Big business clambers into bed with custom builders: discuss.

Multinational big bizniziz (with nothing to do with bikes) are falling over themselves to get next to motorcycles and motorcycling. This is how rum peddlars Sailor Jerry did it

THE RIDE 2016 was one company’s idea to promote its booze through the medium of custom bikes and social media. ‘One of the challenges was to have a selfie with a dog,’ explains James Grant, from one of the teams entered. And while the hardcore patch club biker might be sneering, said selfie helped James and his three mates win a brand new Harley-davidson Dyna Street Bob and a week’s holiday to Hawaii. Welcome to brand marketing and the particular sliver of a Venn diagram where big budgets bump uglies with the British custom bike scene. Multinational companies, who have nothing to do with two wheels, have been trawling the custom bike scene for a few years now. Bike culture has been used to sell everything from sunglasses to smartphones and when drinks company Sailor Jerry jumped aboard the bandwagon, they did it with gusto and humour. The rumslingers signed up three UK teams of four to build custom bikes, using Harley’s 2016 Dyna Street Bob, then sent them off around the country to take part in a number of different daft and ultimately optional trials. These less than Herculean tasks ranged from hugging strangers and chilli-eating to waxing chests and participation in the aforementioned canine photo ops. But the more tasks that were completed, the better the chances of scooping the star prize. ‘None of our team were bike builders,’ says James Grant, a 31-year-old photographer, from the winning Originals team. ‘We’re tinkerers, but the other teams were proper custom builders. We were the underdogs. Our bike had a one-piece, moulded 1998 Sportster tank and seat unit, rigid rear struts, a 16-inch back wheel with a car tyre, the front wheel was re-laced with a 21-inch rim, and we fitted bunny ear ’bars and custom pipes. We didn’t win the vote for best bike, the FTH team from Wales won that. But we won overall because our photos got more likes on Instagram and we did more of the tasks. For us it was about it being a fun trip.’ A big part of the challenge was riding the bikes. The result was two-fold: it proved the bikes actually worked, despite their timeconstrained six-week build times, and also generated some stunning photography of the V-twins in different photogenic corners of the country where the teams were encouraged to ride their creations with their friends and team members. Now where can I find someone to give me a brand new bike in return for an awesome cat meme and a Youtube clip of me jumping off the 10-metre board?