Behind The Bars With Dutch van Someren

 

When you hear the name Dutch van Someren, you might imagine a character pulled straight from a stylishly gritty graphic novel set in London. And in many ways, you wouldn’t be far off. Dutch is the founder of the Bike Shed, the famed motorcycle club and cultural hub that has become a cornerstone of the global moto community.

From his early days steeped in London’s creative industries to his visionary creation of the Bike Shed, his journey has been about much more than motorcycles. It has been about creating spaces that resonate with community, craftsmanship, and cool.

Dutch’s influence stretches from the curated corners of the Bike Shed in London, with its blend of cafe, custom bikes, and barber shop, to international motorcycle shows that draw enthusiasts from around the world. What you’ll notice first about Dutch is not just his impeccable taste in motorcycles or his knack for hospitality but his genuine passion for bringing people together.

Dutch’s philosophy—that motorcycles are as much about the people who ride them as the machines themselves—echoes through every aspect of the Bike Shed. As he often says, “Motorcycles are the glue that binds our tribe.” It’s this belief that has transformed the Bike Shed from a passion project into a pivotal platform for motorcycle culture, making every visitor and member feel like part of an extended family.

Dutch reminds us that motorcycles aren’t just about the ride; they’re about the stories we create with them and the community we build around them. Every time we kick-start a bike, we’re not just firing up an engine; we’re igniting connections and adventures that define our lives.

Thanks, Dutch, for not just serving the motorcycle community but elevating it. Here’s to many more miles of innovation and camaraderie.

Name: Dutch van Someren

Company: Bike Shed Moto Co.

Tell us a little about yourself.
Founder & CEO of Bike Shed Moto Co in London, LA, and beyond. Ex-media, TV, and advertising gave up good money and long holidays for a life of hard work, less pay, and no time for breaks. But I love what I do and the people around me.

Name one thing no one knows about you.
I used to be a Guardian Angel in London, New York and Amsterdam.

Where are you from, and where do you live now?
Born in Scotland, raised in Sussex and London, and live between London and LA.

What do you do for a living?
Chief Email Officer at Bike Shed. (I think that’s what CEO stands for?)

Tell us about your first motorcycle.
Suzuki TS 125X trail bike on knobbly tyres.

How did you get into motorcycling?
It was the only affordable way to get to the pub or my girlfriend’s house in the Sussex countryside when I was 17. And then I discovered jumps and poorly executed 2-stroke wheelies.

Who or what influences you?
Everything influences me. People, the cosmos, nature, engineering, art, music. Life is extraordinary and we live in incredible times. Humans are on the cusp of greatness or disaster, and we need to get our shit together while we still have enough time to save the planet and enough control to save ourselves. What mostly inspires me when it comes to human individuals is people who can do incredible things as athletes or through intelligence. I’m constantly amazed by the best among us, and it inspires me to be better.

You get to design your dream moto vacation for you and three buds, all expenses paid. Where do you go and why?
I’d love to ride across all of Europe, from the South of France into northern Spain across the Italian Alps into southern Germany and Central Europe, on something fast but comfy, like a Thruxton 1200RS, with luggage waiting at multiple B’n’Bs so we can carve the roads without extra weight. No comms. Just free time and twisty roads, with late starts, long lunches, and early hotel arrivals. No more than 250m a day maybe.

What’s a life lesson you learned from motorcycles?
1. Look where you’re going, not where you are pointing. 2. Ride for yourself and set your own happy pace. 3. Save showing off for track days. 4. Don’t surprise your bike and it won’t surprise you.

Have motorcycles helped you discover some aspect of your personality and/or have they helped you understand your purpose?
Motorcycles have given me Freedom, Adventure, Friendship and Community – and a job.

You have $10k and one hour to buy a bike…. Go.
The newest Thruxton 1200R I can get for that money.

When you’re not wrenching or riding, what else keeps you busy these days?
Running a business and trying to make time for the gym and healthy living, eating, and hiking.

What is one thing you cannot live without when riding?
A motorcycle. Seriously, a comfy helmet.

Any previous builds or projects that you’re proud of, or surprised with public perception?
Loved my Ducati Sport Classic 1000 projects. All 3 were great fun and very rewarding in every way.

What project has your attention currently?
Royal Enfield 650 street sled, with high shotgun pipes, upgraded suspension, and 1960s stance.

You’re editing your own moto video – footage of you riding with best friends. What song opens the video?
London Calling – London is always calling… Unless it’s Californication by the Chilli Peppers.

It’s your last drink and meal on earth. What’ll it be?
A good bottle of red wine, Cali Zinfandel, with my wife Vikki’s vegan meatballs on fresh wholewheat linguini followed by Laphroaig double whiskey.

What was your most memorable day on a motorcycle to date?
Day 2 on a trip up to Booneville on a 1200XC scrambler with my buddies, David and Justin.

I’ve been following BSMC since it was just a blog. Watching your progress from a site to a community, to a physical space, and beyond has been so cool. Could you take a little time to explain the origins of The Bike Shed and how it evolved into what it is today?
Bike Shed started in 2011 as an online blog called Full-Tilt, documenting my Ducati Sports Classic build. This turned into a community site called the Bike Shed, combining various builders in London, which migrated to Facebook, and then attracted a huge community of builders asking me to share their builds and stories.

In 2012 our collective decided to create a community-driven motorcycle show the following spring (May 2013), to rival the current crop of crappy autumn trade fairs, styled as a pop-up club, with curated custom bikes, great food and hospitality, comfy sofas, music, art, photography, bars, tattoo and barber shop pop-ups in the heart of London, and 3,000 people turned up.

We did another show that October and everyone demanded we make it full time. We found a venue, raised money from successful gear-heads and opened Bike Shed London in November 2015, along with hosting the global launch of the new Triumph Bonneville range.

After 2 years of growth and success in 2018 we realised we should be in the states, starting with LA, and after a very bumpy ride through Covid, where we nearly lost it all, and somehow earned British Empire Medals for our Covid work with the motorcycle community, we opened Bike Shed LA in April 2022, 2 years late and into tough economic times in London and LA, but the community pulled us through.

You just recently wrapped up the Bike Shed Moto Show 2024. Looks like a killer success! Could you share how that went and highlight a few standout moments?
The show was another belter. We welcomed around 16,000 visitors over the weekend and curated 270 custom bikes. We were a little stricter on entries this year, as last year we crammed a lot of bikes into the space and felt they didn’t all get enough space. We had a much better layout format, especially in the Great Gallery and Shed Row. The show was sponsored by Michelin, Ducati, Royal Enfield, BMW, Norton, Livewire & Alpinestars.

This year’s theme was Common Ground, celebrating all the passions everyone on two wheels has in common, opening us up to even more genres and categories. We added a Japanese-themed room in the vaults downstairs, with a couple of Bosozuku bikes surrounded by Japanese customs. This year we also screened all the MotoGP races on Sunday alongside extra ShedTalk Sessions in the theatre area on Saturday, ending with Charley Boorman talking about 20 years of Long Way Round to a packed house. We were also pleased to host more test rides over the weekend from LiveWire and Super73, and of course, you got the global Ducati concept reveals, where they showed the new Desert Sled replacement and the Cafe Racer concepts to a global audience for the first time.

I believe I heard in the Triumph North America podcast that you were working on bringing a show like that to LA. Is that still in the works?
An LA show has always been in the works. We have dates and venues lined up. What we need is for the sponsors to get involved, so we can fund the initial outlay. Our challenge is that this show has to be awesome on day one.

I recently came across your Bike Shed Custom Classified site. Is that new? Anything you want to share about the site?
Our new custom classifieds website is a reaction to how difficult it is to buy or sell a custom motorcycle on standard auto-trading websites, where make, model, year and mileage may be less important than the configuration, engine layout, level of customisation and exactly what modifications were made and by whom. It allows users to search for, e.g. a “twin cylinder, cafe racer, between 500cc and 900cc” or “Single Cylinder, Scrambler/Tracker between 450 and 800cc”, etc, where you might get multiple makes and models listed side by side that all match the filtered criteria. We also expect to attract more informed buyers and sellers, and less timewasters than most sites. We launch in the UK in May and will launch in the US on or before August 1st.

What else do you have in the pipeline for The Bike Shed in the coming months and years?
We are about to announce a new venue, outside the US or Europe, so watch this space.
We really do want to build a Bike Shed in every city that has a community hungry to share Common Ground in a welcoming, inclusive space that celebrates moto culture for the people who love motorcycles, and the people who love people who love motorcycles.

Extra Credit #1 – Any shout-outs to people who are doing something unique, interesting, or worth acknowledging?
Always have to look in awe at Max Hazan for being an artist and an engineer, building the best customs in the world, in my opinion, and to Sid Lal, the owner Royal Enfield, for re-imagining the middleweight bike and creating a new category of motorcycle for everyone else to copy, while he moves on to the next big thing.

Extra Credit #2 – Please nominate someone you think we should feature in “Behind the Bars”. Bonus points for females.
Max, Sid, Shinya Kimura, J Shia.

The Bike Shed: Online | Instagram | Youtube | Dutch van Someren IG

Anything important we forgot to ask, or anything else you want to add?
Embrace new riders (young and old), if you have skills, don’t show off, and leave your alpha male crap at home. It’s not 1979 and you are not in Sons of Anarchy now.