Custom guru, John Reed inducted into USA National Motorcycle Museum Hall of Fame

March 6th 2002 in the slightly improbable setting of the function suite of the prestigious Indigo Lakes Golf Resort just outside Daytona Beach in Florida during Bike Week, a number of worthy people had been invited to be inducted into the National Motorcycle Museum Hall of fame. A curiously American affair, it was conducted over breakfast.

The museum itself is now based in Anamosa, Iowa, sited deliberately close - according to affable Museum President John Parham - to where he lives! Iowa Attraction of the Year 2001, the museum boasts over 120 motorcycles as well as very many other items related to motorcycling history.

The 2001 and 2002 admission's involvement with the furtherment of motorcycling was unquestionable and as they took their places at the Head Table it was most certainly an impressive line-up. Since the Hall of Fame was established in 1990 'to honour individuals who have significantly shaped and changed the motorcycle industry by making a positive impact on the industry, lifestyle and sport of motorcycling', those honoured have included some extremely famous names: Willie G Davidson, Arlen Ness, Mike Corbin, Kenny Roberts and Peter Fonda to name but a few from an exclusively short but very impressive list.

This year the breakfast was called to honour both the 2001 and 2002 nominees and included Erik Buell, founder of Buell Motorcycles, drag race veterans Jim and Phylliss McClure, biking politician, Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell and a cranky Englishman called John Reed, who makes stuff.

It was Reedie that invited us, and sitting at his guest's table, I admit I was in awe, if not at the setting so much as the company in close proximity. John himself was more nervous than he would've liked to admit and was in no hurry to take his seat at the Head Table.

John Parham welcomed the guests and introduced the 12,000 square foot museum which features the real Captain America Pan from Easyriders and Steve McQueen's '47 Knucklehead chopper. Mentioning an on-going fund raising raffle with the very impressive first prize of a Heritage Springer Softail, he requested and reminded all present for cash donations and/or any other support which enables the non-profit making museum to continue. Then the microphone was passed to co-Director Maria Tuttle who introduced the dignitaries and their special guests at the Head Table.

It actually fell to actor and Indian Motorcycles spokesperson Branscombe (Branston Pickle) Richmond to carry the show as Master of Ceremonies and the awards were given out, each with a little speech from both inductee and sponsor.

Hardbitten and cynical hack that I am (… not), I fully expected the whole affair to be a cheesey pat on the back fiasco, but I was wrong. In fact the entire event was most affecting: recipients to a person humbled, overwhelmed and not a little surprised. That the honour truly meant something, to each and every one of the inductees was obvious and, if anything, confirmed the choices of the voting committee. The recent widows of two true biking heroes, racer and humanitarian Will Davis and police officer Gary L. Stevens who devoted his life to the advancement of rider training, received spontaneous standing ovations as they accepted the honours for their husbands. More than once, in a fairly lengthy ceremony, burly bikers were not ashamed to wipe an odd tear from the eye.

Recovering well from a life-threatening stroke last year, John Reed's voice cracked with emotion as the former owner of the justifiably famous Uncle Bunt's Chop Shop accepted his own award on behalf of one-man bike builders and small bike businesses everywhere. His custom bikes are legendary in Britain and John picked up just about every top custom award going in the UK, before turning his attention to the 'States where his supercharged Triumph blew away judges in the prestigious ISCA shows, gaining Best Engineering trophies. He'd slowly phased out the shop in the early eighties in favour of short-term design and trouble shooting contracts before accepting an invitation to set up an R&D department for Custom Chrome in California, where he has worked ever since. Mastering form and function, with the uncanny ability to turn a lump of metal into a working prototype part for manufacture seemingly out of nowhere, very few customised Harley-Davidsons world-wide don't carry at least one example of John's work.

John had also been asked by the Hall of Fame to nominate somebody as a candidate and had chosen a man he'd worked closely with in the early eighties and who had been instrumental in bringing Reedie's own innovative metal-working talents to the attention of major manufacturers. That guy was Ed Burke, the inspirational Division Manager of Yamaha USA's R&D department. Ed personally developed and introduced a staggering 36 models onto the world market and in the process virtually invented the cruiser, single-handed from the XS650 Special, through the Midnight Special, the US Virago - which he regularly visited John Reed in England to help prototype - and the Royal, Road and Wild Stars to name but a few.

It would take far to long to list everyone's achievements here - especially as the Museum has kindly done that on their own web site (http://www.nationalmcmuseum.org), but a full list of the inductees and their sections is listed below. Perhaps the most telling line was spoken by Michael Farabaugh, famous photo-journalist, founder of the Movin' On Motorcycle School and inspirational ABATE leader who's 'Meeting of the minds' saw the formation of the ABATE National Steering Committee and the Motorcycle Riders Foundation. He smiled, and pointed out how far motorcycling had come. Then casting his eye over the Head Table and the guests, he commented on all the different strands of biking that were represented there - sports - manufacturing - custom and lifestyle and was delighted that nobody present appeared to give a damn anymore about what name was on the side of your petrol tank … except of course Erik Buell.

2001 & 2002 Motorcycle Hall of Fame Inductees