Texas Scooter Times

…A LARGE crowd showd up at the Humble Civic Center Expo Building February 15th for the Houston Motorcycle Expo & Swap Meet. Sponsored by Baytown’s KT’s Cycle Service &
Cold Spring’s Bad To The Bone Motorcycles, the large open air building was filled with vendors peddlin’ everything from used parts & motorcycles to fancy coffee, jewelry &
gegaws of all sorts for the motorcyclin’ lifestyle. Up at the front of the show was a line of motorcycles including a 1935 Harley 3 Wheeler and some of the WILDEST Radical Custom
motorcyles to be seen. Hundreds of People’s Choice Ballots jammed the Ballot Box indicating that the Motorcyclin’ Gearhead Crowd took the Antique, Custom & Touring Show as
seriously as the bikes owners did.
…The American Touring Trophy went to Mike Thompson’s ‘06 Victory Hammer with a $2000 paint job by Jason. The Show’s Sponsor Mad Dog Phillip owner of Bad To The Bone
Motorcycle commented that the paint job was VERY GOOD for the price and considering that the bike had been ridden 5000 miles before the show was holding up GREAT.
…Texas Scooter Times classifies custom motorcycles in 3 catagories irregardless of what brand of motorcycle or motor the bike starts out with. Custom Stock is for bikes that
have stock front ends and unmodified frames, Modified Custom is for bikes with either modified front ends or frames, and Radical Custom is for motorcycles with both modified
front ends and frames,
… In the Custom Stock Class, 2nd Place went to Conroe’s Gray Smith. His Christian themed ‘99 Road King was a very different "old school" looker with crosses from front to back.
First Place in Custom Stock went to Herbert Torregano’s ‘03 Harley Duce, a very clean 6 year old daily rider with a couple of thousand bucks worth of personalization on it.
…In Modified Custom, Clinton D. McEver from Humble took 2nd with his ‘04 Swift Bar Chopper. Clinton’s very trick American Flag paint job’s flag waves under lights or as the sun
hits it at different angles. Maddog awarded the coveted Judges Choice Trophy to the USMC themed scooter. First Place in Modified Custom however, went to the ‘08 Rocker
belonging to Hank Tigner out of Willis. Hank’s entry form had about $8000 worth of modifications listed all the way down the back of the sheet and his month and a half’s worth of
work on it agreed with Maddog, who judged his 3rd show for Texas Scooter Times at Humble.
…In the highly contested Radical Custom Category, Clinton R. Wallace came down from Cleveland and took 2nd with his CTC Bobber. Danny Sanchez of Cut Throat Customs
assembled the bike with Clinton at their Humble location over about 6 months and now with 6000 miles on it over the last 2 years, it STILL took home some gold. 1st Place went to
the ‘08 Rolling Thunder of Tim Mosseley who said on his entry sheet that he spent "TOO MUCH" over the 4 months that it took him and David Stanley to build his scooter. His paint
by Brent Bernard and the custom air dam and back fender fabricated by the pair run the judges point sheet up enough to take the "big trophy".
…The Asian Touring Class has been getting more and more interesting as more and more "neat" accessories are coming out for the import bikes. 2nd place went to Randy Pallan
who creates a much nicer bike than his handwriting indicates. His VTX 1800 featured a $6000 paint job by Sean Oz that for sure earned him some points even though the big Honda
had almost 40,000 miles on it in the 3 years since it’s been built. The First Place Trophy in Asian Touring rode home with Kelly Dever, hopefully lashed to the front forks of his
Suzuki M109R back to Anthony Florida where he hails from. The big Import scoot had a custom swingarm that housed a 300 tire with air ride and a trick paint job which earned it the
win.
…The Antique Class belonged to the ’72 Sportster of Tim Duke. With only $4000 invested, him & Jerry Carswell took a year to put the sharks mouth scooter together spending only
200 bucks painting it themselves.
…In Early Antique, Michael Barbato unloaded, kicked off and rode his 1935 Harley 3 wheeler into the show area to the delight of the early bargain hunters, most who’d never seen
an early model ‘45. His old putter gathered "a bunch" of Peoples Choice Ballots as folks gawked at the bright orange 3 wheeler all day long.
…However, when all the ballots were counted, (no easy task - I might add)…. The crocadile themed Custom Modified of Chris Laster had tickled the crowd’s fancy the most. Lot’s
of bikes have been touted as "one of a kind" but Chris’ use of MOST of a real reptile’s body parts in the assembly of his scooter kinda made that old catch phrase take on a new
meaning. The crowd applause level for his 6" streched frame soft tail was the loudest of the Awards Ceremony.
….All the folks that came to the Houston Motorcycle Expo and Swap Meet sure seemed to like the facility at the Humble Civic Center. With it’s pretty well central location in Houston
proper and easy access off Hwy 59, large free paved parking lots and handy layout - Houston motorcycle enthusiasts of all sorts will probably see Texas Scooter Times holding
another show there "pretty soon"…. Look For It….