Hands off: Visitors observe custom motorcycles on display at Kustomfest 2013 automotive show at the Jogja Expo Center.

There was rockabilly, blues, rock '€˜n'€™ roll and heavy metal music in the air as tattooed bikers and motorists assembled for Kustomfest 2013, the second iteration of Yogyakarta'€™s annual event for custom motorcycles and hotrod automobiles.

'€œThe bikes and cars exhibited here are roadworthy,'€ Kustomfest director Lulut Wahyudi said reassuringly. '€œSafety of travel has remained a primary concern.'€

According to Lulut, who also manufacturers things like bike frames for export, custom motorcycles are not as popular in Indonesia as in the US, where a culture of modification has been in place since the 1950s.

'€œCustom culture'€ is a counter-culture term first used in the 1960s in Britain to denote artistic works, hair styles, vehicle models and custom bikes and cars, Lulut said.

'€œThis culture has grown fast in Asia, in line with the progress of the automotive world in Japan,'€ he adds. '€œInstead of just duplicating the culture from America, we see custom bikes and cars as a body of knowledge needing some imagination, which has triggered the birth of a creative automotive industry.'€

Kustomfest, supported in part by the tabloid Otoplus and held at the Jogja Expo Center, included automobiles for the first time this year.

Sweet ride: Kustomfest 2013 expanded to include automobiles for its second iteration.

Lulut said that the event was intended to promote creative industries within in the automotive sector to demonstrate Indonesia'€™s position as a good potential market '€” and as a producer of custom goods.

'€œThis festival also features small and medium-scale automotive creative businesses producing leather upholstery, leather jackets, airbrush paint, carvings, car accessories and custom motorcycle services. Many foreign visitors have shown their interest,'€ according to Lulut.

Potential growth in the sector remains high: Although motorcycle demand dipped to 10.5 million units in 2012, down 6.8 percent from the previous year, Indonesia dominated sales within the region, accounting for 7.14 million units sold, according to the ASEAN Automotive Federation (AAF).

Further, despite the continuing threat of an economic slowdown in Europe and China, Indonesia'€™s automotive market is set to expand in coming year, according to Singapore-based consulting firm Frost and Sullivan.

Shige Suganuma, the president of custom parts producer Mooneyes, said that Indonesia had the fastest growing custom culture in Asia.

Meanwhile, Indramawan, an automotive observer from Otoplus, said that players in Indonesia'€™s automotive industry could be introduced to the world by such events as Kustomfest, which offered an arena for automotive industrialists, custom motorcycle and car builders and automotive enthusiasts to meet in Indonesia.

'€œEvery year, Kustomfest invites global automotive custom builders and producers to witness the richness of custom culture in the country,'€ Indramawan said. '€œThis year, apart from Shige Suganuma and Hiro '€˜Wildman'€™ Ishii, Kustomfest and Otoplus have also invited a world master builder from California, Roland Sands.'€

Indramawan noted that in addition to modification works, Indonesian builders demonstrated the functional aspects of their models to visitors.

'€œTo join the festival and contest, their motorcycles had to pass such tests as stationary engine operation without throttle control, proper brake functioning, and maneuvering round a path in the shape of the figure eight,'€ he said.

This, Indramawan affirmed, served as proof of Indonesian builders'€™ fulfillment of certain criteria in the process of bike building, capable of competing with other countries.

'€œThe capability has also received positive response from the Trade and Industry Office of Yogyakarta, which is prepared to promote local creative products,'€ concluded Indramawan.

'€” Photos by JP/Indra Harsaputra and courtesy of Dok Otoplus