Hamburg Harley Days and St. Pauli

We're a few days behind in posting, but it's been a pretty crazy 14 days so we beg forgiveness... Our buddy Lutz picked us up in Amsterdam and drove us to Hamburg where Harley Days was in full swing. Once a year 100,000 bikers take over the red-light district of St. Pauli, Hamburg. It's quite a show and to top it off, Germany played their Euro Cup match and won. For us Yanks a soccer match might not mean so much, but for the rest of the world "football" (soccer) is an obsession. It was pretty amazing to sit there watching Germany win their match and see the whole city explode into honking horns and drunkeness in the streets. Oh yeah there were some cool bikes there too. ;)

Kutty joined us at the Custombike Magazine booth and did a great job on his interview with ARD television. Our ruler buddy Jesper from Helmet Hair rode all the way from Copenhagen to hang out and get some beers and Lutz's pal Johnny even won best bike in the competition. All in all a pretty darned good time was had by all.

Amsterdam cool weather, good times

The weather was bit cooler than expected, but still nice and clear; Hotel Arena was great with nice bar and we had a chance to meet and bond with the team from Dickies Europe. It was really interesting to hear how people perceive Dickies over here. In a lot of countries it's actually a fashion brand (think Lucky Brand Jeans or Stussy) but in a few countries they only want the traditional workwear. Spent the first night in kind of a daze due to the jetlag, but got into the swing of things after staying up and drinking with the Dickies design team until pretty late. Really enjoyed attending the secret sales meetings and unveiling of their European line for Summer, the private fashion show was held in kind of an abandoned wharf. That night we headed back into town for the Choppertown screening at the oldest theater in Europe (in continuous operation since 1912) called simply "The Movies". Big thanks to Juergen, Olaf and the Dickies gang for getting us off to a good start, and a big thanks to all the guys who came out for the screening (finally got a chance to meet the Duckman!) After three days in town it was time to go so our buddy Lutz picked us up and we headed off to Hamburg Harley Days...here's some pics from Amsterdam.

Mods vs. Rockers - Chicago rules

It's official, Chi-town Ton-up knows how to put on a show. There must have been at least 500 bikes lining both sides of the street and everyone was cool and having a great time. Fletch and the gang were great hosts (thanks Greg!) and the screening and after-party at The Bottom Lounge went late into the night. Got onto a plane the next morning and bounced to Amsterdam...sitting here with beer in hand wondering how all this goodwill came about. Can't wait to see how everyone rolls over here in Europe...