AMD World Championship to Remain Suspended for 2022

From Robin Bradley:

"It is with regret that I have to announce that the AMD World Championship of Custom Bike Building will not go ahead at INTERMOT in 2022. This is the announcement appeared in the recently published April edition of AMD Magazine….

AMD Magazine and World Championship of Custom Bike Building owner Robin Bradley has announced that there will not be an 'AMD' Finals staged at the Cologne, Germany Expo in October 2022.

The 'AMD' program will therefore remain suspended for the foreseeable future "as we examine options for the future of the event program - options that represent a viable, sustainable and future-facing formula."

"There is no question that the 'AMD' remains a popular and powerful concept that is admired worldwide. It has proven to be a valuable showcase for the design and engineering excellence that has always existed, and still exists, within the international custom motorcycle market.

"Our mission now is to consult and rebuild the 'AMD' concept with a viable, relevant, future-facing formula that is sustainable in both financial and timescale terms. Whether or not such an event program can ever be evolved to be environmentally sustainable, or sufficiently so, remains to be seen.

"Initially that isn't the primary objective. To start with the bigger story is to create the platform - then retro-engineered, once we understand what it is we are driving.

"Our focus in the short-term will be to find an event formula that can be staged on a long weekend rather than a week-long undertaking such as INTERMOT; and at a venue (or maybe venues) that can deliver on the quality of event staging that has become the 'AMD' hallmark.

"That formula will also need to showcase and promote the new school of design, engineering and performance excellence that the PTW industry needs if two wheels are to take their place as a carbon neutral transport solution.

"The trick will be to do that without throwing away our market's heritage. I think that the versatility that we built into the 'AMD' formula is robust enough for it to achieve that - we will never forget to dance with the girl who brung us!

"Finally (for now!), I want to pay tribute to Koelnmesse, the Cologne, Germany exhibition center that organizes INTERMOT, and to the IVM, the German motorcycle industry trade association that owns the show.

"Both have been outstanding partners who have dug deep and done much not only to allow the 'AMD' to prosper - and achieve many of its objectives - but also to help provide a platform that has allowed the custom motorcycle industry itself and those that work in it to prosper.

"The 'AMD' has had a profound influence on the mainstream motorcycle industry and it now needs to be able to do that again as our market faces an era of unprecedented change."

[March 25, 2022]