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13 www.thunderpress.net THUNDER PRESS nDecember 2016n ballroom of the moribund Western Hotel. And it's marvelous, never mind the shuttered remainders above. It's here in this softly-lit, air-conditioned hall that the Artistry in Iron, Master Builders Championship—the event's signature world-class custom bike competition—is centered. Accessible. Welcoming. So unlike the chain-link fence enclosure of the Cashman Center that preceded the deal. And there's a real big horseshoe bar there, with comfortable seating, relaxed service, and a grand view of all those extraor- dinary machines that made the cut to get into this exclusive affair. A number of activities are scheduled here, but there are a number of activities sched- uled pretty much everywhere you turn down here in the District. And it's all within easy walking distance of the major hotels of the Fremont Experience district. Although the familiar shuttle service remained a feature of the event, running at rapid intervals from the LVBF headquarters at the Golden Nugget to Party Central, it was essentially just a courteous con- venience for the foot-sore or arthritic among us. Most of the happenings in the Western—dubbed the South Lot Pavilion for the event—revolve around the Artistry exhibit, including auto- graph sessions with the 17 elite bike builders invited for the competition, as well as an autograph session with Pawn Stars star Rick Harrison. And right out back of the facility is the fi rst of the two of the event's lively party zones, the aforementioned South Lot. The North Lot is kitty-corner from here, and even more densely packed with vendors and a more elaborate stage. To get there you have to cross that section of Fremont now dedicated to bike shows. From the mundane to the jaw-dropping they line up for one or another of the many bike shows this year—four in all, if you don't include the Artistry in Iron contest indoors. As I have in the past, repeatedly, and under the merciless sun of the Cashman center back, now, in the day, I undertook the judging of the LVBF Bike Show Semi-Custom class—all seven of them, the least number of entries in the class in my long expe- rience here. I also had to determine the best entries in a number of genres, and paint jobs as well. A hellish duty, but one made simpler by the dearth of entries. As always, when a bike exhib- itor sees the red scoring notebook in my hand, they ingratiate themselves as best they can hoping to favorably sway my judgments. Sounds corrupt, I sup- pose, but has allowed me to meet some very enthusiastic and amiable folks; the fi nal scoring being a mere formal- ity, I've already won. At no time in the history of this event—a long one, now—has the event guide been more essential. And that's because by moving notable hap- penings back and forth between the North Lot and South Lot party zones, the organizers sought to maximize exposure to the two vendor zones, and it worked admirably. Also working admirably this year was the require- ment that hopefuls for the various giveaways late in the evening, particu- larly the awarding of four new motor- cycles, one per night, that included a 2017 Harley-Davidson Street XG 500, a 2016 Indian Scout Sixty, a Harley- Davidson Roadster XL1200CX, and a 2017 Victory Octane, be present for the drawings. All told, over $100,000 in cash and prizes were given away by the LVBF organizers and sponsors over the four days of the event. That spreading of the buzz over the North and South lots, as well as pretty much every other available space in the creases, provided ample space for a non -stop program of every diversion we've come to expect of a major rally. Demo rides on the Polaris line-up of both Victory and Indian kept the queues forming in the South Lot, adjacent to the playground where the Straight Up Stunt Team burned and wheelied their jaw-dropping hoo- ligan antics every hour and a half or so. Elsewhere on the vast premises, the Globe of Death human gerbils spun around their steel ball with hair-raising abandon, also at intervals of an hour and a half or so, though they were just a blur inside that steel enclosure. And this being Las Vegas BikeFest, it was a cinch that off-site venues would play a prominent part in the overall package, starting with the perennial wet T-shirt contest at the local Harley dealer—Red Rock Harley-Davidson, in this case. And moving down Las Vegas Boulevard to the famous Harley-Davidson Café where the Bagger Burn-out spectacle was held. (Sadly, this was the fi nal involvement of the Café in the LVBF doings, as within the month since the event they closed the establishment down and auctioned off their vast collection of memorabilia and cul- tural curios.) Also in the swim of things, though no longer offi cially as in many years See "Las Vegas," page 14, column1 British invasion; Pete Pearson's Artistry in Iron, Master Builders Championship winning Triumph single Your typical street performers at the Fremont Street Experience Atomic Liquors barkeep Lyden, the only name you need to know in this part of town