Earlier this year I had the pleasure of meeting Keino of Keino Cycles at the Mama Tried Show in Milwaukee. We had an immediate respect for one another’s craft. He brought a custom Vincent to that show and you rarely see builders customizing Vincents these days, so I was intrigued and impressed. Especially that it was a commissioned build by a whiskey brand, Widow Jane. I happened to have 3 bikes at the show and he was also impressed with some of my offerings. We got to chatting and he mentioned he is one of 4 people that make the Brooklyn Invitational happen. Coincidentally, my wife and I had planned on going to this years show to check it out and see what it was all about.
A few months later Keino sent me an email and asked if I would be interested in being one of the invited builders this year. Of course, I was honored and said yes right away. Then it was just a waiting game for them to announce the invited builders and also the planning to make the journey to the East coast.
I packed up the van in mid September with the Continental Scout for the show and also the BMW RnineT/6 to use to get around town as I figured the Ram ProMaster would be a bit cumbersome getting around the city. After driving 900 miles we arrived in NY, which included dealing with some brutal Manhattan traffic. The stress of the long hours of driving and dealing with traffic melted away as the bikes and builders started rolling in and setting up. I started to feel even more honored to be part of this elite group of builders as the variety of bikes were amazing. I always viewed the invitational as a bit more of a chopper show, but they had everything there from choppers to sidecar racing rigs, vintage to modern, and everything in between, with only about two dozen bikes total. The venue was a photo studio and the bikes played the role of the art that day.
We set up some of our merchandise in another room next to our good friend Paulo from Pagnol Leathers. There were tattoo artists giving tattoos, photographers shooting pictures everywhere and a number of other vendors making it a pretty well rounded show. The Continental Scout was a huge hit on the East coast. The Analog brand was represented well and the Scout now has officially been coast to coast.
Thanks to the Brooklyn Invitational staff for doing an incredible job with the event and we look forward to any year you would like to invite Analog Motorcycles to participate.
Tony Prust
Owner, Builder Analog Motorcycles
(Big thanks to David Goldman for sharing his photos of the show with us. Tony gave up his photography skills for his bike building skills and no one blames him. Check out David’s other work at www.DavidGoldmanPhoto.com )
