Even though this was the fifth Born – Free, there were many first time attendees. I’ve had the opportunity to experienced most of them; think I only missed two due to conflicting schedules. I often wonder what a first timer perceives as they walk through the belly of the beast.  Luckily Matt Storms, our Arizona contributor, was on location and he was kind enough to give me his thoughts on the event.

Photos by Matt Storms

Pure sensory overload is one way I would describe Born Free 5. This year’s show was my first Born Free experience, and all I can say is wow. I had only heard about the event and had seen some pictures and video footage from past events. None of it had prepared me for the actual event itself. I didn’t know what I wanted to do first, go hit up the vendors or go straight to the bikes.

Having grown up about 40 miles from Sturgis South Dakota, I’m no stranger to bike shows. I’ve spent 20 plus years going to the Sturgis Rally, which is a pretty big event and I can honestly say that I found it much harder to get around to seeing everything at Born Free than Sturgis. Mike Davis and Grant Peterson have done an amazing job packing so much awesome into what seems like a small area in comparison to Sturgis.

My mind was blown by all the bikes that were there, every bike had it’s own look and feel versus your standard bagger or OC style chopper which occupy a large portion of the bikes at Sturgis. I wish I could pick one or two great builds and carry on about them, but there were just to many to be able to pick even one.

Inspiration and ideas for my current build were running wild as I wandered through the field of bikes outside the vendors area as well as the ones inside, I felt like a kid in a candy store. I unfortunately didn’t get around to seeing every bike inside the show area, not to mention the sea of bikes out in the parking lot.

Granted I didn’t win the bike give away, but I had a great time survived the heat and got to see some awesome bikes and meet some new people in the process. I also had the opportunity to photograph the event for Chop Cult, which I would like to thank Lisa Ballard for giving me the opportunity to shoot this event as well as write an article for it. I would also like to thank Mike Davis and Grant Peterson for putting on such a stellar event and putting in the man hours to make it happen. I will definitely be coming back next year with raffle ticket in hand.

- Matt

BORN FREE BIKE SHOW