Cycle Showcase 2022 – All in the Family

I was on-site as bikes moved in for the Cycle Showcase custom bike show this past February. Hanging 50 of my own framed archive photographs in what Randall Noldge called “Lichter Lane,” I felt the shared excitement. It was palpable to the volunteers, artists, and custom builders as more bikes and art would roll in through the doors! And this was just the prelude to two very full fun-filled days in St. Louis centered around this warehouse-style show.

Cycle Showcase is one of a growing number of bike shows that have popped up around the USA that take advantage of old characterful empty buildings in urban settings to stage their events. They make for unique venues, particularly suited to custom bikes. Especially as they harken back to a time in our country’s history when motorcycles were manufactured and assembled in similar-looking environments. The only problem is that as these spaces eventually get leased or sold, promoters are forced to start over and hustle to find NOS (New-Old-Space) that will work.

Such was the case with Cycle Showcase this year as it had to move from its last location at The Pageant concert venue. Thankfully, the founder of the show, Randall Noldge, has his fingers on the pulse of the City and seamlessly moved the show to the City Foundry complex in the up-and-coming “Midtown” area. This multi-layered development is conveniently spearheaded by one of Cycle Showcase’s most prominent supporters, moto-enthusiast Steve Smith, who happens to also be the creator of “The Moto Museum” just a quarter mile away.)

And so, Cycle Showcase was offered nearly 12,000 feet of space in what will eventually be a gym right beside the complex’ food court anchor. How perfect, as not only did they tout the most fantastic food from locally owned businesses claiming, “Foodie dreams you didn’t know you had are about to come true,” they were telling it as it is. Many of us returned to sample the delicious offerings and relaxed atmosphere all weekend long.

“Cycle Showcase” is the perfect name for this show. It says it all as it all, as it is just that, no lengthy explanations needed. It is a showcase of cycles and wonderful ones at that. To understand the show, you just have to understand Randall Noldge, the show’s creator and producer. The word “just” here may be an understatement, as Randall is anything but simple. An artist at heart (he got a scholarship to art school but dropped out after 3-months to become a rock and roll roadie,) he puts art behind everything he does. In his free time, which he doesn’t have much of, he fabricates his custom bikes, like his well-known de-raked “Slaying Mantis” Shovelhead, or works on Cycle Showcase. His day (and night) job is what makes for the bulk of his hours. He’ll go in in the morning and often not get home until after midnight as he both runs sophisticated sound equipment and acts as the engineering liaison for The Pageant, a 2200 seat concert venue that has billed national and international acts, from Dolly Parton to Kanye West, the Foo Fighters and Robert Plant. This is the same venue that hosted Cycle Showcase in its first two years, 2013 and 2014, and again in 2019 and 2020. For the most part, it is much too busy with national acts to offer the space for a bike show anymore. Given that the show was also held in a couple of different warehouse spaces and there were 3-years when it wasn’t held at all, this was the 7^th iteration that had just passed.

Randall first got the idea of putting a show together in the fall of 2012, when he started thinking how the smaller events and bike-nights he attended around St. Louis were missing something. He explained, “I wanted to show the diversity in all the things I saw out there, and I wanted to have a curated show. Unfortunately, this got some backlash as it alienated some locals that wanted to bring their bikes in. But then, who wants to see the same bike you’ve seen at shows four years in a row? And isn’t it cool to bring in bikes from other cities and builders whose work you have never seen first-hand?”

He also thought St. Louis was the perfect City for a show like this as it is within a 6-hour drive of at least eight major cities with 1-million or more people. (Chicago, Cincinnati, Indy, Kansas City, Memphis, Nashville, Tulsa, and Oklahoma City) “Geographically, we’re in such a great place. There was no reason we couldn’t have a great nationally recognized bike show.”

In addition to staging the show at four different St Louis venues to date, Randall tried scheduling the show in different seasons, including fall, winter, and spring. These last two years, he settled on Super Bowl Weekend mid-winter, which has worked exceptionally well. The funny thing here is that most promoters would avoid the conflict this timing could entail. However, it is a bit different in St. Louis, where locals still have a bitter taste when the Rams unexpectedly and suddenly pulled out to move back to Los Angeles, leaving the City high and dry. Contracts were so broken that a lawsuit against the NFL was just settled in the City’s favor for $600 million!

This year, at the City Foundry, Randall had plenty of space for the fifty bikes he had invited. Added pluses were the warm atmosphere of the brick-walled space and intense winter light streaming through banks of windows on the east and west sides. Drawing on his experience in the concert world, Randall rented a riser deck for each bike made from the same pipe and clamps stages are built from. The top surface was then covered with heavy paper stock with a big blueprint-like graphic with ghosted gears and a chain printed on it, along with a tech sheet at the lower right. That’s where the lovely Kelly Lee from Hype of Type handprinted the stats, and then she added several callouts around the base to point out interesting points about each bike. (Something beneficial to the non-motorcycle people that this show also attracts.)

As both the reputation of the show, and Randall himself, grew, the show attracted more guests, builders, and media attention from further afield. This year’s show had builders coming in from both coasts and Canada. Each bike was great and added something to the show as a whole. Hawke Lawshe brought three of his beautiful Born-Free winning customs in this year from Kalispell, MT, near the Canadian border. At the same time, Brent Law from Ironcraft came in with his tall and long chopper from over the border in Canada. Brandon Keene had the bike that took so many honors at the last Sturgis, and Michael Lange showed off his one-of-a-kind 1929 1000cc Harley-Davidson Flexi-sidecar rig.

Many race-inspired bikes ranged from Forever Rad’s Kyle Bertsch’s Indian Chieftain performance bagger to Larry Curik’s svelt XR-like 2021 93″ Dyna. In-between were other bikes like Heath Reeds Yamaha “Rattler” tracker, Kevin Dunworth’s cafe’d Yamaha, and Dan Rognsvoog’s crazy-long beastly twin Sportster drag race survivor that he picked up from Romine Racing to add to his growing collection. (Dan showed this instead of the yearlong custom he typically displays.)

Historical bikes had their place in this show, like Steve Smith’s 1937 Nimbus-4 and Freddie Franklin’s 1977 “Blackula” FLH. More quirky entries included a 1968 Monkey and a 1983 90cc 3-wheeler from Honda. Other less common bikes on display included several BMWs, from custom antique boxers to recently modified R-18s and Joe Mielke’s double-entry Boat Tail Superglide project (a Twin-Cam and a restored 1971 first year FX.)

I kept coming back to the customs. I’d seen some before (even if only once), like those from Johnny Humphry, Bare Knuckles’ Paul Wideman, Jesse Srpan, and Brock Bridges, but then there were quite a few unveils. These included Roadside Marty’s Knucklehead, Jeremy Valentines Shovelhead, Mike Morman’s “Nervous Breakdown” split-rocker Shovel, and a 1916 raw-metal “J” from Rick Dozer. Dozer’s raw metal creation looked extra special under the spots that showed off its completely hand-formed gas tank and frame.

This year, Randall worked extra hard to have fresh unveils. He explained, “I see the show as an immersive experience, where the atmosphere changes as you move through the gallery. With the computer-driven lighting constantly on the move, there’s always a new look and feel to the room and the machines.” Every 15-minutes for the first two hours of the show on Saturday, another bike would become the center of attention as the lighting you are likely familiar with from concert stages and nightclubs would refocus on another custom, and the drape would be lifted off with a big ceremonious “WOW.” Going back to Randall putting art in everything he does, it’s as if this is his performance art.

The curating portion of Randall’s job goes beyond custom builders as he also selects artists and vendors that complement the vibe. Darren McKeig had his paintings out (and I’d just photographed him 2-weeks earlier in Italy!), as did Chris Galey with his Devil Chicken designs. I was honored to be on board as a guest, and Rich Phillips showed off his tooled leatherwork. Alex Eisenberg had his handmade RP Knives out, and Gabbert was there with his Kreosote handmade boots. Each artist was working with their craft on site for all to see. All-Star Tattoos was set up as a vendor, and since they believe in the show so much, they were also a sponsor.

Not that the buzz inside the venue and looking at such amazing bikes all weekend wasn’t enough; a couple of parties upped the ante even higher. Friday night, we all congregated at the jam-packed Gaslight Lounge / Rock Star Tacos pre-party, where drinks and street tacos were flying in all directions. Then Saturday brought us together for a Bare Knuckle Performance sponsored bowling party in the characterful Saratoga Lanes, the only bowling alley I’ve ever heard of being on a second floor. Watching Hawke Lawshe and his friends tearing up one of the lanes, they looked like they were right out of the 1960s! How fitting since this analog facility built in 1916 is the oldest bowling alley west of the Mississippi. It was the perfect setting for this rag-tag group of bikers.

And if you needed to go somewhere after the parties, there was the rooftop bar at the Angad Art hotel. Being the official sponsor hotel for the event, the hotel seemed to be taken over. And given that their claim that artwork is in every corner was entirely accurate, it seemed the perfect fit with the Cycle Showcase.

What a great weekend hanging out with friends and meeting new ones. Randall was correct. By the end of the weekend, it did feel like one big family. The question in my mind then is, what about next year? Aware that people will be pumping new iron in the gym rather than drooling over old iron, Randall still seemed relaxed. As he sees it, the City Foundry complex is far from finished, and while this particular space will be gone, they are building quickly. Across the street, they were working all weekend on a 13-story apartment building. There already is a Fresh Thyme natural and organic food grocery, and the Puttshack “tech-infused mini golf experience with global food and drink” is up and running, so you can see where this place is going. The best part is there is also an ample event space being worked on, and as Randall sees it, with the support of Steve Smith, there’s a good chance there is a “forever space” in its future. The show is clearly headed in a positive direction, so it’s time, join the family, and we’ll meet up next year.