Bicycles at Autorama in the Motor City

 The 71st annual Autorama in downtown Detroit took place March 1-3 with 800 or so hot rods, customs, race cars and street machines on display at Huntington Place, formerly Cobo Center.

But for many years now, bicycles also have been part of the show.

The big display is in the basement, organized by Ronnie Whitt of Scrap Yard Productions in Fowlerville. Entries are judged, in the categories of customs, restored and original, and low riders.

Here’s Mike Mowett’s photos and account of the bicycle displays:

An interesting day….

Bikes, Bikes and Cars - there was the usual big display of bikes underneath the escalator in basement lower level area. Each year I’ve seen them there. They are a mix of custom builds like you might see at a Detroit Slow Roll, a freakbikers meet up and a mix of old vintage bikes from like the 1960s, 70s, 80s. They had signs on them indicating their owners (though few if any were actually present to talk to). 

There were maybe four from Lake Orion if I recall. One was an old bike, but the sign said it’s current owner was only 10 years old. 

One bike I liked had the same Detroit News canvas saddle bag for holding newspapers that I used for 3 years as a paperboy

Some other photos: 

In the world of freak bikes, this is what is known as a burrito bike (very low riding position) and a heel scraper (pedals very close to the ground). Notice the steering set-up. (Scrap Yard Productions photo)

There was another area for bikes on the main floor of the show. I’d label it as “show bikes” maybe intended to give entertainment to some like-minded kids. A set of creepy dolls kinda added to this effect.

Anyways we didn’t spend much time at this location as crowds, especially on Saturday always feel like they are moving or pushing you along. I checked the number of visitors for last year's Autorama in Detroit. It was over 140,000 visitors for the three-day weekend. Other shows on the custom car calendar circuit in places as far away as California and the East Coast don’t get close to that number.. Guess we still are “the Motor City”.

 Thirdly, there were some bikes on roof racks atop cars or vans at the show. 

For more photos and videos of the Autorama bike show and some bike builds, go to the Scrap Yard Productions Facebook page.