2024 People's Champ Winner: Andy Martin

Over 7,000 votes later, and with the stiffest competition to date, New Zealander Andy Martin was awarded the belt for this year's Biltwell People's Champ. His 1948 Harley-Davidson Panhead chopper was a standout in every regard. The overall bike is amazing, and the deeper one digs, the better the details get. Clean molding everywhere, low-key but perfectly executed paint, and neat features like the pointy chain link exhaust mounts, motor mount, and clutch release are awesome details.

Like all bikes eligible for the title of "People's Champ," Andy had to ride it from Lake Elsinore, CA, over the infamous and deadly Ortega Highway to Cook's Corner. Proving this wasn't just an art project, he had zero issues and rode it there like a proper motorcycle. Everyone who competed this year built top-notch customs and were fun and easy for us to work with. But there can only be one Champ, and when the votes were tallied, Andy and his handcrafted baby-blue Harley claimed the title (and the check) for 2024. Congrats! Follow Andy on Instagram:  @Andrewcjm

1. Who are you, where are you from, what is your day job? Andy Martin, from Dunedin in New Zealand, day job is as a Manufacturing Consultant
2. Point out some of your favourite details: Definitely all the molding on the bike such as the frame leg fins, the tank scoop, and the fender scoop that houses the HypnickJerk Taillights. I’m also stoked on the spiked chain clutch release and the exhaust brackets and top motor mount in the same style. I made the front brake plate from scratch too and that came up killer and works really well as well which I’m happy with.
3. What were some of your biggest struggles building the bike? Getting parts here in New Zealand is always a struggle as there’s almost nothing local, so lead times on parts can really slow you down. I also had a ton of issues with chrome and ended up having to re-plate over 50% of the chrome and remake some parts due to bad polishing which was a pain in the ass. Also during final assembly, I’d had a mare and when I welded out all the molding after tear down I didn’t have a motor plate fixture in the frame, after paint I went to slot the motor in and the seat post had pulled forward meaning the motor didn’t fit anymore and fouled the seat post quite badly. In the process of figuring out what was going on the paint got a hammering, so had to re-paint the whole seatpost/cradle area, and clearance the rear head fins to get it all to fit, it wasn’t fun haha.
4. Did you learn any new skills building the bike? Definitely, I’d never done any sheetmetal work before so making all the fins, molding, and scoops was a learning curve. I’d also never touched a Linkert before and had a host of issues with mine, so learnt a lot about how they work. Other than that, I really just built on the skills i'd picked up over the last few builds I’ve worked on.
5. How does it ride? Super good, its really fun to ride and sounds awesome ripping along! It handles great and rides like an arrow at 75, the brakes even work well which was a nice surprise!
6. Anyone you want to thank? So many people have a hand in building these bikes, so if you made/supplied parts for me, or helped with any questions I had its much appreciated! A special thanks must go to Jack, Steve-o, and Dean for all their help, Dave at ABFX for laying down the paint for me, my family and all the Dunedin crew for their support, and of course my dog Wolf for chilling by my side during all those hours in the garage.