Debut Rumford motorcycle show a success

RUMFORD — Motorcycle enthusiast Nick Brown’s idea to host a motorcycle show in Rumford paid off with a large turnout.

Fifty motorcycles were brought by riders to the inaugural Rumford Bike Show on Canal Street behind Kevin Kaulback’s Hotel Rumford sports bar.

“It was definitely a successful show,” Brown said. “So we’re gearing up for next year’s show and plan to hold a second one in Bethel.”

“We did good,” Jim Bennett of Bethel and the owner of Norsemen Cycles said of the show.

Brown said the winners of the motorcycle show included Dale Lavorgna of Mexico, who took Best of Show with a 1990 FJ 1200 Yamaha; Kim Cyr of Rumford who took Worst of Show with a Can Am reverse trike; and Travis Greenham, who won the People’s Choice award with a customized Road King.

Greenham’s bike was built by Winston Nickerson, owner of Grid Iron Motors in Mexico, Brown said. Nickerson brought three bikes that he built from scratch, including a beautiful gold and black custom Grid Iron he named “The Homewrecker.”

Nickerson said he tagged the bike with that name because in the two months it took him to build it, he lost his home and his fiancee. In addition to building custom motorcycles, Nickerson said he repairs and services motorcycles.

Bennett brought two motorcycles he built, including a green and gold custom DNA Specialties bike with a 113-inch Ultima motor, a 3-inch belt drive, and a six-speed transmission. He said he just finished making it.

The other three bikes were a custom 2003 Thunder Mountain bike with a 131-inch motor and 140 horsepower, a 1988 FXR Police Special and a Honda.

Brown said they also held a poker run and a 50/50 raffle. He said Norsemen and Grid Iron supported the show.

As motorcycle riders arrived on Canal Street from Route 108, they were parked two to a space lining the Androscoggin River canal, leaving the street open for emergency vehicles.

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: Kim Cyr, right, of Rumford, watches Tracy Arsenault of West Peru back her Harley-Davidson FLHX Street Glide motorcycle into a parking space on Canal Street during Saturday evening’s debut Rumford Bike Show.

: Winston Nickerson, owner of Grid Iron Motors in Mexico, stands at the inaugural Rumford Bike Show on Saturday with “The Homewrecker,” a custom Grid Iron motorcycle that sells for $70,000 and took him two months to build from scratch.

: Nick Brown of Mexico, second from left, talks with a motorcycle enthusiast on Saturday evening at the inaugural Rumford Bike Show that Brown organized.

: Travis Greenland’s customized Road King motorcycle in the foreground, which was built by Winston Nickerson, owner of Grid Iron Motors in Mexico, won the People’s Choice award at Saturday’s inaugural Rumford Bike Show on Canal Street in Rumford.

: A skull looks out from the gas tank of Travis Greenland’s customized Road King motorcycle that was built by Winston Nickerson, owner of Grid Iron Motors in Mexico. The bike won the People’s Choice award at Saturday’s inaugural Rumford Bike Show on Canal Street in Rumford.

: As a motorcycle rider drives into the inaugural Rumford Bike Show on Saturday evening at right, Debbie Belskis of Mexico talks with her husband Frank after watching him park his motorcycle.

: Jim Bennett, owner of Norsemen Cycles of Bethel, brought four of his custom-made motorcycles to Saturday evening’s debut Rumford Bike Show. The green and gold bike at left is a custom DNA Specialties cycle with a 112-inch Ultima motor, and the bike behind it is a 2003 custom Thunder Mountain motorcycle with a 131-inch motor.