Dania Beach motorcycle show is Jan. 31

I love the look of vintage motorcycles.

 The world's best free vintage motorcycle show is Saturday, Jan. 31, when the 2026 Dania Beach Vintage Motorcycle Show opens for its 19th year under warm and sunny Florida skies. 

(The weather never disappoints.) 

The show promises "over 300 vintage motorcycles" on display, but the number could be higher, as there is no preregistration. 

Entrants sign up their motorcycles starting at 7 a.m. on the day of the show, and they have to get there early as registration ends at "10:30 a.m. SHARP." 

Motorcycles must be 35 years old (1990) or older to be shown and judged. The 50 best bikes and one "Best of Show" bike take home awards. There is a $10 fee to register a motorcycle for the event. 

The event is at Frost Park, 300 NE Second St., Dania Beach, Florida. That's just off U.S. Highway 1, south of the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. 

Admission is free for the public.

Vendors, a swap meet, kiddie play area, food and live music are part of the show. Expect a motorcycle dealer or two to show up. Last year we got a first hand look at the (still) coming BSA Gold Star.

A personal favorite of mine is the separate display area for antique bicycles.

Not surprisingly, more than a few of the motorcycles on display will be for sale. Here's your chance to look 'em over.

The show goes on from 10 a.m to 5 p.m. Whether you're shopping or just looking, get there early as the crowd builds into the afternoon and it gets harder to get a clean photo of a machine you admire.

Admission is free to the public, and parking for motorcycles and cars is free at the Casino at Dania Beach, next door to the park. I always like to put an eyeball on the parking areas, as I walk through, as interesting motorcycles turn up there.

Royal Enfield motorcycles, admittedly, are rare at the Dania Beach show. Those on display are very old, as, after 1970, Royal Enfield didn't return to the market in the U.S. until 1995, making most still too young to compete.

My 1999 Royal Enfield Bullet has nine more years to go! So, no sense washing it anytime soon, then, is there?

For information call 954-214-6136 or email daniabikeshow@yahoo.com

Royal Enfield custom is a masterpiece

The Delta. (Photo from BikeEXIF)

 The "Delta" is a custom Royal Enfield that really is a rideable work of art. The editor of the BikeEXIF website chose it as one of his top custom motorcycles of 2025. 

Go to BikeEXIF's article on the Delta for more of its gorgeous photos of the motorcycle. 

Being chosen for the 2025 BikeEXIF Editor's Choice Awards really is an honor, placing the Delta among the best custom motorcycles the website featured all year. 

It's an entirely emotional choice. Editor Wesley Reyneke first eliminates motorcycles that made the website's "stats-based Top 10." 

Never mind statistics: the Editor's Choice selections are based simply on the fact that he considers each bike on this alternative list of winners "unforgettable in its own way." 

He doesn't even rank his Top 10. They're listed alphabetically by the name of the builder.

The result is an emotional set of choices with which no one else likely would agree. I choked when I got to a custom based on a Vespa. Another Royal Enfield custom on the list left me unmoved because "subtlety went out the window" on that design.

Too much pizzazz always leaves me wondering what to look at it.

The Delta custom, based on a Royal Enfield Super Meteor 650 (but, except for the gorgeous 650 motor,  unrecognizable as such), doesn't shout.

To me, its visual appeal is silent wonder.

Everything about it is in context, including an otherwise outrageous 23-inch front rim. and a headlight small enough to be a reflector.

"Making something that elevates the style, but having to make it work well too," is the fun part, builder Tom Gilroy of Purpose Built Moto told BikeEXIF.

"Subtlety was key," for this design, editor Reyneke wrote of his choice to add it to his Top 10.

The Delta was a commission from Royal Enfield itself, inspiring Gilroy to consider the meaning of Royal Enfield motorcycles to the company and customers.

"The question became, 'What is Royal Enfield trying to build?'" Gilroy explained to BikeEXIF.

"My answer was that they have cultivated a die-hard community of riders based on their unwavering commitment to heritage throwback motorcycles."

So, when Gilroy tells BikeEXIF that Delta's bespoke girder front fork was somehow inspired by the deliberately crude Flying Flea of World War II, I begin to appreciate the challenge he faced.

The Flying Flea had used rubber bands for springing. For Delta, an adjustable air shock from a downhill mountain bike was used for damping.

You can read about every subtle detail of the Delta in BikeEXIF's full story on it.

Scroll down to the last paragraphs, where Gilroy reports what Delta is like to ride. 

But first, full stop: I can't quit writing about the Delta without mentioning the two features I find most fascinating.

First, and most obvious, consider the shift lever that incorporates the clutch lever normally found on the handlebar. Practical or not, it's an exciting feature that has to make Delta exciting to ride.

Second, and nearly invisible, the normally prominent oil cooler of the stock 650 twin is gone. Instead, oil runs through the two front down tubes, with oh-so-subtle fins cut into them for cooling.

Does that really work? I don't know. But it is an outstanding visual improvement. And the opposite of pizzazz.

Haven't I seen your ugly face before?

It was a case of Beauty and the Beast.

 Royal Enfield once manufactured a motorcycle so ugly that even posing a pretty girl next to it wouldn't sell it. 

One advertisement showed the girl sitting on the Royal Enfield Model Z Cycar as a uniformed RAC officer gave her directions to her destination. 

The Model Z Cycar was a sales bust. But, funnily enough, a later look-alike motorcycle marketed by Velocette sold in numbers.

The Cycar and the Velocette LE look so much alike you couldn't pick one or the other out of a police line-up. So why was the Velocette such a success (production ran for more than 20 years)?

Well, for one, Velocette didn't try to peddle its ugly ducklings to pretty girls. It sold them to the police.

Same idea, from Velocette. But theirs was a success.

Paul D'Orleans of The Vintagent website, picked a Velocette LE as one of the "Top Ten" motorcycles scheduled for the Mecum Las Vegas Auction Jan. 27-31, 2026.

You've gotta know that he considered his choice — um — a bit controversial. My God: it's a boxy, underpowered, side-valve flat twin, and, what's worse it was the motorcycle that spoiled Velocette's reputation for building gorgeous motorcycles.

"Despite their popularity with the cops, this is the design that sank a great company," he wrote.

"They knew a people’s motorcycle would someday conquer the world, but that was the Honda C100, not a strange little water-cooled flat twin. "

The Velocette LE (for "Little Engine") up for auction is a 1970 model.

Not pretty, but it had its points.

Royal Enfield's own experiment with building a utilitarian people's motorcycle didn't even last until World War II. Only about 1,500 were built between 1931 and 1936.

Naturally, the Royal Enfield of 1931 wasn't even as sophisticated as the 1970 Velocette. The Royal Enfield had a 148cc two-stroke single cylinder motor, with three-speed hand shift.

But its frame was a clever single steel pressing, "offering complete protection from oil, grease and mud without sacrificing accessibility." Equipped with standard leg shields, it kept the icky stuff off a lady's skirt.

On the other hand, she was bound to get her hands oily using the gas cap to measure the correct amount of two-stroke oil to add to the mix.

Jorge Pullin has detailed information about the Cycar on his blog My Royal Enfields.

Interestingly, he has also tracked ad photos of the "lady in the fur coat" and her Cycar as Royal Enfield ran her around town posing with it!

Follow along as Jorge stalks the young woman from here.

To here.

To here.

And here.

Yes, they even made her wash it.