Grinderfest 2011

So did any of us win anything ?????????

Got there after prize giving so have no idea who won what,I didn't get anything now some off my thoughts on the "show" first off I want to thank irish for all his work and to all the people who made the effort to enter there bikes,now one of the things that got up my nose was the hijacking of the show by shed 5 I didn't see one bit of grinderfest promo stuff or anything about the greasemonkey's and as for there t-shirts I wasn't paying $55.00 for a shirt that didn't even promote grinderfest .I think next year it should be at a neutral venue and one day ride in gig so WE can promote what we do, rant over for now.

I didn't even go to the show and I got the same vibe!

Next one will definitely be different. I have exactly the same issues taht Doug mentioned, particularly when you look at the size of the Grease Monkeys text on the t-shirts and poster but I'm looking at it from the perspective that at least I got somewhere to run it without having to pay for the venue myself. If I had to pay then I probably wouldn't have run it as I would have had to charge entry and I had no idea if anyone would turn up. The number of bikes we had plus the other guys who would have liked to be there but missed out for whatever reason, absolutely blew me away. It shows that we do have enough interest in this type of thing and I can now go out and look for a sponsor for next year. I will make it a one dayer somewhere we can control the prices and what is on offer (read that as cheap beer and food) plus Jody had offered to blow stuff up. The venue and the lack of marketing certainly kept the gangs out this time which is exactly what we wanted and there were no attitudes throughout the entire week.
I will look at getting some Grease Monkey Grinderfest shirts printed in the next couple of weeks and I'll sell them for whatever they cost. I didn't need to put out very much money and I had a good time so I think it was a success. Free internet apps like this forum are a blessing and have been the backbone of the whole chopper/custom scene round the world.
I'd like to thank everyone for coming (most on multiple visits) and for all the kind words I've received plus all the abuse I've had on not finishing any projects. From the weekend I'll get back into the Pan and get that bugger out on the road. One bike at a time

Just while I can still remember; Not sure what teh Shed 5 awards were called but basically:
Best engineering (for a bike that was going and based on what you could do in a shed with limited tools) - Jody for his Yam with the chain link bars.
People's Choice - Lance and Phantom
Best Paint - Lance and Phantom
Best Overall - Based on getting someone to start and build something in their shed - Andrew and his yellow/green XS.
Monkey Cup- my award for the guys who were there all the way through the Grinderfest Blog for teh last 6 months - Dave Agent with his little orange Puch.
I think there was another one but I can't remember what it was.
We also handed out a few vouchers for pinstriping from Damien which went down really well.

Matts saint got a prize too,damn nice bike that one!

Great show Irish . Glad to see I not the only one that felt the Grinderfest was hijacked. I went and saw Kim bout entering as Icant do internet photo thing. Probably freaked her out .Tattooed biker dude rather than yuppie. Anyway couple of days later rang me and told me not to bother as entry not accepted. Said Thursday nite was owners private gig. Figured then something was up. Anyway Rant over. Enjoyed the couple of days that I did go.

Shit I forgot about Matt's bike. That was the missing one.

CORO KEV wrote:

Great show Irish . Glad to see I not the only one that felt the Grinderfest was hijacked. I went and saw Kim bout entering as Icant do internet photo thing. Probably freaked her out .Tattooed biker dude rather than yuppie. Anyway couple of days later rang me and told me not to bother as entry not accepted. Said Thursday nite was owners private gig. Figured then something was up. Anyway Rant over. Enjoyed the couple of days that I did go.

Bugger, that sucks a bit Kev. What happened to you saturday, thought you were going to try come up?

I agree with the venue being free,that was good as these days it hard to get people to front up with venues but I wonder how many of the hi-handlebar + chromed doo-dads bike owners really knew what went into building some of these bike's I mean I just drooled over the engineering of marcel's bike + nicks shovel I went back to these bikes + just stared at them and picking up on things I had missed before but hey maybe I "get it" and that is why I like making shit in my garage.(oh yea over the week I did 4900kms with three trips to auckland I am so over driving)

So I just had a look at the "official media site" for the custom bike festival and we didn't even get a mention. Just shed 5. Very disappointing.
So. They all said we couldn't run a bike show but we did. Pretty sure they'd say we couldn't run a magazine. I think different. What do you think?
Anybody with an idea or a story of your biker past or present, or some decent pictures, send them to me at irishjon@greasemonkeys.co.nz. We've started something good here. Let's keep it going.

Jon you rule, for the scene!!!



Hey andy told me i got 2nd in a couple things for my sr???

Chop,worked on shovel till 2.oo Sat morn. Slept in and didnt get it running properly till bout midday Figured it a bit late to get up there from Coro. .Thought it was gunna rain.

west end rotangs wrote:

Jon you rule, for the scene!!!



Hey andy told me i got 2nd in a couple things for my sr???

Yeah. Best paint was one of them. It all got confused. matt got the artists award but that wasn't the same as best paint. Lance won that. It was probably up there as best bike as Doug really liked it.

Lance desearved it.

That things killer!!!

Hey guys Dave, with the Puch Moped here...

Just wanted to say I really enjoyed the whole Grinderfest, and was stoked to be able to enter and even more stoked to have a trophy on my shelf (actually kitchen table) now. The quality of the bikes was phenomenal and quite inspirational. BTW is Marcel going to have an unveiling when his bike is done?

I know what you guys are saying about the hijacking of the comp, I was surprised to see some of the bikes that were in the line up. But I also think Shed Five brought quite a few positives to the equation as well. I thought having the bikes there for a week (shit I should go and pick mine up) was a good thing. I liked having the opportunity to meet a few friends there for lunch or a couple of million dollar beers after work and look at the line up and talk bikes. Most of them, even the non-bike/car guys could easily identify which bikes were home engineered and which were largely store brought. Which sort of leads into the next advantage, I bet a whole lot of people who have previously had no exposure to home engineered custom bikes got to see the entries, and that has to be a good thing? A friend who is a semi-regular at Shed Five certainly commented that it was the most interesting line up of bikes he's ever seen there...

The biggest disappointment in my eyes I guess, was the lack of Grinderfest or Grease Monkey branding (maybe some brand guidelines are needed for sharing/enforcing with partners? ;-) ), still I hope overall the comp. has had a positive overall?

And finally, another thanks to Jon for what must have been a huge effort on his part for organising everything. I completely enjoyed the whole experience and am looking forward to participating in the next one, though maybe I should build a bobber next time?

Thanks Dave. Maybe I'll finish one next time. I'm still getting positive feedback on people who are now thinking of building their own bikes after seeing the bikes on show was it was definitely worth while. Now I have to get stuck into promoting Grease Monkeys so people know where we are.