A homecoming at the 100th Motorcycle Week

LACONIA — Dick Cartier has been judging bike shows for more than 40 years. He continued that tradition Wednesday at the Weirs Drive-In during Laconia Motorcycle Week’s 100th rally. 

Twelve entrants competed in categories based on their style, paint or construction, with Brian Gould’s custom 2009 softail taking Best in Show and Best Paint awards. 

“All bikes are perfect to me,” Cartier said. “But if I see it, I see it.”

Mark and Candice Hampton came to Laconia Motorcycle Week from the early 1980s into the ’90s, but the 1958 Harley-Davidson they entered has made a pilgrimage to the rally since long before. 

Mark’s father, who purchased the bike new in ’58, began bringing it to Laconia that very year as a member of the Bridgeport Motorcycle Club in Connecticut.

The Hamptons, who live near Daytona Beach in Port Orange, Florida, had not been to Motorcycle Week in more than a decade. They decided to honor Mark’s father by making sure the bike made it to New Hampshire for the 100th rally.

“You can never do the 100th again,” Candice said. 

“It feels like we’re bringing it home,” Mark said. They won the competition’s antique category.

Other entrants in the show included Kent Woodward’s 2000 Ecstasy Renegade Trike and John Olson’s 1978 FXE. 

Cartier, who lives in Gilford, judges bike shows, bike rodeos, tattoo contests and build-offs all across the country. He was introduced to the show world while working at a garage that built show cars in his early 20s. 

“I’ve met a lot of nice people, doing this,” Cartier said. “They are my family.”