Last May the Bike Shed went balls-out with our third exhibition, celebrating the new-wave cafe racer custom scene, featuring over 120 brats, scramblers, trackers, bobbers, cafe racers, and a whole bunch of category-defying custom bikes. The central London venue at Tobacco Dock was easy to access, hospitable and we made sure there was great food, barrista coffee, a bar, cigar lounge, barbershop and plenty of reason (and space) to hang out all day with your mates, or with the family, or on your own, reading a magazine and enjoying the vibe. There was also great gear to buy, plus stunning art, photography film and even a little live music (ok, he was a busker, but he was very good). …This was no trade fair.
The Bike Shed is run by a bunch of volunteers, none of whom come from the Motorcycle Industry. We created the blog, ride, events and our exhibitions simply because we they didn’t already exist. We had that “Carlsberg” conversion: “What if The Bike Shed did a Bike show…?” The rest wrote itself.
So why are we posting a feature and photos 6 months late? Well, at the time the event was featured everywhere. The mags, blogs (and even a few cable TV networks) got there a lot faster than we could (we were knackered) and we didn’t want to bombard you all with even more stuff. It also seemed more authentic to hear about it from other people.
But there is another reason – and it’s all good. We have just booked out next 2 events for 2015 (with more to follow, including the 2015 DGRide).
The Bike Shed will be in Paris at Carreau du Temple on 11th & 12th April next year, and we’ll be back in London at Tobacco Dock on May 22nd, 23rd & 24th, with more of the same high quality custom bikes from pros and shed-builders alike, plus all the art, photography, film, gear and superb hospitality, but most importantly, featuring all of you. Don’t go looking for details or tickets just yet it’s too soon – but you can rest assured we’ll be shouting about it in the magazines, on here, as well as on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram, and we even have a Pinterest account now.
If you missed the exhibition, check out the photos on this page, many of them taken before the doors opened, so you can see the layout. Over 7000 people turned up last May, so it was busy, but here was loads of room for all.
