Donnie Smith Show 2012

BIG weekend, this last. The 25th Annual Donnie Smith Bike Show in St. Paul was another success, both in terms of the quality of the show and the number of attendees. Normally this is a four day event for me, due to the fact that the promoter is an old friend so I donate Thursday and Friday toward helping with show set up (and he in turn takes care of me with a complimentary vendor space). This year was slightly different, in that I preached at Friendship Manor on Thursday as part of the service put on by Valley View Baptist, leaving me with only a three day investment in the show.

With the advent of the NVMDRA, I had another motivation added to promoting my business; promoting vintage motorcycle drags. As such, it was a natural for me to put the Knuckledragger on display in my booth, as seen below.




This year's biggest event for vintage motorcycle drag racing is shaping up to be the one in Eddyville Iowa in late August. Below is the flier that I handed out this past weekend.



Fitting hand in hand with that, was this beautiful Iron Head Sportster drag bike that was on display in the show this year. According to the owner, you can expect to see it at the Eddyville race this summer.

As seen below, this bike is show quality, sort of the antithesis of the Knuckledragger.

The pictures above and below are of another XL that caught my eye. A close look at the tank (shown below) confirms that the owner was thinking outside the box.

The artwork on the tank of the triple shown below suggest that its name may be "Bare Knuckles". Catchy, and cute, but its no "Knuckledragger".

Shovelheads were represented in greater numbers than at any show in recent memory. The beginning of a trend, no doubt. The one shown below is but one of many quality examples.

Of course there were an untold number of other show bikes of all styles. Something for everyone, to be sure.

The only real disappointment of the show, from my perspective, was self inflicted. A number of years ago, I suggested and smoothed the way (with the promoter) for one of the Christian motorcycle clubs to hold a church service for the vendors on Sunday morning before the show opened to the public. We have held one every year since. For some reason, this year I assumed that it was on auto pilot, and would take place without my bringing the subject up. My mistake. I should have talked to the guys ahead of time and had an announcement made, but by the time I realized it was not happening it was too late. Not such a big thing, you might think, and I would have agreed, that is until later in the day. That's when a friend mentioned to my wife that she was disappointed because **** (name changed to protect the guilty) only goes to church two times a year ....and this was one of them. Somehow I think anything that reduces the number of sermons a person hears in a year by 50% is a big deal.

(I apologize for ending on a sour note, but I can't really think of any way to change the "mood" of the post back to upbeat without just leaving out the part that is, after all, the only part that really is a "big deal")