Mama Tried Brings the Ruckus Back to Brewtown in 2024

Since 2014, the Mama Tried Motorcycle Show and the Flat Out Friday race have been a showcase for builder culture, custom bikes, and lighthearted mayhem. It’s not everyone’s cuppa, as the English say. Some folks huff and puff about the pointlessness of choppers and custom bikes and the rowdy atmosphere. It’s not that they’re wrong. They’re just not partying correctly.

For the less dogmatic among us, it’s a welcome break from the Midwest winter and a great excuse to party in Cream City (aka Milwaukee). It’s about imagination and engineering running riot in flake paint and TIG welding. Calling Mama Tried a “chopper show” is only half right. There are also EVs, ‘70s survivors, Franken-bikes, and plenty of real dirt and patina. Plus, dozens of hopeful vendors with parts, accessories, gadgets, and new gear.

It all kicks off with the Flat Out Friday races at Fiserv Arena. It’s usually clad in a parquet floor for the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks. But one night every year, aspiring racers and various ne’er-do-wells fill the arena with exhaust fumes and lay down rubber on the Dr Pepper syrup-prepared surface. Last year was a hoot, but this year brought out even finer costumery and livery concepts. Tea time while racing? That’s rich.

Photographer Cathy Drexler has been shooting the event since 2016. What’s her take on Mama Tried?

“It’s a uniquely Milwaukee experience that has a happy way of bringing us together over our love of bikes.”

Truer words were never spoken. So take a load off, grab a cold one, and check out the 2024 edition of Mama Tried and Flat Out Friday in glorious color and pixels.