Chicago Supercycle Show & Parts Expo

R & B Promotions put this venue on and has for the last nine or ten years. Rich Betchkal is the main man; he and his staff are responsible for the Chicago Supercycle Show & Parts Expo. Kudos to Rich and all who had a hand in this year’s show—great job!

This year the big-name builders included Warren Vesley from Scooter Shooterz in Cedar Lake, Indiana, who as you may know, was featured on the Discovery Channel’s Biker Build-Off series. His bikes, the Executioner & Lethal Injection are out there. Dave Cook, a relative newcomer, or at least a lesser-known builder, was also on hand showing off some of his handiwork. From the looks of his scooters, he won’t be unknown for long. He was turning a lot of heads at the show. His bikes are similar to Jesse Rooke’s work but with his own touch.

This show covers nearly every aspect of biking there is. There were trailers to haul bikes, trucks to haul the trailers, large trailers, trailers that bikes can pull. There were leathers, clothes, tattoo artists, patches, and boots. You name it—it was there. And let’s not forget the parts; they have acres of new, used, and old parts. This is a virtual biker heaven, and you don’t need a pocketful of cash to enter into the pearly metal-flaked gates because the prices are not that out of line.

All in all this show just gets better year after year. The last few years they have been beefing up the show part of this event. Richard brought in some mega-name builders last year with the likes of the Martin Brothers, and Russell Mitchell was on hand with some of their creative customs.

There were quite a few local shops and builders present at this show, and as you peruse the gallery of photos, that will become evident. The eye candy came in various hues of color and chrome and the number of unique and intriguing customs was a pleasure to enjoy. At nearly every booth there was another custom that screamed out to be looked at. If a person really started looking closely at these custom bikes they would see the small details and the painstaking metal and paintwork each builder poured into their works of art. The custom bike building industry has truly come of age with ideas, creativity, and innovative true works of rolling artwork.

The show judge was Ray Kittel, and he did another excellent job of judging, and I didn’t envy him having to make the judgment calls with all the fine rides that were there. Here’s a quote from Ray: “This has been my 13th year, now, judging this show. And I have to honestly say; this was the most competitive show I have faced as a judge in all those years. An example of that is, normally, we'd have four or five bikes out of the entire field of entries that naturally rise to the top, so to speak, for judges' choice best in show considerations or winners. However, this year, we had twice as many bikes that scored out, which could have all been judges' choice winners. So, it was extremely tough making our final judges' choice selections - not to mention - our individual class competition was very much the same story.' Ray can be contacted at the following address: Ray’s M/C Show World, 1211 N. Water St. Watertown, WI. 53098-1512.

The Chicago Outlaws were also there as they have been for more years than I can remember. They were selling T-shirts and jewelry. The Tribe of Judah were there also checking things out and enjoying all the bikes friends and shopping for a few parts.

The major show winners were as follows, and thanks again to Ray Kittel for providing me with this info:

Judges' Best of Show:
1st place: Richard Pollack
2nd place: DD Custom Cycles
3rd place: Snake Alley Customs

Spectators’ Best of Show:
1st place: Richard Pollack
2nd place: Joe Louis Torres
3rd place: Prison City Choppers

Exhibitors' Best of Show:
1st place: Richard Pollack
2nd place: Joe Bohaezek
3rd place: Angelo Delraso

Let’s give a high five to all of these; as well as all the other winners. R & B Promotions put up a good chuck of cash for the show this year; at least $1000 more than last year and over $3100 in all for cash prizes.

To wrap this up I would like to mention Pyro (Richard Pollack) and the fine job he did with his chopped Pan. It was well done and had a lot of nice touches and a bunch of time and effort went into his scooter. Rich is a fireman and deserves a big hand for his work as well as his ride.

Well, that’s it from Chitown for another year. If you are ever in the Windy around the early part of February, this show just might be going strong. It would do you good to spend some time at McCormick Place with a whole lotta Bros who are into the same thing you are, and you may find that one part you just gotta have!

Story and photos by Dave Ramsay