Custom roundup: The Worship Moto Show

Its unlikely setting, a 120-year-old building that was formerly the St. Margaret of Antioch Church in Leeds, UK, provides an unorthodox backdrop and the inspiration for the event's tongue-in-cheek mantra: "Come pray to the gods of speed." Organizer Gary Inman, best known as the editor of Sideburn magazine, describes it as "a showcase for high-performance custom motorcycles, the kind of fire-breathing Japanese inline fours that used to be called 'specials'."

The 2025 edition, held on September 28, marked the show's second coming, yet word had already spread. Enthusiasts attended from far and wide, filling the pews with a congregation of motorcycle zealots. They came to witness 50 hand-picked custom machines, each selected personally by Gary. When the show ended and the last bike rolled out of the church, Gary took a moment to reflect on what he'd created for this exclusive interview.

Geoffrey Baldwin: Please introduce yourself and tell us about your history with motorcycles.

Gary Inman: I'd probably describe myself as a British motorcycle journalist. The first full-time journalism job I had was at Streetfighters magazine, 30 years ago. I've worked for dozens of motorcycle and lifestyle publications around the world, and run Sideburn magazine and its related offshoot projects since 2008. I've also written and ghostwritten a few books, and organized various different events, including the influential DirtQuake and SnowQuake race events. I'm a written word guy, not a video person, so as media has changed, I've had to make sure I have fingers in different pies to keep busy.

GF: What motorcycles currently fill your stable?

GI: The core is a 1984 Harris Magnum Kawasaki Z1000J. A Wood Rotax flat-track racer, a 2017 Yamaha WR250F enduro bike, and a 1966 Lambretta SX200.

GF: In your words, what is the Worship Show, and how long has it been running?

GI: It's a one-day motorcycle show held in a former church in the northern English city of Leeds. The show concentrates on what I think of as muscle bikes, specials, and machines now called restomods. Mainly Japanese bikes, but not exclusively. Worship has a very narrow focus. No café racers, no flat-trackers, no choppers or bobbers, supermotos, ADVs… Personally, I have usually concentrated on niches within motorcycling. I'm more interested in small cults, mainly because I'm a real snob when it comes to bike culture. While I like and appreciate choppers and café racers and all those other styles, the annual Bike Shed Show includes every style of custom bike you can imagine, and is the biggest and best custom show in Britain. I never wanted to be that broad, and if a UK show tried, it would risk just looking like a crap version of the Bike Shed.

The first Worship show was in October 2024. These photos are from the second in late September 2025. The venue is Left Bank Leeds, a century-old church that is now a community-owned venue used for all sorts of events from weddings to mum and baby yoga, so I can only get it for one day, and that suits me. We get all the bikes and equipment in from 8 a.m., doors open to the public at midday, and we start packing down just after 5 p.m.

Having a longer show makes sense for some organizers, but it adds complications and a lot of expense. I'm not looking to make money from Worship, just not lose it. Icon Motosports supported us from day one, and so did Devitt Insurance and Image Worx. Royal Enfield and HEL brakes jumped in for this year, too, so it works out.

GF: What drove you to create a show like this?

GI: As soon as I discovered this venue would be willing to host a motorcycle show, I couldn't stop thinking about holding one there. Someone I knew had a plan to organize a chopper show there, but changed his mind and gave me permission to contact the venue.

The idea behind these specific bikes is that I really love them and thought they'd look great in this venue. There's crossover with what people think is the streetfighter scene, but a lot of these bikes take their inspiration from early endurance racers and high-end Japanese street bikes, from the likes of Sanctuary AC. I also loved the bikes Sticky's Speed Shop were building and displaying at Bike Shed, and Matt from Sticky's Speed Shop has been a huge help in making the Worship Show what it is. He builds high-performance bikes with a sense of humor.

The reason for doing the second Worship Show was that the first one brought so many people together who spend more time in their sheds than meeting their peers, and it reminded them how good real-life events are.

GF: What are the criteria a motorcycle needs to meet to be suitable for the Worship Show?

GI: That's a tricky one to answer, even though I do the choosing. We only have 45 to 50 spots, and no vendors, so we can be choosy. The first show had really high-quality bikes, and a IOM TT-winning Michael Dunlop GSX-R1000. I didn't want any repeats from year one, but was aiming for the same quality of bike. I'd say it's more about stance than anything else. If you look at a bike built by Race Component Development, it has a stance that is perfect to my eyes. They look like they're hard on the brakes even at a standstill. The tank and seat have a perfect line, but they're a development of the factory design, shorter seat units, fatter forks, wider wheels, bigger brakes, everything carefully considered. There are a lot of big-budget bikes, but there are some budget builds based on Suzuki Bandits, which are very common in the UK. We'd happily have a modified 2025 Yamaha R1 GYTR in the show, but the one we contacted was away on a track day in Spain.

GF: How many motorcycles were on display and where do they hail from?

GI: We promised 50, but three didn't turn up on the day, which is one of the main headaches with a show like this. We're relying on people bringing their bikes to put it on show, and some people just change their minds or their situations change at the last minute. The bikes are all from England and Wales, except one from France. And maybe one from Scotland.

GF: Can you tell us about a few of your personal favorite bikes from the 2025 show?

GI: I love the Race Component Development bikes. There were a couple of track-spec Suzuki GS1000s they'd built in the show, but my favorite story was Manu Watt’man’s Yamaha FZ1000R — a mid-'80s FZ750 with a Thunderace 1000 engine. He's from France, so it was a 19-hour journey (with a ferry in the middle) to come for a one-day show. He lost his leg in a motorcycle accident and built this wild bike while he recovered. He has just started doing track days on it. He came with four or five friends, and it proved that the show really strikes a chord with some people.

Another good story was Dean Williamson's 1986 GSX-R1100 Slabside. He'd owned it from new and turbo'd it in 1990. And it still looked classy.

We don't judge the show, but we let paying customers do a very unscientific People's Choice, and the Alonze Ducati won that, which is probably right on the border of being a Worship bike, if I'm being honest. Great bike, but more custom than performance.

GF: Do you feel that classic sports bikes like the ones in the Worship Show could be the next big thing in the custom scene?

GI: I don't think so, no. Bike websites have been showing Sanctuary bikes for years now, and they haven't caught on much outside Japan. I think this kind of bike appeals to a certain age of man (it's always men, unfortunately). I don't know if there's ever going to be another big thing in custom, in the way that neo café racers exploded around 2010. I think the digital world is now set to atomize bike cultures, not coalesce them. People aren't into early Japanese superbikes; they're into black and red GSX-R1100Hs. People focus on their thing and allow that bike to define them.

It's a good time to buy sport bikes, though. The market for them is dead, and a 20-year-old Kawasaki ZX-10R or GSX-R1000 is still far more bike than the vast majority of riders can cope with (me included). Be creative, don't try to build a period-correct WSB-replica (because those parts are still very expensive), and you can have a wild bike for much less than a derivative airhead BMW custom.

GF: And finally, what are your plans for the Worship Show in the future?

GI: Three weeks before the show, when bikes that had been confirmed for six months were dropping out one after another, I was sure I would never do the show again, but within 24 hours of this one finishing I was asking what dates the venue had free for 2026. I was thinking about looking for a bigger church or cathedral, but I love dealing with this venue, and it's in an area of the country that doesn't have an annual custom show.

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