OVER
the last year in excess of 5,000 custom bikes from around the globe were
entered to qualify for the prestigious finals of the World Bike Building
Championships held in the picturesque town of Sturgis and nestling in between
the rolling hills of South Dakota.
Two
time Irish champions C&C Choppers with Ger Conlon’s Rattle and Hum design
competed against 80 of the top finalists to win the much sought after title.
In
only their second year the Irish team moved up the ranks from 38th to a very
respectable 14th raising a few eyebrows and rattling a few cages along the
way.
According
to organisers and competitors alike, the standards of design and development at
Sturgis this year surpassed all previous competitions.
Ger
Conlon, Custom Bike Builder, C&C Choppers stated:
“We are thrilled with the
result. We are the highest ever ranked Irish competitor and we are now
justifiably competing with the best in the world.
“Everyone
around me has been saying that this was the stiffest competition ever and in
previous years we would have placed or possibly won. All I know is that I have
been customising bikes since I could walk and never imagined when, to my
parents dismay, I redesigned that first tricycle that I would be here beating
some incredible designers that are household names around the world. It gives
all Irish bike customisers a real incentive to continue improving and hopefully
next time an Irish designed bike will win.
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Ger
Conlon competed against other Irish based bike builders at the Carole Nash
Irish Motorbike and Scooter show in March of this year to earn the Title of
Irish Champion and the top prize of entry to the world Championship Finals.
Unlike
many designers Conlon does not work off strict plans. He possesses a rare
talent of been able to picture the bike in his minds eye and works tirelessly
until it comes together.
Ger
added:
“I don’t work from drawings, if things look good then I weld them up, if
not I try some other way until it looks OK. It took me about two weeks to have the
frame built. I redid almost all of it two or three times till it looked just
right.
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Ger
wanted to build a friction drive chopper for several years but by its very
nature this type of drive would necessitate making the bike about six inches
longer as you would have to mount a second gear box behind the regular
transmission in order to get the rear wheel turning in the right
direction.
Ger
said:
“It’s a personal opinion. They just don’t look right with the rear wheel
mounted too far behind the transmission no matter what you do to the rest of
the bike. I feel it makes the bike uncompromising and unyielding like most
friction drive choppers look. While I was trying to figure it out a colleague
jokingly suggested turning it around backwards. It was so simple I couldn’t
understand why we hadn’t seen it done before.
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