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| Location |
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Key people | Anthony 'Dutch' van Someren, Vikki |
| Website | Bike Shed Motorcycle Club |
The Bike Shed Motorcycle Club is a private members club in Shoreditch, London with a branch in Los Angeles. Described as a "social club for motorcycle enthusiasts", it was founded by Anthony "Dutch" van Someren. The Bike Shed is best known for hosting an annual exhibition of custom motorcycles in Tobacco Dock, Wapping.
Prior to founding the Shoreditch-based Club, founder, Van Someren ran a motorcycle news blog aggregator under the domain name BikeShedMotorcycleClub.com. The Bike Shed shows were founded in response to the perceived poor quality of British motorcycle exhibitions. Van Someren developed the concept of the private member's club after their second show was well received.
The founders envisaged Bike Shed as a "Soho House for Bikers", attracting a younger demographic than traditional motorcycle-friendly venues. [1] Proposals to open the facility were initially opposed by the Shoreditch Community Association and the Shoreditch Town Hall Trust. [2] The club in Shoreditch was opened in November 2015 in three railway arches adjacent to Old Street. [3]
The Old Street venue was opened with the support of British TV presenter Charley Boorman, [4] and is now considered to be one of the UK's best motorcycling social venues. [5] Despite objections, Hackney Council granted the club a license to serve alcoholic drinks to members until midnight. [6] In 2019 the club installed the UK's first motorcycle-only recharging points. [7] [8]
During the 2020 Coronavirus lock-down, Bikeshed organized a volunteer courier-style service in which its members helped deliver food and medical supplies to patients at home. [9] [10]
The Los Angeles facility, originally due to open in Autumn 2020 will be based in the city's Arts District. [11] When finally open, the new facility will include a restaurant, cafe, bar and lounge, a barbershop, tattoo studio, events and retails space. [12]
The annual Bike Shed Motorcycle Show takes place at Tobacco Dock in Wapping. It is considered to be the UK's largest exhibition of custom motorcycles. [13] In 2018 the exhibition featured 230 motorcycles including track-bikes and custom-built machines. [14]
The first Bike Shed Festival took place in October 2019, at Lydden Hill Race Circuit, billed as a day to introduce new motorcyclists to track riding. [15]
Orange County Choppers (OCC) is an American motorcycle manufacturer and lifestyle brand company based in the town of Newburgh, located in Orange County, New York, that was founded in 1999 by Paul Teutul Sr. The company was featured on American Chopper, a reality TV show that debuted in September 2002 on the Discovery Channel. The series moved to Discovery Channel's sister channel TLC in 2007. Following cancellation of the Discovery series, the company was also featured on Orange County Choppers on the CMT network in 2013. Orange County Choppers returned to Discovery Channel in March 2018.
Rallycross is a form of sprint style automobile racing, held on a closed mixed-surface racing circuit, with modified production or specially built road cars, similar to the World Rally Cars. It is mainly popular in the Nordic countries, the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Great Britain. An inexpensive, entry level type of rallycross is the Swedish folkrace or its Norwegian counterpart, the so-called bilcross. The folkrace is most popular in Finland where it was founded back in the late 1960s. In Europe, rallycross can also refer to racing 1:8 scale off-road radio-controlled buggies.
A custom motorcycle is a motorcycle with stylistic and/or structural changes to the 'standard' mass-produced machine offered by major manufacturers. Custom motorcycles might be unique, or built in limited quantities. While individual motorcyclists have altered the appearance of their machines since the very first days of motorcycling, the first individualized motorcycles specifically labeled 'Custom' appeared in the late 1950s, around the same time as the term was applied to custom cars.
Rockers, leather boys, Ton-up boys, and possibly café racers are members of a biker subculture that originated in the United Kingdom during the 1950s. It was mainly centred on British café racer motorcycles and rock 'n' roll music. By 1965, the term greaser had also been introduced to Great Britain and, since then, the terms greaser and rocker have become synonymous within the British Isles, although used differently in North America and elsewhere. Rockers were also derisively known as Coffee Bar Cowboys. Their Japanese counterpart was called the Kaminari-Zoku.
Long Way Round (LWR) is a British television series and book documenting the 19,000-mile (31,000 km) journey of Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman from London to New York City on motorcycles. They travelled eastwards through Europe and Asia, flew to Alaska, and continued by road to New York. The series aired on Sky One from 18 October 2004 – 1 February 2005 and was repeated on BBC Two in 2008. The series was added to Apple TV+ on 18 September 2020, along with sequels Long Way Down (2007) and Long Way Up (2020).
A café racer is a genre of sport motorcycles that originated among British motorcycle enthusiasts of the early 1960s in London. Café racers were standard production bikes that were modified by their owners and optimized for speed and handling for quick rides over short distances. Café racers have since become popular around the world, and some manufacturers produce factory-made models that are available in the showrooms.
Lydden Hill Race Circuit is a motorsport venue in Denton with Wootton, about half-way between Canterbury and Dover in Kent, England. The mile-long circuit is mainly used for Rallycross, Drift, Saloon and Sports car racing as well as Motorcycle racing.
The 59 Club, also written as The Fifty Nine Club and known as 'the 9', is a British motorcycle club with members distributed internationally.
Charley Boorman is a British television presenter, travel writer and actor. A motorbike enthusiast, Boorman has made three long-distance motorcycle rides with his friend Ewan McGregor, documented in Long Way Round (2004), Long Way Down (2007), and Long Way Up (2020).
The Ace Cafe is an old transport cafe located near Wembley, North West London, England. Situated next to the North Circular Road, it is historically a notable venue in motorcycle culture. The original cafe opened in 1938 and closed in 1969. It re-opened on the original site in 1997 as a cafe, functions, and entertainment venue.
Claudio von Planta is a Swiss cameraman, director and filmmaker, based in London.
The Harley-Davidson Museum is an American museum located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin celebrating the more than 100-year history of Harley-Davidson motorcycles. The 12,000-square-meter (130,000 sq ft) three-building complex on 81,000 square meters along the Menomonee River bank contains more than 450 Harley-Davidson motorcycles and hundreds of thousands of artifacts from the Harley-Davidson Motor Company's 120-year history.
Russ Malkin is a British TV producer, director and founder of Big Earth Productions. He has created documentaries and formats for many broadcasters globally including BBC, ITV, Sky, National Geographic, Amazon and Discovery. Often working with high-profile personalities, Malkin has filmed across all seven continents in some of the harshest conditions on the planet. He is best known for the adventure travel documentaries Long Way Round, Long Way Down and Long Way Up with actors and keen motorcyclists Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman. His recent work includes "Prince Harry in Africa", "David Beckham: For the Love of the Game" and three-part National Geographic documentary “Fiennes: Return to the Nile”.
By Any Means, also known as Ireland to Sydney by Any Means, is a television series following Long Way Round and Long Way Down TV presenter Charley Boorman. Travelling from Wicklow, Ireland, to Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, it features him completing the journey using 112 modes of transport and only travelling by plane when absolutely necessary.
Triumph Motorcycles Ltd is the largest UK-owned motorcycle manufacturer, established in 1983 by John Bloor after the original company Triumph Engineering went into receivership. The new company, initially called Bonneville Coventry Ltd, continued Triumph's lineage of motorcycle production since 1902. They have major manufacturing facilities in Thailand.
Gay bathhouses in the United Kingdom are referred to as "gay saunas", as opposed to gay bathhouses, the term more commonly used in North America. There are gay saunas throughout the UK in most major cities, including eight in London.
Long Way Up is a British television series which debuted on 18 September 2020, documenting a motorcycle journey undertaken in 2019 by Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman, from Ushuaia in Argentina through South and Central America to Los Angeles in the United States. It is a follow-up to 2004's Long Way Round where the pair rode from London to New York, and to 2007's Long Way Down, when they rode from John o' Groats in Scotland to Cape Town in South Africa.
Conrad Leach is a British artist and custom motorcycle designer.
Devitt Insurance Services Limited is a privately owned insurance broker based in Romford, England and have been arranging insurance in the UK since 1936.
A biker bar is a bar that is frequented by bikers. Some are owned or managed by people who are friendly toward bikers. Some bars and restaurants advertise that they are "biker friendly" to attract more bikers and motorcycle (bike) enthusiasts. Biker bars are patronized by people from all walks of life, including bikers, non-bikers, and motorcycle club adherents, including outlaw motorcycle clubs.