Last Saturday myself and Will (my Son) visited Motorcycle Live at the NEC. We haven't been for a few years, yet always a good day out on a dreary wet November. One of the first stands to impress us was Harley-Davidson. This time with a rolling road amusing ourselves watching people actually ride a fixed bike going up and down through the gears, making some real Harley noise with huge fan at the front to get the wind effect in your hair too. I do still quite like the Street Glide (as pictured above) and I got to try the latest incarnation of Sportsters that still look a lot of fun. I did enjoy owning one over 10 years ago but they do feel like a moped to me now compared to the GS.
Will' took a shine to the Indian models (pictured right) and I found the latest Triumph Scrambler series they are doing based on the Bonny engine a great option. I must say, if I was going for a second bike to potter around on the Triumphs would be a definite option.
While around the back of the halls looking at the smaller stands for tour companies and the like I discovered Duncan Gough who has published some great looking books on touring Spain with hand-drawn maps of his experiences. What a smashing chap. He had some great advice for touring all over Spain including the Pyranees, Picos, Sierra Nevada .. you name it he's been there. Very friendly and approachable, I was so impressed I decided to buy a couple of his books. Check out his website here, and go visit him if you are visiting the show this year.
 |
| Old Katana |
 |
| New Katana |
Thinking back to the early '80's and the famous road bikes of those times I recall the original Suzuki Katana. I remember the 550 variant back in '82/'83 and one or two mates had one. Always in silver with that unusual styling and two-tone seat they were quite a radical diversion from most bikes of the day. You either loved them or hated them. Recently, Suzuki have decided to bring back the Katana in 1000cc guise and keep some of the original design and style cues as a modern twist on that iconic machine. I quite like it, with the irony of a one time futuristic looking motorcycle now sitting in the 'retro' genre that is popular nowadays. More about the Katana and it's history here.
After a quick mooch around the rest of the Suzuki stand and a look at the latest V-Strom's, we headed over to the BMW Motorrad stand. Will' likes the R1250R, and the latest RR HP4 too.
Afterwards, we both went over to see the new R 1250 GS and as a 'Wolves' fan I thought I'd prefer the new Black and Gold scheme over the Blue and White 'Albion' looking HP4 variant. I wasn't so keen on the black bars or black rear grab rail on either though, and the gold looked a bit too yellow for my liking. I did like the base model in blue but if only it came with the blacked out engine! So, for now I'm happy to keep my 1200 Exclusive in Iced Chocolate Metallic, and the rest of the spec' is pretty much identical to mine too with the TFT and the wonderful Dynamic mode. The temptation to get the slightly quicker engine has subsided ... for now 😉.
We stayed to watch the Off-Road Skills demo and BMW Training, teaching us how to park the big RT as well as lifting it up after being dropped. The off-road skills rider jumped the big GS over an off-road 'gap' too, and was good without much of a run at it either, designed to demonstrate the additional torque claims of 20% more over the 1200. We quite enjoyed how the guy balanced the GS without side-stand using an opposite lock and ran around the bike without it toppling proving how well balanced the GS is as he manoeuvred it within a very tight turn radius by standing on the pegs on one side only, and lowering the bike down as he went around cones.
The TT stand was a good place to hang out as usual watching one of the races on the big screen, and was great for us both to see the Senior Trophy in the glass case with all of those famous winners Joey Dunlop, Mike Hailwood, John McGuinness and Ian 'Hutchy' Hutchinson to name a few.
Toward the end of the day, while wandering about I passed a familiar face in the crowd who we just about recognised each other, none other than Alan who I met on the Motorrad Mountains:Alps tour back in September. Alan, a big BMW S1000 RR fan, turned up on the tour with his own RR. Good fun riding with him (see my video featuring Alan up front on 'Stelvio Ride Out' here). Good to catch up, and I hope we ride together again some day.
So, after a great day with Will' at the show and a superb late Autumn weather forecast for Sunday after seeing all of those bikes I had a yearning to get out on my bike. Mine is not packed away for the Winter just yet, I took off toward Bridgnorth then on to Ironbridge for a wonderful run out to Jackfield in Shropshire stopping off at the Boat and the bridge across the Severn to the Canal on the other side to admire the autumn views in bright sunshine.
Nice little spot, I must remember to come back in the summer and have a drink outside the pub. A good little ride today in great weather for this time of year, I ended up back down in Herefordshire almost as far as Tenbury Wells before I finally turned toward home. 👍
No comments:
Post a Comment