I am writing this column a few days before heading to Milan for what will be the 79th staging of EICMA ( Esposizione Internazionale Ciclo Motociclo e Accessori ) since it was first held , in Milan , in 1914 . Last month I wrote about visiting INTERMOT in Cologne , the show at which we had been staging the AMD World Championship of Custom Bike Building since 2014 . We had held the ' AMD ' there three times , the last being in October 2018 - unlike EICMA , INTERMOT is biennial / every other year . Having listened carefully to increasingly negative sentiment about INTERMOT ever since that 2018 show , and witnessing OEM reactions to it , we clearly had a decision to make about the destiny and long-term fate of the ' AMD World Championship '. Like most shows , the planned 2020 iteration was quickly canceled , but when planning got underway ( October 2021 ) for this year ' s comeback - after a four-year hiatus - we had to work hard to overcome the innate instinct that we have to give all shows the benefit of the doubt and continue to play our role as an INTERMOT supporter and booster . I have always been a strong backer of the ' Cologne Show ', having first visited it in 1990 , and having had a booth and presence of at least some kind every year since 1996 . The decision I made to pull the ' AMD ' out of INTERMOT 2022 weighed heavily on me . Both from the show ' s point of view , our own perspective as a showcase for AMD ' s popularity and brand meaning , but above all for the international custom motorcycle building community which had come to enjoy and value the very different , indeed unique , nature of the design and engineering-led and uniquely global showcase that the ' AMD ' gave them . The AMD World Championship was born out of frustration at the inconsistent and often downright crooked nature of the custom motorcycle shows that were dominating the industry in the 1990s . Our antidote was a transparent and innovative approach that delivered a platform on which the market ' s innate creativity and craftsmanship shone bright for all to see . Existing show organizers ( and the magazine publishers around at the time ) hated us for it - but which show organizer hasn ' t now embraced didn ' t embrace a Freestyle Class and peer group review judging ? What was once radical is now orthodox . It is with great sadness , therefore , that I am finally waving the wite flag of surrender and accepting that the ' AMD ' has reached the end of its road . However , I do so with immense pride - given the way better standards at custom bike shows that the market is now able to take for granted , and the much higher level of popularity and borderline mainstream status that custom motorcycles now have ( especially looking at you BMW , Yamaha and Triumph ). As a result of visiting INTERMOT this year and , like all of us , watching how the motorcycle industry show scene in general is melting down in front of our very eyes ( and has been since before Covid ), it simply has to be accepted that the AMD World Championship ' s work here is done . We now live and operate in staggeringly different times from the era that gave the event its Genesis . The 25 or so years that we have been in the custom bike show ( as well as magazine ) business is no time at all , really , in the grand scheme

of things . But in motorcycle industry terms , custom market terms , it seems like an eon . Market enthusiasm for the ' AMD ' as a trustworthy show brand that endowed honesty , prestige and reflected glory is as high and bright and shiny as it ever was , so maybe now is the right time for an aging hippy like me to step aside - leave them wanting more and quit at the top of your game and all that ! There are way too many people to thank , and trying to isolate a few would be invidious because , at the end of the day , it is the builders who are the heroes in this equation . It was their passion , craftsmanship and creativity that set this particular fire burning in me , and it was in their name that I built the program , and in their interests that I nurtured it and invested in it . The payback certainly hasn ' t been financial , but it has been in treasure of an altogether different and more important kind . I value the friendships it has given me and the opportunity to give back to the market that has given me my living above all financial considerations . So , where to from here ? I am glad to say that , despite the challenges facing the print magazine industry worldwide , and especially in special interest and discretionary spend sectors , both our magazines continue to do well . In fact , since the international motorcycle industry bottomed out from the effects of the 2007-2009 financial crisis in late 2014 , our business has grown steadily and defied the trend that has seen print magazines dying off in their thousands . Indeed , what is especially interesting is that we are now already starting to see the next turn of this particular wheel , with global online advertising marketing spend shrinking rapidly in coming years . In our case , we are about to close out an eighth straight year of growth - and there aren ' t many print magazine publishers who can say that ! However , having spent the past two decades investing in the AMD World Championship program , it is time to let someone else have a go and evolve a next stage for the custom show industry that is as relevant to these times and those ahead as the ' AMD ' was " back in the day ." In that respect , I guess I ought really to describe this as a " permanent suspension " rather than permanent closure then - though that sounds somewhat of an oxymoron to me - because if anyone can come up with a formula that takes the equity and brand values of the ' AMD ' forward , then I would be very happy to talk . One warning though . Ideas would need to be backed by resources , knowledge and enthusiasm backed by a realistically knowledgeable understanding of the realities of how the custom and wider motorcycle industry really works . It ' s not that I am unwilling to mentor , but it ' s funny how the dawn of enlightenment always tends to come closer to sunset than sunrise !

Robin Bradley

Co-owner / Editor-in-Chief robin @ dealer-world . com

ISSUE ART DUE PUBLICATION *

* this is the date when the digital edition goes live online , the print copies typically go into the international mail on a priority service five days later .

4 AFTERMARKET MOTO DESIGN - DECEMBER 2022 www . AMDchampionship . com