American Motorcycle Dealer AMD 169 August 2013 | Page 18

MulaFest, Madrid, Spain, 27-30 June
AMD Magazine publisher Robin Bradley reports on a new kind of event to join the World Championship affiliate program, MulaFest in Madrid, a celebration of urban lifestyles where custom bikes meet with other youth-oriented leisure spend options

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T a time when the established custom motorcycle market and wider mainstream motorcycle industry are both concerned about where and how its future customers are to be found, a novel approach to spreading the riding gospel is being developed in Madrid, Spain. This was the second year for MulaFest, but the first year at which it’s International Bike Show was affiliated to the AMD World Championship program. The concept of the event is brand new – an attempt to combine the appeal of custom bike building with everything from tattoo art and skateboarding through to BMX and urban/graffiti art. Backed up by a big investment in live music, theatre performances and action events, the formula is designed

to appeal to a youth market that would otherwise not engage with the very limited range of motorcycle event choices presently available in Spain. arley-Davidson has made an excellent job of developing its Barcelona Harley Days, but since the massive downturn in the Spanish motorcycle industry and economy in

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general resulted in the trade association (ANESDOR) having to suspend its biennial expo program, the market in Spain has very few opportunities to promote twowheeled lifestyles of any kind. Though traditionally a small cc market, the decade up to 2008 saw massive growth in large displacement

CLASS WINNER
BEST OF SHOW FREE STYLE MODIFIED HARLEY METRIC STREET STYLE PUBLIC CHOICE Winner BEST PAINTING Winner

BIKE NAME
LA BESTIA LA BESTIA SACRAMENTO MATHEUS LA CHATA ARIZONA 64 EL COHETE

BUILDER
HERMANOS VALTORÓN HERMANOS VALTORÓN NACHO ALFARO - BONNEVILLE BENJAMÍN - RETROCUSTOMBIKES ROBERTO FERNANDEZ - NOA DESIGN MARIO PALACIOS - ARIZONA CUSTOM BIKE JUANMA PALOMEQUE - JP. CHOPPERS

ownership and riding in Spain, a country where motorcycle racing (of all kinds) has always been immensely popular. Of all Europe’s major national markets, Spain has suffered hardest in the last six years with a collapse in new motorcycle sales as national unemployment has reached 20 percent among adults and 50 percent among the young. ulaFest is one of the best examples we have seen in Europe of an approach which seeks to bridge the disconnect between the traditionally older demographic of the custom motorcycle and HarleyDavidson market, and an otherwise potentially lost generation of consumers for whom regulatory and economic factors are acting as a barrier to taking up any kind of riding - with the inevitable long term effect this will have on the custom and other large displacement markets in the future. The organizers are to be commended on seeing the need and the opportunity for a ‘festival of fun’ for young consumers, one that can galvanize interest and showcase a pathway to participation. Featuring 4 classes plus a public choice, best paint and best in show winner, the emphasis of the MulaFest International Bike Show was as much on economically accessible and real world riding as it was on top-end freestyle custom bike building. The common denominator being craftsmanship and ingenuity with the trend towards “garage building” forcing customizers to dig deep for design and engineering solutions that allow them to meet the price points that their market will stand. The best in show winner (6,000 euro and qualification for the 2014 AMD World Championship of Custom Bike Building), and of the freestyle class (2,000 Euro), went to Hermanos Valtoron with “La Bestia.”

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http://mulafest.com

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AMERICAN MOTORCYCLE DEALER - AUGUST 2013

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