Lucky 13: One Moto 2022 — Rust Magazine

Words+photos: Mike Blanchard

Features: The 13th edition of the One Moto Show took place in Portland, Oregon, the last weekend of April. The location was Zidell Yards on the south waterfront section of town.

 Zidell Yards is an old shipyard on the riverbank under soaring bridges that crisscross the Willamette River. Everywhere you looked there was a bridge, a massive building, a giant crane or a cable car pylon dominating the view.

 The scale of the location seemed to reduce the show’s motorcycles, and a few vintage cars, to children’s toys. Huge anchors and ship parts lie scattered around the edges of the yard, making it seem like you are in some Lilliputian setting. But the motorcycles held their own.

The size of the building made it seem like the motorcycles were being displayed in some massive machine-age cathedral.

 One Moto has moved around every couple of years and each location has added its own stamp on the show, which has given it a distinct flavor. You have the bikes, the art, the music, the people and the location, which all make up the show and which make the show unique every year. Zidell Yards was the location for the scaled-down mid-COVID show last year.

In the past One Moto has included a racing component, often at the fairgrounds in Salem. This year there was no racing, partly owing to the rain, which periodically swept through all weekend, and partly owing to a lack of a venue.

 In 2018 the show was at the Pickle Factory which, despite the name, was a former foundry. Now developed, it was a huge, old, multi-story shop space on the industrial edge of Portland with large banks of windows letting in beautiful light upstairs and vast dark spaces downstairs.

This beautiful print is called Indian Summer. We are ashamed to say we don’t know the artist. If you do please let us know

 In 2020 the show was at the Moda Center, a big enormodome sports and convention complex just across the river downtown. The racing was in the building, which added a unique feel and sound to the show. It was really cool to have the race pits as part of the show.

 Thor Drake and his wife Tori George Drake put on the show. They’re dyed-in-the-wool moto heads and the proprietors of the popular See See Motor Coffee in Portland. They and their staff and friends have done an amazing job over the years and built what is consistently one of the best motorcycle shows in the country. You can't do this kind of thing without a good staff.

 Thor is the guy who came up with the idea for the show, but Tori has had a large impact on its success. She is a long-time rider and bike builder, and this translates into strong representation of women artists, designers, builders and riders at One Moto. She curated the show so in a lot of ways what you see is a reflection of what she finds interesting.

Thor Drake was much in demand all weekend but he did it all with a smile. Thor and his wife Tori put on the show.

Like all of the One Moto shows the devil is in the details. It is good that the show stretches over three days because you could go around every day and still find something you didn’t notice on the last day. Over and over one found oneself looking at a bike for a while and then suddenly thinking: “Wait, what is that?”

Even so you won’t see it all. There were 250 bikes of all different styles this year plus some cars and some bikes in the vendors’ booths, which is a lot to see.  This is not a concourse in the trailer-queens-on-the-greens mold. One Moto is primarily a show for builders and designers. There are vintage gems and restorations to be sure, but there is a strong bias toward the creative and the unique. There is a lot of respect for the home builder, for the rider/builder. These folks didn’t buy a crazy bike to show at One Moto; they built one. There is a wonderfully gritty rock-n-roll vibe to the moto scene in Portland that is strongly reflected in the show.

One moto is egalitarian. Virtually all segments of the motorcycle world are represented. From big touring bikes to mini bikes there was something for everyone to like. Heck there were things that no one expected to ever see.

This amazing bit of kit was an ‘81 Honda Twinstar 200 that Cory Little rebuilt to run on compressed air. This thing was blowing minds all weekend. I love love the muddy tires.

Builders from all over the world bring their bikes to show. It is a measure of how wide a reach One Moto has as well as the influence it has in the world of motorcycle design. You will see guys like Miguel Galluzzi (designer of the Ducati Monster and now with Piaggio), Greg Brew (VP of Industrial Design at Polaris), and Ola Stenegard (former head designer at BMW and now head of design at Indian) hanging out and checking out builds. These guys are serious moto-heads but they are also crafty and they do their research.

Many of the major design trends in the motorcycle world have come from grassroots builders and racers, not from the design studios of the moto manufacturers. Cafe racers, Bob Jobs, Street Fighters and Choppers all came out of the streets to be co-opted by the major manufacturers. Shows like One Moto are a good place to hang out for designers.

Stunt rider Christophe Bruand came from France to wow the crowd, and he succeeded. He was riding an electric trials bike. He is on social media doing this stunt riding a BSA up a tree.

In addition to the bikes there were stunt riders and a large art component to the show as well as vendors. There were some vintage cars and vans.

It is worth noting that, with the exception of the first year, art has been a big part of One Moto since the beginning. There is art hung all through the show. This year Makoto Endo was live-painting a vintage Triumph using black ink and chopsticks. Endo is an amazing artist and there was a crowd around him all weekend.

Another area that OneMoto stands out is in the quality of the bands. Portland is a hotbed of rock ’n’ roll and a lot of musicians are into bikes so the music was fantastic all weekend.

Small bikes are a big trend and were well represented at One Moto

Have you ever seen a two-into-one exhaust on a two stroke?

The engine of a pre-war Nimbus four cylinder outfit.

Giddy up!

Kott Motorcycles brought this Triumph. Asked what was extra on it they replied: “All the things.”

In the vendor area everyone from national moto brands to local Portland-based businesses were flying their colors and trying to catch the eye of the public.

Alicia Elfving author of The Moto Lady’s Book Of Women Who Ride, had a large booth promoting the Women’s Moto Show and women riders and builders in general

“It’s been a really cool weekend for the booth. People seem to be very interested in the women-built bikes, which is really awesome. And I’ve also been pointing out the bikes we have inside that are women-built as well. There are 16 inside the One Moto Show which are fully built by women, the hands of women only, which is super cool. And I love that. Coming on up, you know? It’s good.

“This is my first time doing a pop up or like, Auxiliary Vendor event. So it’s completely new for me. But here’s the really cool part. I’ve been coming to the One Moto Show since its inception, year one, 13 years ago.

 “So now to be able to have my vendor booth at the show and have it come full circle in my hometown of Portland gives me the warm fuzzies and makes me really happy, as you can see. It makes me really happy.”

Publisher Gary Inman, left, and racer Todd Marella hanging out in the Sideburn booth.

Gary Inman is a former writer and columnist for Cycle World magazine and now the founder and editor of Sideburn Magazine. Sideburn, dedicated to flat track racing, had a big booth inside the building.

“I think this is probably my fifth or sixth time coming back to One Moto. The last time I came to America was for the One Moto just before COVID closed everything down,” said Inman. “So it’s great to come back this time and see how much it's grown even in the two years when everyone else has struggled. They seem to have tapped into the main supply here and it’s just grown and grown.

“I’ve just done my first lap of the whole grounds and it’s just mind-boggling how they keep doing it. Whenever you see someone here they’re just smiling and they want to help you. The stress levels of running a show like this are just unbelievable, but it doesn’t seem to affect them somehow and I find that amazing…They don’t put much of a foot wrong in my opinion.”

Christophe Delavoye came from California to catch the show. “This is my second show. We came for the 10th anniversary at the pickle factory and we’ve been here since then. We’ll be back next year for sure. I test-drove the FTR Indian. That was a fun ride there.”

The show was sold out for Saturday so there was definitely an eager audience for a moto show, even if it was raining on and off. But that said, it did not feel as big as the 2020 One Moto. A lot of people brought their kids as well which is heartening. Statistics show that the number of riders nation wide is shrinking. The more that young people can be introduced to riding, the better the future of motorcycling will be.

One Moto 2022 may not have been the massive blowout that the later pre-COVID shows were (Ed. late data from One Moto headquarters shows that attendance was 17,812, more or less) but it was definitely a hell of a spectacle and a worthy addition to the 13-year history of the show.