The Bike Shed Motorcycle Club Event - London UK

If you find yourself in London - the big on across the pond, specifically the Hackney Borough area - and you are a lover of custom motorcycles, art, and photography then "The Event" is for you. One part online magazine and part hardcore motorcycle club the bike shed motorcycle club has turned common passions into a gathering to be anticipated by anyone who takes the time to see beauty in design. I connected with Dutch, a cafe racer aficionado and the main content curator at The Bike Shed and asked him some questions about "The Event".

Who is the BSMC?

The BSMC is a rag-tag co-op of riders, bloggers and builders, including Adam Kay from Untitled Motorcycles, Tim Rogers and Kevin Taggart from Spirit of the Seventies, Barry Tavner from Motorcycle Deluxe, myself and a few others in the creative industry, including Photographer Benedict Redgrove and Creative Director Ian Heartfield (and others), who ride and love the cafe/brat custom scene. The Dutchess keeps us all in order. We use the BikeShed website and our Facebook pages as a vehicle for making things happen, whether they're bike builds, bike events or rides. We're not a business or company as a legal entity, but we are a company in the oldest sense; a company of like-minded people. Our goal is to unite all the different cafe/custom niches in a space that belongs to everyone, from the old school Ace Cafe rockers on Nortons to the ex-sportsbike riders who've switched to custom Japanese & European Cafe/Brats to the new urban hipsters on small, metric, shed-built Bobbers with rattle-can paint.

Where did the name Dutch come from?

I was given the nickname Dutch in New York about 20 years ago when i was a serving Guardian Angel on the New York subway, mostly because my surname is Dutch. It stuck because my real name is a mouthful.

You're a long time fan of bikes and you know a whole lot about cafe racers - what's your interest in art?

Professionally I am a Creative Director in the media industry so I am interested in all things creative and aesthetic. Bikes can be the perfect expression of design, function, personal expression and human experience.

How did the idea to combine art, photography, design and motorcycles come about?

Riding is one part of being a biker, and the mechanics are a means to an end. However, what sometimes makes a bike worth talking about on another level is the beauty, creativity and self-expression that goes into creating an individual custom motorcycle. Combining the creative aspect of motorcycles was an obvious thing to do in a modern custom bike event.

We are seeing more of these grungy, apocalyptic-style bikes lately, I love em'. What is a brat?

A brat is the name given to a rough and ready mid-sized motorcycle that has characteristics of both a custom bike and a useable street bike, usually lowered at the back, with a flat, frame-hugging seat on a cut-down rear subframe at the back, and MX bars at the front with tiny lights and skinny tyres. The name Brat kinda suggests the annoying little brother to the big muscle bikes that used to dominate the custom bike scene. I understand that the name was coined by Go Takamine who customises medium capacity Japanese bikes in his shop; also online at BratStyle[dot]com (...if you can read Japanese).

I read that there will be about 15 bikes on display, what can you tell me about them?

There will be 20+ bikes in the main exhibition area, with another 10 featured bikes in the yard area, plus we have a lot of visitors who we know will be bringing more custom bikes to the event, so the car park may be an exhibition in itself. The exhibition bikes are built by Spirit of the Seventies (with 3 debut builds) Deus Ex Machina (one new build from Italy) Kevils (one debut, plus one other), Redmax Speedshop (a modern Norton 961 flat tracker and a Harley cafe racer), a surprise build from the US (to be announced), two urban- brat BMWs from Untitled Motorcycles, at least one custom from Barons Speedshop, a couple of Home-Builds that have featured in the Bike Shed and on Bike EXIF, two never before seen very trick builds from new builders CRC, a bike or two from Kingdom of Kicks plus bikes from the Art exhibitors Death Spray Custom, Ornamental Conifer and Corpses from Hell.

What kind of art will be on display?

Rock 'n' roll art from bikers Ornamental Conifer and Death Spray Custom. Their work speaks for itself, but both artists are intelligent creatives with art that works around automotive themes including sign writing, helmet and bodywork painting, jackets, race suits, tools and equipment, as well as pure art on canvas, but what makes them more interesting is that they also offer dry comment on people and life. There will be other similar work from Corpses from Hell and Tattooist Woody.

What kind of photography will be on display?

Photos will be from Sam Christmas and Damian McFadden documenting the scene, the bikes and the people. Both are well known the the UK as commercial photographers but their passion is for bikes and bike people.

What will you consider a successful event?

Happy visitors and happy exhibitors, and the desire to do it all over again. Just come to the event and hang out with cool people in a cool place who have a passion for something that gives life extra meaning.

The Event takes place a the Shoreditch Studios this weekend all the details can be found here The BSMC 'Event'