2016 Venice Vintage Motorcycle Rally

This Saturday was the 9th Annual Venice Vintage Motorcycle Rally, and I’d say it was a success. Here’s a few of my favorite photos from the day, courtesy of Aaron Schasse.

The day began at The Stronghold on Abbot Kinney, the designated meeting point for the morning ride. It was supposed to start at 9 am but riders didn’t start leaving until about 9:50. That’s OK because it gave us more time to check out cool bikes like these:

Though big group rides can easily turn into a clusterfuck, the VVMC does a good job of keeping things organized thanks to the local police. They got everyone lined up in the middle of the road before starting off on the short loop:

While it’s fun to be surrounded by a whole lot of cool bikes on a ride, the pace is slow and I guess I’m jaded because taking the PCH up to Malibu-ish isn’t a particularly fun road. I’ve done the ride before on Vy’s Honda S90, so I figured I’d just get breakfast and then head on over to the main event.

The organizers aren’t asking for my feedback, but in the last couple of years they’ve made a change that I think is a mistake. They used to put all the show bikes in the main lot with all the vendors, but now the bikes are placed outside in a separate area. I assume this was done because the event keeps growing and they ran out of room to fit everything, but it also splits up attendance and stymies foot traffic. I’d argue that the show bikes should stay in the main lot – but again, I’m sure they have a reason for the change. Nonetheless, this means that the first thing you see when you walk in is bikes that were entered for judging in categories like Japanese, Euro, Race, and Mini Bike.

Whitewalled BMW in the Euro category:

Earle Motors Hyperhooligan – this was at the Handbuilt Show in Austin, as well:

Last year, this bike was the sole entrant in the Mini Bike category, so I thought I’d enter Vy’s bike this year and see what would happen:

Annoyingly (but not incorrectly), I was told the S90 wasn’t a minibike and I’d have to enter it into the Japanese category. Yes, I’m bitter. The old girl held her place but there were some amazing machines in the category and she rightfully lost:

This is what ended up in the Mini Bike category:

But let’s move on…here are the cool handmade trophies that were given out to class winners:

Once you walked past the show bikes and entered the main lot, you were greeted by “White Lightning”, a custom Harley-Davidson XLCH that was built to be raffled off at the event.

Tickets were $10 – so I grabbed one along with a bunch of other losers:

Once you were in, there was food to eat, alcohol to drink, and vendors to check out. Here’s some highlights of the last:

Jon Huertas of Clutch with his Deus Ex Machina custom build:

Pinstriping:

Pinstriping supplies:

Cool build based on a Honda XR600:

Alpinestars gave away some tattoo’d patches – Heath showed off his doodling skills with the Oscar logo:

While watching Heath draw, I couldn’t help but notice an awesome ring he was wearing. Turns out a friend of his bent a wrench into a ring!

Then I tried to take over the Alpinestars booth. I don’t think they were impressed:

This has nothing to do with a vendor, but this dog’s name is Nova and he is awesome:

Dennis from Beach Moto with one of his custom builds:

VanTech showed up with a few amazing bikes – including this Yamaha 175cc flat tracker with a modified VanTech S90 frame:

It won Best in Show!

VanTech also showed off this Ducati single. What a beauty:

A couple of local clubs turned out:

Kim Ridley (the guy behind Ridley’s Rides) busted out a funny shirt:

This local showed up with a bicycle he slapped a ~70cc engine on to. He says it’ll do 54 miles per hour, then showed us a video of his commute. I believe him, I just wouldn’t want to have to perform an emergency stop!