Our August Custom Bike Show Should Proceed As Usual
In recent days we’ve received several emails and calls from concerned readers who are worried that CRM may be closed temporarily due to the worldwide Coronavirus outbreak. Well, dear readers, we’re here to inform you that Cafe Racer is not only cranking along with our usual schedule of printing new issues every 60 days, we’re scrambling to cover a new market that’s opened up for printed magazines at the nation’s drugstores and supermarkets. Though several bookstore chains and closed for the time being, traffic in the aforementioned retail outlets has only grown in recent days. Folks are at home in most locales which means plenty of time to catch up on reading magazines about their favorite pastimes and, naturally wrenching on custom bikes. The staff has agreed to work in separate shifts where only a single person is in the office of garage at once which, as you might imagine, makes our particular style of collaborate bike building a bit more difficult to chronicle. However, with modern technologies including digital cameras with programmable self-tines, we’re still able to cover the various project builds in their entirety. With our home state of Pennsylvania on a government-mandated stay at home order, our daily 21-mile commutes to the CRM garage have proven a great reset button, as motorcycle riding is, in fact the ultimate act of social distancing. It’s been encouraging to see many other two-wheelers on local roads in recent days as the spring weather is slowing arriving and making riding more attractive by the day.
On the downside, a few events promoted in the new, April/May issue have been postponed or cancelled outright. The annual Bike Shed Custom Show in London has been cancelled for this year, as has the Classic Motorcycle Day celebration slated for May 12 down in Mt. Airy, Maryland. The show, which draws in thousands of classic British and Japanese bike enthusiasts, has been placed on hold until 2021, we recently learned. Also, on the rescheduling docket is the much-anticipated J. Wood and Co. auction on May 8 in Nashua, NH. The sell-off of the contents of one of New Eng;and’s largest British bike shops will be on the calendar for a new date so watch this space for updated. So far, there’s been no changes for our Sunday, August 16 date for our 13th Annual Reader’s Ride-In Custom Show here at Sewickley’s War memorial park, so keep that date marked on your events calendars. Let’s hope everyone stays healthy during the coming weeks and keep those wheels and wrenches turning.