Photos and Recap of Born Free 7

Born Free Continues to be the pinnacle of custom motorcycles shows touting a vintage feel.  In any other arena, show or local bike night, any one of the thousands of bikes at Born-Free would hold our attention as the only "cool" bike we saw that day.  At this show, you're senses are numbed by a vast sea of bikes that are all "cool".  So many great bikes that it's actually possible walk by a knucklehead chopper without breaking step.  How absurd is that!  If you saw this bike in any other location on any other day, you would geek out, you would wait for the owner, you would take photos.  But due to its surrounding it can become a chameleon, just another in the crowd, just another knuck.  

I hear people say Born-Free is just more of the same. More of the same choppers, more panheads, more knuckleheads, wassell this, Bates that.  To some degree that may be true.  But, you have to step back and regain the perspective of normalcy.  These choppers and vintage motorcycles we enjoy are still rare and only being built, ridden and restored by a small collective.  The scene is not blown out, or played out.  It may seem that way when 30,000 people of similar mindset gather for a weekend surrounded by thousands of bikes that play to our senses.  If the estimated 400 remaining wild Siberian Tigers were all chilling in Oak Creek Canyon and you spent a weekend with them, you might think, “Damn there’s a lot of freaking tigers in the world...endangered species my ass.” But, spread them back out across Russia, and they're rare as hen's teeth. It’s the same with these bikes; they are not in every garage across America.  They are still unique.

Once a year Born-Free turns us upside down and puts our minds in overload. People start talking crazy. Then, we return to our normal life or maybe attend a local bike show and realize the scene is definitely not played out. We are still a small group of individuals who enjoy building and riding motorcycle inspired by a previous era.  Thanks to Mike and Grant for providing an event that gathers those people.  Here’s a small recap of some of the machines that make Born-Free great.
-Zach