Asbury Park, a New Jersey shore town that's usually cold and quiet in February has a new event to help coax the Spring to come early. Hosted inside the Asbury Park Convention Center, Cheap Thrills is a motorcycle show and swap meet that hosts upwards of 60 vendors inside to go along with a small motorcycle show in the convention hall entrance.
Since Asbury Park was the original host to The Race of Gentlemen, several TROG staff and racers are a common sight as vendors, buyers roaming the swap meet, or keeping an eye on their bikes in the hall entrance. The bikes this year in the entrance were plentiful, packed in similar to sardines in a can, as there must have been over 30 bikes squeezed into a relatively small gated off section.
Among the swap meet floor, you could also get yourself inked by one of TROGs most memorable and prominent members, Josh Kohn, at his booth for Immortal Ink, or you could even purchase a Cheap Thrills sticker or pin from none other than Oliver Peck from the Ink Masters TV show.
Along with the likely thousands of different motorcycle parts you could purchase, ranging from frames to fully finished bikes, event staff from the Appalachian Moto Jam were on hand, and Auto Focus will be attending their March 17th event, an uphill snow hill climb and bike show. The Cheap Thrills event was not only a great for purchasing parts, but also meeting and greeting many people, both locals and those who travelled from far away to hang out with friends on what turned out to be a great day in February.
Mel Stultz, one of the organizers of The Race of Gentlemen had his latest build on the floor right next to their table, a 1939 Harley Davidson which he had pieced together from countless other bikes just to finish. Once the final touches have been completed, like swapping on the matched rear fender, I am going to make a trip down to the beach to get the bike on film, as the fresh build hasn't see that attention yet. In Mel's words when I asked him about the bike, it was the build he's been waiting all his life for so far.
The trip down to Asbury Park was a great one, just wandering the boardwalk, stopping by a local Mexican restaurant, and seeing a bunch of the people that have helped make Auto Focus a possibility. This year will be a huge year of expansion, and Cheap Thrills was just the beginning!