going to go electric, go electric. This concept takes full advantage of its power source with an ever changing colored-lights system. It looks like the future with a nod to the past. Based on a Zero Motorcycle.

**Batter up:** A motorcycle with an upside down piston to carry a baseball bat. Doesn’t a pocket full of BBs work just as well? Maybe it comes in handy for crowd control?

**KTM Tracker:** Don’t think I have ever seen a KTM look this cool and that’s saying a lot because KTMs look cool when stock. This beauty comes all the way from Carboni E Metalli in Italy.

**Soft ride:** A close-up of the above KTM is reminiscent of the Allsop Softride bicycle design. If that tail section flexes, I’ll bet this is a comfortable ride.

**Restorative justice:** Doug, who inherited this 1973 Triumph X75 Hurricane from his good friend Wayne, nursed it back to health and rode it to the show. Wayne would be stoked. You can read the back story on the Positive Earth blog. I dig the bike because it is a rider, not a museum piece.

**Restoration contradiction:** I just said I favor bikes that are not over-the-top restorations, then I see this wonderful Velocette restoration. Just like The One Moto Show, I have to have acceptance in my heart for every bike. Rebirth accomplished by SpokenMoto in Bend, Oregon.

**Back from the dead:** This is what the bike above looked like before restoration. Velocette sure sounds Italian to me, but they were a British brand.

**High-water bike:** The best attribute of a Harley is its low seat height. This custom takes that out of the equation. You can’t call it a tracker, bobber, desert sled, crosser or adventure bike. I figure it is best for high-water crossings.

**Trail Blazer:** This little Yamaha is set up for trail maintenance. If the moto can’t make it up the trail, the mountain bike can be pressed into service to carry on. This combo gets pressed into service by the Oregon Timber Trail organization.

**Yamahaulers:** This van and pickup were painted by North American Muscle Cars in Portland in what I feel is a spot-on tribute to Rollin “Molly” Sanders who came up with this iconic design (he also did the Kawasaki green and Suzuki’s three blue stripes in the 80’s). Don’t get rid of that old van or pickup. Reinvent them.

**Where you wanna go?:** “Honey, I’m headed out for a motorcycle ride. See you in four years.” A Husky built to take you to the ends of the earth and back. Blake Draguesku, the bike’s owner, isn’t home yet.

**Light up my life:** Detail shots of the above Husky. If there is a squirrel in the road at night, it might get cooked in these headlights. I don’t even want to know what this bike costs.

**Rawhide ride:** This sweet 1967 CB200 was massaged by Rawhide Cycles who trucked all the way from Garden City, Idaho, for the show. Very clean and mean little bobber.

**Royal Family:** Have to admit it, I needed to look at the tag. This is a Royal Enfield Bullet 500 brought to you by the imagination of Hill Hudson of Hill Moto.

**Travel photos:** Chris Wimpey rolls the globe on his motorcycle shooting motorcycles. Chris shot Husqvarnas when I worked there in the 80’s. More recently you’ve seen his work in Harley-Davidson advertising. Anybody can point a camera (or iPhone). Chris’ photos tell stories.

**Moto magic:** I never owned one and that’s a bummer. CZs were great motocross bikes that helped many future motocross champions learn to race. The bike design still looks great today.

**Gotta keep’em separated:** Vintage bikes had their own display room this year and I’m not sure that is a good thing. I love the blending of bikes and people at The One Moto Show. A chopper next to a motocross bike next to a flat tracker next to a mini. Keep stirring the pot.

**Battle axe:** This 67ish Triumph, dubbed The Slow Poke, was not in the vintage bike room. It would scare those other old bikes. This bike is ready for more south-of-the-border adventures. Some bikes age better than others. It is in their DNA.

**Speedy:** A close-up of the Triumph’s fuel tank artwork. The bike is the work of Hello Engine in Santa Paula, California (home of the late Steve McQueen and Von Dutch).

**Titans of publishing:** The magazine business is tough these days, but these two make it look easy. Gary Inman (left) is the publisher of Sideburn and Norm McCycho runs Motorcycho. Both have used their fortunes earned in motorcycle publishing to build impressive motorcycle collections.

**Wanna race?:** This Suzuki GS1000 looked bad-ass when it was first built in 1978 and it looks bad-ass today.

**Buddy system:** If you’ve got to tow your motorcycles, I guess this is one way to pull it off. Or is that just back there instead of a spare tire?

**Husqva-taco:** Nope, that’s not a Bultaco even if the paint job might fool you. This Husqvarna was on display until the owner took it to the arena and raced it.

**Concept proven:** I thought this was a unique concept bike until it hit the short track. There was nothing “concept” about it. This little Honda was fast on the difficult track surface.

**Head turner:** There were a lot of projects powered by Honda. Parts availability and low cost may be two of the reasons. This bobber would attract plenty of attention at the local Dairy Queen on a Saturday night.

**Mini view:** There didn’t seem to be as many minibikes as last year. The ones that did make the show were sweet. Check out the single-shock seat suspension (that is not rear-wheel suspension).

**Overkill:** Not sure this much power for any minibike is a great idea. I’ve been hurt enough on 3hp Briggs & Stratton minis. Make sure your insurance premium is paid up before riding.

**Speed freaks:** There were plenty of land-speed-record-type bikes. Think I will have to plan a road trip to Bonneville Speed Week this year to check out that scene. This Triumph was built for speed by Mangold Motor Works.

**On any Sunday:** I post this last because I figure Gail, my wife, won’t read this far. You see, I’m buying one of these on my next road trip to Oregon. The Sunday sells for $2500 (less than a decent mountain bike) from Hot and Hazardous Performance in Newberg, Oregon (503-830-1720).

THE HELMETS
21 Helmets was created to show people that wearing a motorcycle helmet can be safe and cool at the same time. That original idea has evolve however and now the helmets are used as a canvass for kids, teenagers and adult artists who are encouraged to go wild. And wild they went.

THE RACING
Moving The One Moto Show to Portland’s Memorial Coliseum allowed the bike show, the bands, the artists, the vendors and The One Motorcycle Dirt Track Race to take place under the same roof. This made it really easy to check out bikes, watch racing, drink beer (man, people in Portland know how to put away the beer!) and grab something to eat without leaving the coliseum’s warmth. Very nice.

Track crews struggled with a spongy track surface throughout the day. The soft surface made for an event that was part dirt track and part motocross as large braking bumps and berms formed on the track. The track conditions delayed the program and the grand finale, the first round of the Super Hooligan National Championship Series, didn’t end until around 11pm. It made for a long day. Racing is racing and despite less than ideal track conditions, there was plenty of tight racing, spills and more classes than an elementary school.

**Squishy:** The track looked great but the surface was too soft to make for great flat track sliding. Racers made the best of it.

**Expensive delinquents:** I’m not too sure what to make of the Hooligan class. The bikes are big, heavy and can be very expensive. They look clumsy on a small track like in Portland. They have their own National Championship but can you name last year’s champ?

**That’s entertainment:** The pull-start class may have been the most popular of the evening. It had the most competitors for sure.

**Great turn-out:** Racers were prepared for cold weather and showers. The event drew competitors from all over the Pacific Northwest and Canada.

**Phone it in:** Just got an iPhone 11 Pro Max. This was snapped from the stands. A pro camera with multiple lenses would work better, but you can’t fit that in a pocket. Give me time to get used to the iPhone, but so far, I’m stoked.

THE NUMBER 2 SHOW
It’s Portlandia so I guess this had to happen. Fearing that The One Moto Show was becoming too commercial, too large and too expensive, the Flying 15 Motorcycle Club organized their response in the form of The Number 2 Show. The free show was held across town from The One Moto Show and felt more like an open house at a motorcycle clubhouse than a show. It was a chill group of motorcycle purists and a nice collection of bikes. I think the Flying 15 Motorcycle Club should work on the event’s name. The current one could be misconstrued.