Heavy Metal Parking Lot: Pics from Seattle’s Backfire Moto Night
When the sun shines in the Emerald City, bad-ass bikes come out of the woodwork. Backfire Moto Night is the best way to see them.
For a place with such famously crappy weather, there’s actually a pretty good motorcycle scene in Seattle, and I found out about Backfire Moto Night not long after I moved back from Los Angeles. While looking for furniture at Space Oddity, a vintage shop around the corner from my place, I started talking to owner Todd Werny, who also happens to be the founder of Cretins MC.
Turns out, Backfire Moto has been happening for over a decade, though in recent years, it’s gotten huge. Every third Wednesday of the month, bikers of all stripes descend on the corner of 17th Avenue Northwest and Leary Way, and the hardware on hand is pretty impressive. Like a lot of folks on the forum, I love all kinds of bikes, and I can confidently say that whatever flavor of machine you’re into, you’ll find plenty to drool over here. The crowd is awesome too.
In keeping with its informal nature, there’s not a lot of organization at Backfire, so where you wind up has more to do with when you arrived than what kind of badge is on your bike. But obviously, I gravitated toward shooting the Harleys first, and I had no shortage of subjects.
I was immediately drawn to a gorgeous late-30s Flathead, which managed to look spectacular even when parked next to a dumpster. And while I’ll admit I’d be a little nervous to actually ride it, I was also totally taken with a minimalist Panhead chopper with Heavy Metal-themed paintwork. For reasons which should be pretty obvious, I loved the “Cheat Death” script on the oil tank and air cleaner of another bike — even if I’m not really into hippies, or the music of the Grateful Dead.
Of course, along with those choice Harleys, there were plenty of other sweet bikes that caught my eye. My uncle rode a Norton Commando when I was a kid, and I’d never actually seen one of the modern ones in person. So I flipped when I stumbled across a black one — even if I’d have preferred it to be canary yellow. In contrast, I found a 400 two-stroke Yamaha which, in my humble opinion, is perfect in every single way. Seriously, have mercy. That wicked little chainsaw is giving me impure thoughts even as I write this. And maybe you’ve heard of a Zündapp? But I sure as hell hadn’t, so I found a restored maroon example super interesting. Apparently, it’s not a BMW knock-off, like I originally suspected.
Check out all my pics below, and make sure to hit me up on the forum if you’re a local who goes to Backfire. I know there have to be some HDForums members who show up!
