Topic: First Show

[Kevin D]

 I've entered my CB into the Greenfield Village Motor Muster. I never intended for it to be a show bike, but it occurred to me that it will never look better than it does now. What really interests me will be to ride up and down the streets of the Village a little bit.
 I met the criteria for entry, sent them a couple photos, and they said OK, you're in. Well that's great, except now I'm thinking, what did I do? I'm gonna be way out of my league. I'll get it as clean as possible, but if it's ridden it won't be clean, and it it gonna be ridden. I have replaced some of the rusted chrome bits, most recently the exhaust flanges, but the bike is a survivor with a nice stock repaint job.

So, I'm asking you show goers, what do I need to make a decent presentation?

[Steve F]

Go to the shows and see what the participants are doing to present their ride, and go one up on them.  I found that if you expect to win, it has to be the best you cn afford.  That's where a lot of my problems came from....not enough money, but I still managed to pull home quite a few trophies 

[ekpent]

Not a show goer but do know that points are deducted depending on the judge for non original fasteners like nuts and bolts for instance. Just ride that thing in and hold your head high and see how you do against the trailer queens.

[Stev-o]

Your on the right track, get it clean and rust free.  Start by cleaning the tires....

[Bailgang]

I used to be in a car club and was a judge at a few of the car shows we had. I always tended to be more partial to clean cars that were actually driven at least from time to time rather than absolutely spotless trailer queens that weren't driven at all.

[faux fiddy]

I'm not familiar with the shows either but I would make up a card/placard/stand up with a few pictures and a short history of the bike.  Show what it is, and  Puff up the   historical background and collect ability of the 750 being one of the first superbikes.   I think that will sway judges more than the coolest cafe seat bump and custom paint.

[flybox1]

Dont be surprised if your bike is one of a just a few that are not HD's, Victory's, Custom Choppers, big twins etc., which are all decked out in custom paint and chrome.
Accept your bike for what it is, mass produced Japanese 'beginning of the superbikes' history. 
Clean it best you can, and you'll have plenty of lookers, PO', wanting to start conversation, because they all knew someone who had one.....which may make the rest of the crowd a little envious! 
Not expecting anything, I took 3rd in the "Japanese" class with my little stocker 350F.  Got beat out by a blacked-out stretched Intruder and a custom Yami bagger 

Just have fun with it.

[Kevin D]

 I sandblasted those exhaust flanges a few years ago and they were OK for a while but they degenerated again. I have never sent anything to Browns Plating. They do(did) gorgeous work, but when you spruce something up that nice it just makes the next old thing look bad. I spent $40 real quick for a handfull of nuts/bolts/washers around the front end, ouch. Wheels/spokes/fenders/handlebars original and passable for survivor but not 10/10. 300 pipes rusted out a long time ago, 1973? I got some gutted 341 takeoffs from a pal, and they have been on there since then.
 I have used 0000 wire wool on the chrome, can the old chrome be buffed to a new shine?
 I'm not a slave to details, just trying to keep it nice, and I dont have big bucks or time for concours resto. Just dont want to get 800th place out of 800.
 The Henry Ford Museum has ONE motorcycle on display - and it is a CB750K1
http://collections.thehenryford.org/Collection.aspx?objectKey=367355

The said they were looking for original motorcycles but they showed a photo of a 305 drag bike in the promo:
http://www.thehenryford.org/events/motorMuster.aspx

[flybox1]

get a rotary polishing pad, or mothers cone/ball, and grab your preference chrome polish on it and go to town.
0000 steel wool is ok for those small rust pits, but over time i think it dulls the chrome.
mothers back to black on all the rubber bits and black plastic parts(airbox, etc)
Just wash your tires and sidewalls with hot soapy water.  nothing more needed. 
wash, clay bar, and wax your tank and covers.
wipe everything else down with simple green.

Pack some cleaning/polishing rags and a small bottle of simple green with you. 
Road grime/dust/rain/fingerprints will happen during the show.

[faux fiddy]

get a rotary polishing pad, or mothers cone/ball, and grab your preference chrome polish on it and go to town.
0000 steel wool is ok for those small rust pits, but over time i think it dulls the chrome.
mothers back to black on all the rubber bits and black plastic parts(airbox, etc)
Just wash your tires and sidewalls with hot soapy water.  nothing more needed. 
wash, clay bar, and wax your tank and covers.
wipe everything else down with simple green.

Pack some cleaning/polishing rags and a small bottle of simple green with you. 
Road grime/dust/rain/fingerprints will happen during the show.

+1

I think there was a thread here that said they used peanut oil on the breadbox to make it dark and shiny.

[flybox1]

the elephants, squirrels and chipmunks dig it! 

[scrapvalue]

I like peoples choice shows.   Where the spectators get to pick their favorite.
Unfortunately, they are far and few between.
Most of the time, the judges are just self appointed experts on what ever kind of bike they ride.

Best thing you can do at a bike show is, park your bike, walk through, take a look around and then go riding.
Spending all day waiting for judgment to make you feel better about your ride is a giant waste of a beautiful day.

Anyway, that is just my opinion.

[Kevin D]

Best thing you can do at a bike show

I went to the Old Car Festival last year. I stood by the curb for a while as the cars paraded by. Model A's, Model T's, Chevy, Buick, Packard, Dodge, REO, Steamer, Detroit Electric. Very Cool. The thing that impressed me most was the people that were driving them, riding in them, watching them, everybody had smiles on, ear to ear beaming grins.
 This is my chance to participate. Ride around the Village. Take my kids for a ride. 

[Don R]

 Have fun first of all. I've been putting on car shows for 35 years and I dislike judging. Every vehicle is special to it's owner for whatever reason.
  Like the guys said, just detail it the best you can, I like turtle wax chrome cleaner, our car show just got a pallet of Eagle 1 products to give away at our two cruises and 1 car show this year. Now I love Eagle 1.

[Kevin D]

The show was fun, only a handful of bikes including a Crocker, lots of American Muscle cars. I got to make a few laps around the village, which is what I set out to do. I talked myself hoarse answering questions about my bike. I have only one picture which I snagged on the way out. I had to stop for Henrys own #7 at the service track after a busy day.

The bike cleaned up pretty well. I got the power cone and mothers chrome polish. I cleaned the tires, back to black on the chainguard and airbox, quick cleaner/wax on the tank and covers. I made a poster at Costco, $12.
Thanks for the tips.

[ken65]

Sounds like you had a good time, I'm thinking of entering my cb into a show for the 1st time aswell this week end for a bit of fun. It's my ride bike so i don't expect any result but i'm looking forward to it.  Any others from Brisbane going to the Pine rivers swap meet this week end?

[74cb750]

so, I'm into restoring my kawasaki s2 350 triple. i have run into a problem trying to replace old, rusty nuts & washers. I replaced them with stainless steel and am having the frame painted kawasaki green. sure it will not be OEM paint color (black), but will look better in my opinion.

Guess i will  not win any trophies, but i would not care about that. I like what I ride to look nice or nicer than original and stainless steel is easier to clean than painted nuts/bolts.
so far have spent about $50 on nuts, and washers and i'm not close to being done.

just my 2 cents.

[754]

What place did you get...?

Nice poster maybe you can sell a  few....

[Kevin D]

What place did you get...?

Nice poster maybe you can sell a  few....

Dunno what place I got , but pretty sure it wasn't last.  Guessing the Crocker got 1st. I couldn't make it back for the Sunday morning pass-in-review.

 The poster isn't shown here. I slammed together a photo collage of five photos:
Shop manual, owners manual, travel photo fully packed, Cycle World photo from "Worlds Coolest Bikes", Motorcyclist article "Motorcycle of the Century".

I'll get a picture of it up... Daughter got married yesterday! Kinda busy round here.

[754]

I meant the pic with the train as a poster..
 So you went, had fun......and got to see a Crocker. Sounds like a winner day to me...

I love the Crocker..over the top for its time, and based on 101 Scout which I like..lucky Mec has a 101 Scout..

[Kevin D]

a winner day

Absolutely a winner day! Not only my first show, but my birthday party as well. Wife brought a cooler, and the whole family came out to share the day.

I'm going to share my photo with the show folks. I also have a great shot, taken by my daughter, with grandkids lined up on CB750 and grandpa beaming.