2019 - Born Free 11, California, USA
The things people out there do to their sleds even on a normal day somewhere, is usually pretty amazing. Here at Born Free this goes into overdrive. Or low orbit. Or to the moon. Just to see and appreciate all the more normal takes on classic themes would take weeks, considering the sheer number of bikes on display here in the Oak Canyon Park. Or just being parked in the visitors' space.
Absolutely insane deep space
paint jobs were fighting hard to get noticed alongside tanks that looked like they'd been dragged from grandpas' mouldering garden shed. Hand-fashioned carb covers, artsy engravings on rare vintage cylinder heads, taillights to make any restorator of US cars cry in awe. Or how about this mad blue Shovel chop (which deservedly made 1st place invited builder), sporting open valve train, open crank case and open everything, usually visible only in the parts handbook. According to the internet, it was running as well, snorting fire through its wackily routed pipes.
We pitied the judges who had one hell
of a job to find out who deserved best of show here. Almost impossible to say which bike was better, or "better" than the others having been brought by the Invited Builders.
Whats so remarkable about Born Free
is the total freedom to find radical and new answers to age-old questions of how to do it better, more beautiful, more personalized than anyone ever before. This search for the outrageous finds its annual high point here at Born Free. Many other shows have great bikes, but Born Free is a thousand throated roar to the ingenuity of people and unbridled wrenching rage.