Hot Rod Custom Show, Yokohama, J
The Fastest 9 Hours in the World
This is crazy. When the clock flips from 07:59:59 to 08:00:00 the Yokohama Hot Rod Customshow gets under way full steam ahead. Once a year the heart of the customizing world is beating here in the „Pacifico Yokohama“ exhibition centre for a mere 9 hours. Everyone (this is Japan) is on time, and the queues are endless. Every second counts, the clock is ticking without mercy, so many bikes, so little time. This explains the rigid schedule they’re following here: the very first highlight is the special guests’ "ride in". Last year’s prize winners ride in on their rumbling, coughing and potatering machines, running the gauntlet of hundreds of raised smartphone cameras. The main sponsors also bring their favourite vehicles.
A nervous glance at the clock to find out,
how many (or how few) of the precious 540 minutes are still left – what next? With over 140 stalls dedicated to motorbikes, that’s not so easy: a treasure trove of Japanese customizer creations has been scattered between Barbie style glamour choppers and incredible vintage machinery. That’s surely enough for one short day to appreciate. But, there are another 100 car customizers, plus the "International Village" with some 50 more vendors from around the globe, add to that vendors selling everything between show-exclusive souvenirs, style for the discerning biker and accessories for the fashionista bikerette. Management had given Mooneyes pinstriping legend "Wildman" Ishiis his own show floor space celebrating his birthday. There’s also the Pin Up girl competition, the Paint-a-Pennant competition, the Chevrolet special show, the live bands, and, oh, the award giving of over 120 awards.
Easy to lose sight of the essentials here
(the bikes), so we were lucky to be here one day early for our photo shoot. Much easier to get to the details of the bikes without 24.000 people blocking each other’s view and those of our camera crew. We also had the honour of awarding our own W&W Pick award to the very special one cylinder 2004 Buell Blast 500, painstakingly built by Mr. Kazama at Cheetah Custom Cycles. When handing the prize over, we had the feeling that the clock had already started ticking for next year’s Yokohama Hot Rod Show 2025.
