Greasebag Jamboree 2008 Recap
My current mission is to get hopped up on enough coffee and carbohydrates to make it through a day I could literally sleep through from beginning to end. Coming down off a 3 day adrenaline high is a serious downer and I feel a bit like I’ve been hit by a truck. Subsequently, the following thoughts/recap of the 2008 Greasebag Jamboree may be completely disjointed, missing massive amounts of detail and chalk full of excessive vocabulary as I attempt to overcompensate for my lack cognitive stability. So lets get started shall we?

My one word response on how I feel about the Greasebag this year is: stoked. Every time I looked out into the crowds I saw people smiling, talking shop, laughing, telling stories, looking over bikes, examining details, digging through and buying greasy parts and generally just having a good time. That’s everything it was meant to be, so to me, by all the measures that matter, it was a total success.

That’s not to say it was perfect - there is always room for improvement. I had hoped to see more swap meet vendors this year, and in fact had another 10 “confirmed” vendors who signed up. For whatever unknown reason, they were MIA. My guess is that since vendor space was free, they didn’t really lose anything if they didn’t show up, except for potential sales. If they woke up with a knarly hangover or were just feeling too lazy to load up the truck, they opted out. I think that will change in the years to come, there were definitely people looking to buy parts. As the word continues to spread, I think they’ll catch on that it’s worth getting out of bed for. That said, the vendors that were there were awesome. Tons of greasy parts, great dudes and lots of good stuff to dig through. I have no doubt in my mind that year after year it will get better as we build this event. Just like the crowd that shows up, the vendors help build grassroots events like this, so many thanks go out to all of them for their support. I hope to see all of them back to be a part of year 3.

All that said, the difference from last year was noticeable, and I had a lot of folks tell me that they felt this year was a lot better. Better bikes, better “home-builder” crowd and just a better overall vibe. I was psyched to continue to hear that throughout the day. Every year I strive to make these shows better - not necessarily bigger, but better. By all of my own personal measures and from all the feedback I received that goal was absolutely met.

The prize raffle was retarded. I can’t believe how much stuff was given away - over $3000 worth of amazing swag! Some folks just had all the luck - no matter how much I stirred up those tickets; a lot of the same people kept winning; the midas touch is a nice thing. Congrats to all the winners and thank you to EVERYONE who purchased raffle tickets. The money raised from the raffle is how I’m able to pull this off. As a D.I.Y, grassroots event that doesn’t charge admission, doesn’t charge for vendor space and doesn’t have a big corporate sponsor to pay for all the costs that pile up, every raffle ticket that gets sold helps pay for and support putting on the show.

That brings me to the sponsors - I could have never have pulled off such an amazing pool of prizes to give away without their generosity. I am still blown away and humbled by how much all these guys stepped up and were willing to give. Whether it was by sponsoring a plaque, donating some swag or both, without their support, pulling this off would have been a LOT harder. So to all of them – Biltwell, Four Aces, ImageOne, Chop Shop, Choppertown, BlueMoon Kustoms, Guilty Customs, Butler County Leather, Lowbrow Customs, E-Fab, Heyltje Rose, Fabricator Kevin, Cro Customs, Troy Fab, Biker Radio Magazine, 7 Metal West, Hippie Killer Garage, Dice Magazine and Acme Choppers - thank you for all your help and thank you for helping to build this event.

The bike show portion got off to a bit of a slow start, but by the end there was a group of 20 killer bikes in mix that all had the right attitude behind them. It was a really nice mix of stuff - everything from meticulously finished bikes with killer paint to bikes that had dirt and road debris on them to crazy, mutant, backyard engineered, what the fuck were you thinking rides - exactly how I wanted it to be. I think the slow start was because it took a while for it to sink in that the winners were not going to be judged by “normal” bike show standards. It wasn’t about shiny parts, killer paint, or how much was invested in the bike. Those things weren’t looked down upon - especially when done well - but it was also about the lines of the bike, the stories that you can see etched into it, the madness you must be fueled by to actually put it together (see the VW bike)… it was about honoring the success of a guy with a wrench and a vision to put together something he wants to ride. I think all the bikes celebrated that attitude, and choosing the top 10 was more difficult than I expected - there were 4 other bikes in contention for a top spot. In the end, it just came down to my 10 favorite bikes; it was as simple as that. They were all stylistically different but they all deserved to be in the winners circle together. Congrats to all those guys and to Lock Baker who took home the best-of-show, pinstriped Biltwell helmet. His bike was seriously mind blowing, the level of detail was ridiculous.

A huge thanks to Acme Choppers goes with out saying. Thank you to Wayne and crew for opening up their shop and parking lot to pull this off. A big thank you to that entire crew for helping me out personally though out the day. These guys all “get it” and having a shop of their caliber and attitude in this area is just straight up awesome.

That pretty much sums up my viewpoint of the day. I had a great time, even though by the end of the day, the sun beating on my head had robbed me of my vocabulary and the ability to form complete sentences. It was great to finally meet a lot of you guys and thanks to all of you, including those of you who I didn’t meet, for coming out and supporting this.

With all that said, I’d like to hear what you have to say about the day. I had a pretty limited viewpoint being behind the mic and running around in general all day. So lets hear your stories of the day… What cool shit did you see out back? What parts did you score? What did you really enjoy about the show? What did you wish was different? What would you change? As I said earlier, every year I want to make it better than the previous, and your feedback helps me do that. So consider this an open invitation to speak your mind.

I’ll post some of my pics soon, I’ll probably just do a raw dump of everything I have and then process them later. If you have pics, please post them up or send them to me via email (grail21@gmail.com). Thanks to everyone who’s already posted some pics, it’s great to see them. Here are some that are on the internets already:
http://s117.photobucket.com/albums/o45/Terran64/GreaseBag08/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/doncoyote/sets/72157605608779638/

The full recap of the run to the Farm in VT is coming, but it’s going to take me a few days to capture that epic adventure in words.