When I arrived on the Friday evening at the Hotel Mainzerhof, a fairly pleasant Rheinside accommodation in the South West German town of Mainz, just outside Frankfurt, it was getting late. Late enough to meet Brian Ashley, aka “The Magazine Man”, and his HUGE Dutch mate coming back from the Custom Chrome Europe welcoming party. It was great to see them both, but it also effectively dashed any chance of getting a beer that evening - with any sort of company that is: the hotel ‘bar’ wasn’t exactly jumpin’ and they both wanted an early start. So my room’s minibar and German late night TV made for a fairly... um, quiet, first night.

After breakfast I was lucky enough to catch one of the buses CCE had laid on to shuttle delegates to the Phoenix Halle, a novel experience, I was the only passenger. Most delegates were either there already or, more likely, hadn’t got up yet due to the party I’d bloody missed. Apparently it was great.

CCE had organised a Dealer Show with a difference. A two-day event over the weekend, with the Saturday set aside for business and so dealers only, and Sunday would see the show open its doors to

the public too. Bikers paying their 10 Euro would get to see some of the very best custom machinery Europe can offer - in other words, world beating.

I quickly found the American-V/Magazine Man stand, off-loaded some gear and began to explore. The impressive dealer area offered trade stands from many of the world-wide companies that supply CCE’s catalogue, many had brought machines to display their wares and I was rapt. However, straying into another vast hall,I discovered the stage that would later host the fashion shows, a huge bar and a custom show to rival just about any I’ve ever seen. I was compelled to photograph just about every single machine at least once, the standard was that high. It’s a crying shame that we just do not have the room to show you all of the bikes that were there - but take it from me, what you do see here is just a snapshot.

While staying relaxed, friendly and cool, Custom Chrome Europe were taking the Dealer Show very seriously and so were their parent companies. I was invited to the press conference to find Custom Chrome International’s Frank Esposito and International Motor Sport’s Dave Sadler alongside Custom Chrome Europe’s own head geezer Holger Mohr, big fish indeed to fly over the Atlantic. While much of the press conference was understandably corporate, some things were of interest to a wider audience. CCE chose a base near Frankfurt because of its central location in Europe and through a recent contract with UPS - who happen to operate their largest hub in Frankfurt - can now deliver any parts in stock next day, and not only in Germany, but also to any nations around the German borders. Imagine that, order a pair of forks or some clutch springs before 4.30 from your friendly French, Dutch, Polish, Swiss, Belgian or Austrian dealer for example and they’ll be there waiting for you tomorrow! CCE have also speeded up the process of getting parts that aren’t in stock too - parts manufactured in the far east are now sent directly to Europe and CCI now utilise ports on the Eastern Seaboard of the US, so American parts now arrive at the CCE warehouse a full two weeks faster.

Later that day I was invited to the Saturday night party: a full-on affair, it was held in a swish local bar called the Citrus. As I arrived a storming funk band was in full swing and even the huge line of people queuing for the food were grooving about. The band never gave up while I was there, taking a bit of a rest, they would just jump back in and lay down some more boogie - er, man! Damn good night it was. I didn’t dance though. Not since my beloved told me I dance like an extra from Thunderbirds.

While I was waiting for the prize giving on the Sunday afternoon, I took the opportunity to photograph a couple of feature bikes, one of which you'll find here - which is an odd way of finishing an article but it gets me off the hook.