Custom Dispatch #5: Vegas Clears a Floor for Two Wheels — SEMA Puts Bike Builders in the Ring

Last time I wrote about the way in — Glemseck 101 handing rookies a rulebook. This time I want to write about the way out. November 3 to 6, Las Vegas. The SEMA Show: the enormous once-a-year trading floor where the car aftermarket gathers. SEMA has announced that its 13-year-old Battle of the Builders will get a motorcycle category for the first time, called the Bike Builder Shootout. Three judging criteria: craftsmanship, design innovation, and overall execution. Motorcycle-industry judges score the bikes separately from the cars and pick a top 10. What happens next is the interesting part. The builders who make that top 10 become the judges themselves, deciding the top three and the overall champion. The bikes go on display in Center Hall. RJ de Vera, SEMA's vice president of marketing, said in the announcement that "motorcycles have always been vital to customization, and we're excited to officially bring these builders into the spotlight." Always vital — and it took them thirteen years to say it out loud.

This didn't fall out of the sky on its own. Back in March, SEMA announced a new Powersports/Side-by-Side/Lifestyle section in the West Hall. Motorcycles, dirt bikes, trailers and tow vehicles, adventure gear and accessories — all gathered in one place. Not borrowing a corner of the car world, but getting a floor of their own. Tom Gattuso, SEMA's vice president of events, called the expansion "a bold step forward in SEMA's mission to serve the entire enthusiast ecosystem." Here's my read on it. What's happening here isn't display, it's trade. SEMA isn't a festival for the general public. It's where manufacturers, distributors and dealers gather to decide what they're stocking next year. A floor was cleared for two wheels, and a builder's podium was put in the middle of it. Custom work has taken a step out of the hobby column and into the side of the business where parts actually move.

The judging panel is worth a look too. Zach Ness of Arlen Ness Motorcycles, Jeff Holt of V-Twin Visionary, Pat Patterson of Led Sled Customs, with Bob Kay as judge chairman. Kay put it this way: the Shootout "gives builders a platform to showcase skill and innovation while being recognized alongside talented builders." It was the phrase "alongside" that got me. Until now, bike builders could be parked next to the cars without ever being measured against them. As the surname tells you, Zach comes from the Arlen Ness line, and that family is a chunk of West Coast custom history in its own right. Even so, what I trust most is — again — the part where the top 10 judge each other. Looking at the back side of a weld bead, at how the wiring is routed, at where somebody cut a corner: only people who have done that work with their own hands can see it. That said, I'm not applauding without reservation. To enter, your bike has to be displayed at the 2026 SEMA Show. Which means you need a booth. Which means money. Last time I wrote that it was good news when a scene stops running on "only the guys with friends know the procedure." This time the gatekeeper may simply switch from friends to exhibitor fees. I'll want three years before I call that one.

Even so, I'm on the side that welcomes this. Last year's overall Battle of the Builders champion was Troy Trepanier of Rad Rides by Troy — a car guy. From this year, in the same hall, bike builders' names get called at the same volume. A motorcycle isn't a vehicle, it's a culture — I've worked from that belief for twenty years, but it's just as true that a culture doesn't survive unless somebody can eat from it. The skill to finish a bike in a workshop and the circuit that turns a distributor's glance at that bike into a parts order have sat in separate places until now. SEMA's podium could be the plumbing that joins them. Sure, some builders will sand the edges off their style the moment there's a trophy at stake. Once a shape starts winning, somebody will always trace it. So what to watch from next year isn't how beautiful the winning bike is — it's what happens to the nine that didn't win. In November, I'm going to Las Vegas. You'll understand it when you get there.