Updated: May 22, 2018
Last week was motorcycle mayhem. Litas and Iron Lilies happy hour events, racing, custom bikes, leather, coffee, warm rides, whiskey, music. Let’s skip all of the socializing at the Iron Horse, Boone & Crockett, and The Harley Museum— we’ll start with Friday. Amidst numerous burnouts, wipeouts, wheelies, and post-apocalyptic motorcycle dressings turning the flat track into Fury Road, we witnessed some cutthroat indoor racing at Flat Out Friday.
The unseasonably warm February weekend was a timely welcome for riders of all creeds and origins to descend on 2nd street for the fourth annual Mama Tried Motorcycle Show. After a long but sunny and spectacle ridden wait outside, I (accompanied by my mama, who really tried to raise me better) entered the strange warehouse on Saturday afternoon, with it’s floor boards stacked with vendors on level one and dramatically lit custom motorcycles a freight elevator ride up. It was a huge, humble contrast to the Dallas Motorcycle Show I attended last month, and felt incredibly rugged and unabashedly Milwaukee.
While the weather hitting mid-60 degrees fahrenheit was a blessing to all the recreational two-wheel titans out there, it was the worst news for one of the epic Mama Tried events: Slippery Sunday. As you can imagine, the ice races on Lake Michigan were unfortunately cancelled because, for once, it wasn’t ungodly cold in mid-February.
As if closing the coffee shop three times last week and attending all of these motorcycle events on days in between wasn’t enough, I rounded out Sunday with a concert at the Rave, seeing Dorothy and then playing host to their opener The Georgia Flood. These talented and good natured southern guys entertained us into the wee morning hours with guitar riffs, pool shots, and tidbits from the road. Have fun browsing the many snaps of depreciating context that I’ve curated below!
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