Outlier's Guild Moto Show Los Angeles 2019
Photos and Report by Jim Gianatsis - Click on any Picture to Enlarge
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Los Angeles Downtown Arts District, CA - Saturday March 23rd 2019 -The 3nd annual Outlier's Guild Moto Show was again held in the old warehouse district of downtown Los Angeles, now being revitalized by the City as the "Arts District" with upscale Apartments,Restaurants and Art Galleries. It continues to be a well produced event featuring the retro / custom / cafe bike scene, drawing a good turnout of spectators and the nicest turnout of custom built bikes on the West Coast since the heyday of the legendary LA Calendar Motorcycle Show, when the 2008 Economic Recession ended America's big ticket custom bike industry.

This year the Show had moved a few blocks away from last year's location in a big old warehouse near 6th Street, now right into the Middle of the DTLA Arts District at East 4th Street and Seaton in a block of refurbished buildings called the "Container Yard". Some of the buildings were already occupied with venders and shops, even a barbershop, while other building were already set up as art galleries and event rental spaces. The was a large outside area between the buildings which was used as a food court and beer garden with food trucks and speciality beers on tap. For as big a production as the OC Show is, it is surprising that it is still just a 1-day show held on a Saturday from 10am - 8pm. Most motorcycle enthusiasts are off work on Sundays and looking for somewhere to ride to.

New Millennials in Black Leather Jackets
But not a Biker Club logo in sight! The motorcycle enthusiast market has changed, particularly in the big cities of Los Angeles, Austin Texas and New York. The aging, overweight, Harley-Davidson riding Baby Boomers and Biker Clubs were almost no where to be seen at the OG Moto Show, and at similar events like the HandBuilt Show in Austin,Texas. The enthusiast crowd at the OG Show were much younger, 25-45 year old New Millennials, probably downtown apartment dwelling, single professional white collar office workers, many being very attractive and fit young men and women.

The Outlier's Guild Moto Show is an annual motorcycle event located in Downtown Los Angeles, now in its 3rd year, featuring select Cafe' Racer, Bobber, Classic, Tracker, Scrambler, Old School Chopper, Modern Classic, Brat and full custom motorcycles on display in a unique setting. The OG Show is the vision of Jay LaRossa of Lossa Engineering, Stan Chen, John Pangilinan, and Ralph Holguin of RMD Garage to help bring this style of motorcycle culture to Southern California.

Gone now are the once prerequisite American V-twin custom Baggers, Choppers, and big name Builder Exotics, along with many of the big V-twin custom bike and parts companies like Drag Specialities, Custom Chrome, Vance & Hones. Now replaced by junk yard find builds of any type of old bike from Europe, Japan, and sure, some from America. No high priced crate engines from S&S or Jim's Machine, or show builds from the Drag Specialities and Biker's Choice Catalogs. But rather, hand-crafted bikes built from old used motorcycles, recycled parts, scrap metal and tubing. The custom bike scene is nearly impossible now for motorcycle and parts manufacturers to capitalize on and bring the motorcycle industry back to its old glory days.

This pretty girl DJ was left playing to an empty room off the entrance way with just 2 custom bikes and wall art that must have taken someone days to paint. She should have been placed in the main bike display room where all the people where. There was also live DJ music out in the food and beer court where most everyone congregated,

No where to be seen are the once legendary Boyd Codington style custom bike builders like Arlen Ness, Ron Simms, Dave Perewitz, Jesse James, Paul Yaffee and Jesse Rooke. These are the new 'Hand Made" style of custom bikes first pioneered by Japan's Shinya Kimura, now joined by new Southern California artisans like Cristian Sosa and Max Hazen. This is where the custom bike building industry has shifted. No big name Parts Distributors and Manufacturers are making money off these guys and girls, who build everything they need from scratch with old bikes and used and hand fabricated parts.

Artwork and graffiti adorns the buildings and streets throughout the Art District in downtown Los Angeles where the OG Moto Show is held. They are is full of exciting new restaurants and clubs, refurbished factory buildings into artist loft,s and newly constructed high rise apartments. Many New Millennials live and work in this area, and a motorcycle may be their only form of transportation.

And it was surprising to see so many young women enjoying the scene, many haven ridden in on bikes. They weren't here to buy motorcycles and spend money on accessories, but to attend an art exhibit . And that's what it was. From the beautiful hand-made bikes, to the artwork on the walls, to the hand paint murals and graffiti inside and outside the old warehouse building, motorized 2-wheel art had arrived in the Big City, and the city dwellers were there to experience it.

And it was surprising to see so many young women enjoying the scene, many haven ridden in on bikes. They weren't here to buy motorcycles and spend money on accessories, but to attend an art exhibit . And that's what it was. From the beautiful hand-made bikes, to the artwork on the walls, to the hand paint murals and graffiti inside and outside the old warehouse building, motorized 2-wheel art had arrived in the Big City, and the city dwellers were there to experience it.

The Show's attendance count for spectators and custom bikes, seemed to be down about 30% from the year before, with about 1,000 attendees over the course of the day, and about 50 custom and display bikes throughout the venue. With the OC Show being such a huge production to set up, I am surprised the show is currently limited to being just the one day, Saturday, when many motorcycle enthusiasts are working at motorcycle dealerships and can't attend. Adding Sunday as a second day for the Show would certainly draw twice the attendance, and probably wouldn't cost much more for the facility rental which certainly needs a week to set up, and a week to tear down.

The Motorcycle as Art
Above: Motorcycles as art, drawing many young single women and men with their cafe' latte's within walking distance from the surrounding newly constructed apartment buildings. Even if they bought a nice custom bike, they'd probably have have no place to park it. I wonder if she knows this cafe bike started out as a Ducati Testastretta Monster, and is still unfinished without front brakes.

Tiddler Power
Many of the areas of the Container Yard featured artistic wall murals in place, and the OC Show only needed to place bikes in front of them. This area featured a couple of 50cc tiddler customs, and might have done better with more or different bikes

Vintage Keihin CR Carburetors feed the Harley Knucklehead engine. Beautiful hand fabrication work is seen everywhere from the exposed clutch drive and mechanism, to the frame, swingarm and foot pegs.

The right side of Max Hazen' Knucklehead Superbikes features dual equal length unmuffled exhaust pipes. You just know it must sound incredible at idle and in full song.

The rear view shows just how narrow and compact the Hazen Knucklehead Superbike really is.

As a superbike aficionados, I loved this track prepared early 1980s Suzuki GS1100 with period correct modifications like the braced aluminum swingarm with Fox Factory Piggyback Twin Shox, Racing brakes, Mag Wheels, a Yoshimura R acing Exhaust System, Mikuni Smoothbore Racing Carburetors and an External Oil Cooler.

Weird bike displays like this were scattered throughout the Outlier's Guild Show, turning the Show into an Art Museum with interesting talking points and photo opportunities. i don't know this particular Honda CB900's history, but it was turned into an off-road desert sled and maybe ridden across Mexico and back?

Beer Garden Party
What better way to unwind with new found friends after checking out cool custom cafe Bikes and Moto Artwork, then in the outdoor Beer Garden with speciality draft beers, food trucks, DJ music and full wall mural graffiti artwork.

Someone likes their classic 1950's Moto Guzzi 350 so much, they set up a display to sell related artwork and Moto Guzzi wine.

Dues Ex Machina from nearby Marina Del Tay, California, brought this Honda XR400 custom dirt tracker to the party, modified with upside down front forks and a single shock single sided rear swingarm.

And it was surprising to see so many young women enjoying the show, many even ridden in on bikes. They weren't here as much to buy motorcycles and spend money on accessories, but to attend an art exhibit . And that's what it was. From the beautiful hand-made bikes, to the artwork on the walls, to the hand painted murals and graffiti inside and outside the old warehouse buildings, motorized 2-wheel art had arrived in the Big City, and the city dwellers were there to experience it.

This old school Royal Enfield in a retro styled modern Superbike / Cafe racer chassis and suspension was a real show stopper.

Roland Sand's newest Super Hooligan race bike for his "run what ya brung" amateur dirt track series, here with dirt track racer based on a Suzuki's GT550 3-cylinder water-cooled 2-stoke street bike from the 1970s.

The enthusiast crowd at the OG Show were young 25-45 year old New Millennials, probably downtown apartment dwelling, single professional white collar office workers, many being very attractive young men and women. Not one bearded beer belly Hells Angel or Mongul in the bunch. Has the decimated American motorcycle market found a resurgence, or is this just and afternoon art walk followed by a stop at the Whole Foods Market?

A Farewell to Custom Choppers
Only "Dicks" ride choppers now? We're not sure if this wall graphic came with the Container Yard's location, or was painted just for the Show? This might be builder and OG Moto Show copromoter Jay LaRossa of Lossa Engineering's "hand built" Knucklehead Chopper. It was, however, the only chopper at this year's Outlier's Guild Show, held in the state of California were choppers first evolved back in the 1960s and quickly took over the earth for the next 50 years, only to disappear like dinosaurs due to a destructive asteroid known as the 2008 Economic Recession. May they Rest in Peace.

Shinya Kimura brought this "hand made" Yamaha TT500 Single Cylinder Cafe Racer featuring his traditional hand made aluminum bodywork and a massive road racing dual leading shoe front drum brake.

Millennials in Black Leather Jackets were everywhere, but without a Biker Club logo or patch in sight! The motorcycle enthusiast market has changed from Bad Boys scaring the locals, to Good Guys and Girls on their best behavior. This is particularly true in the big cities like Los Angeles, Austin Texas and New York.

Above, Michael La Fountain has been building vintage motorcycles since he was 17 years old. With an over obsessive desire to create and a understated passion for motorcycles Raccia Motorcycles was born. In 2006 Raccia was formed to create one of a kind vintage race inspired motorcycles.

Mike's latest Raccia cafe racer is a 1969-78s era Honda SOHC CB750 4-cylinder, arguably the most significant motorcycle in history, modified with period correct parts like the big Honda double leading shoe front brake assembly, laced to beautiful Akront style spoked aluminum wheels. 

Special fabrication parts are limited to the front bikini fairing with headlight, the riders's racing seat with tail piece cowling, and the hand made oil tank rescinding under the saddle for the Honda 4-cylinder's dry sump oil system. And of course, the stainless steel 4-into-1 header pipes and exhaust system.

You'll find detailed pictures and more information on the Raccia Honda CB 750 in the FastDates.com Calendar Bike Garage
and see it featured in the 2020 Iron & Lace Calendar.

This Asian Moped engine was customized, modified, and bolted into a Speedway bike chassis. Is there a 100cc class somewhere to race these?

Roland Sands Design was one of the OC Show's main sponsors / contributors and this display feature a current Indian TT750cc race bike with an old Indian chassis and parts suspended from the ceiling with wires. The point? Art for Art's sake / visual and physical entertainment which spectators could walk into and touch.

A modern Triumph Twin redesigned from the ground up, and with an obvious Indian motorcycle sourced fuel tank, was turned into this seriously bad-ass Streetfighter.

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