Donnie Smith Motorcycle Show

What's up everybody? My name's Nate Beck and we're here at the 31st Annual Donnie Smith Custom Motorcycle Show. It's full of old school choppers, new school baggers and everything in between. So let's head on in and check it out. What I found here are two gorgeous original Harleys, one in hi-fi turquoise and one in tropical green.

Some colors that aren't always seen, which is what makes them extra cool. Being a Sportster rider, there's not much I love more than a solid custom Sportster. We got a copper springer front end, bringin' all the old school touches, wrap pipes that dump straight off, converted to a chain drive. Hardtail, ostrich leather seat, fantastic job on this one by Jeff Anderson. A big part of the chopper ethos is, "built, not bought." And this is one bike that was built and not bought, by Mac Rickrode in Vernon Hills.

One of the better looking bikes here at Donnie Smith, another gorgeous close-up of quality chops. What I'm trying to do here is teach these kids real world skills. Engineering, manufacturing, problem-solving, you know? And the bottom line is, when you teach 'em all these skills and you give 'em a project like this, they work harder at it. They love what they're doing, they love seeing it come together, The kids are committed to the process of learning about the technical world.

We just use bikes as the vehicle to do it. Get the kids in the shops, put the parts in their hands, let them create. So here we have the Heritage Springer from D&D customs. Like you said, you've got a springer front end that you raked 5 degrees to help with the handling, converted to a chain drive in the back with an open primary. He installed a knucklehead from S&S to power this beauty, and a little sidecar to bring your friends along.

There's nothing like it. Absolutely not. It's modern, yet vintage, and you can turn the key, start it, ride out of here. Well, that's the thing. With vintage bikes sometimes, you know, the reliability isn't always there.

So to have a bike that looks like that you get that vintage appeal, then you just hop on, you hit the button, you're rollin'. That entire bike, the whole stock harness that was in there... Yeah. Has all been removed so it's a modern-day harness, fuse panel, starter relay, it's like a modern bike. Just turn it on and go.

So the name of the game here, a big part, is slam baggers, right? So the thing is, they airbag these, They pull them in and they drop them. So we're gonna check out some of the best slam baggers here. It's one of the nicer ones I think. It's lookin' really good.

Absolutely. The paint's insane, absolutely crazy. So at every show we're going to bring you one bike that's not a Harley, but it's absolutely changing the game. And here at Donnie Smith, I've found it. This sissy bar is ridiculous.

Super old school chopper shit right here. I love on this bike, they've taken and put beer cans, to cover things, man. This is rat rod in the definition, Schwinn Flying Star. And of course we always have to take the piss, celebrating. I know I said I was only going to shoot one bike that's not a Harley, but I did find another rat rod that absolutely deserves being checked out.

I've never seen a bike like this in my life. Even pointing out the suicide handle on the old school steering wheel. It's the attention to detail that really makes bikes and choppers what they are. A metric season here at Donnie Smith. I said there was going to be one.

I brought you two, now I'm bringing you number three. The absolute insanity of the Midwest Metric love is here. Now check this out. This has to be one of the most insane exhaust systems I've seen. So the Metrics, they have four cylinders, right?

Not the two like Harley had before. So sometimes when you're building the pipes you got to think, okay what am I going to do, straight dump? This guy, not so much. You just kind of relax, and look at bikes and talk to people about bikes. That's what it's all about.

Yeah, absolutely. Donnie Smith 2018, the 31st annual. Man, It's crazy. I love the fact that so many of the youth today are getting into working on bikes, building bikes and just getting into Harley-Davidson in general. So I hope you enjoyed the coverage, and we'll see you for the next bike show.

Until next time, ride safe, wrench safe, and we'll see you on the road.