The Battistinis California Dreamin’ Expo, the area’s first large-scale custom bike show, roared into Bournemouth’s International Centre over the May Bank Holiday weekend. The show offered a rare glimpse into the world of customization and celebrated superlative motorbike engineering.

In association with local favourites, Battistinis, the Expo hosted the UK round of the (AMD) World Championship of Custom Bike Building and showcased an incredible number of unique custom choppers and vintage bikes.

For the first time at a UK bike show, “True Evel” presented stunt rider Evel Kneivel’s original bikes, clothing and artifacts to the public - a flashback to 1970s stunt-bike showbiz. Continuing the 70’s vibe, Ace Cafe London showed off a collection of vintage flat trackers to mark the 40th anniversary of Steve McQueen’s film “On any Sunday”.

Interestingly, the Custom Bike show coincided with this year’s Bournemouth Tattoo Convention, which took place in an adjoining hall – California Dreamin’ displayed some great modified bikes while the Tattoo Convention offered a fascinating opportunity to explore the realms of body modification.

For me personally, one of the highlights of the show was the demonstration of custom airbrushing. Airbrush experts were out in force and a jaw-dropping selection of great artwork and engineering was on display.

The organizers got the recipe for this inaugural exhibition just right: bike dealer stands, stalls selling merchandise and biking accessories, easy access to refreshments, gorgeous models helping to show off the bikes and biker-wear. I have to agree that this was a California Dream come true for every custom bike enthusiast (and no doubt for some unsuspecting holidaymakers too!) - even my 3-year-old son got to sit on a Harley!

I hope they’ll be back again next year!