Bike Show

today i spent the day at the bike show at the Birmingham NEC with a couple of biking friends.

after an early and wet start, we arrived just after the show opened. the Birmingham NEC is huge, to the extent that as well as the bike show taking up 5 halls, there was also a food show and a golf show on too! i found it surprising then that the only traffic jam we met was on the way into the car park!

once into the show itself (we decided to start at Hall 1) the first stand we were presented with was the KTM stand and to my surprise, the first bike i sat on was the most comfortable bike i sat on throughout the whole show! i present the KTM 990 Super Duke R…

in hall 1 were most of the major motorcycle manufacturers and all their current/new range bikes. i sat on quite a lot, but the only thing that came close to the smile factor of the KTM was a Triumph Scrambler…

i’m sure that had nothing to do with the fact that just sitting on it made me think i was as cool as Steve McQueen in The Great Escape!

in the other halls were a Super-cross arena, a stunt show arena, owners clubs, magazines and all the motorcycle protection, clothing, accessories, bike parts and other stuff that you could imagine. the prices of the clothing and protection stuff were especially good, with most of the items that are not going to be in next years range being sold off for big discounts. i bought a pair of winter gloves for £20 and a pair of Alpinestars SMX-4 boots which surprised me as i didn’t even know Alpinestars did boots in my size!  one of my friends bought the most disgustingly lurid Shark helmet for a pound short of £100 which he loves! i too found a helmet i liked, but I'm not sure if it’s a good or bad thing they didn’t have it in my size…

of course, as well as the stuff I've listed, there were also the Girls…

the rest of my Bike Show photos (clicky)