It's Show time at the NEC...
By John Dickinson on 29th Nov 07
HAVING fought through the early morning traffic to get to the NEC Motorcycle Show, Editor JD then made the effort to unearth every off-road model he could find in the halls...
WAS up bright and early - well, early anyway -last Thursday looking forward to a nice relaxing drive down the M6 tothe NEC Motorcycle show which was starting its annual 11 day run andthe first shock, at 6.30am, was being charged 1.07p per litre ofdiesel as I reluctantly filled-up. God's teeth. And the second treat,shortly after, was wasting around an hour crawling in typicalstop-start fashion down past the East Lancs Road...M62 junction...asfar as Stoke actually before the traffic eased. At such times you dobegin to wonder why you are bothering. Thank heavens for the M6 tollroad which allowed us to regain a bit of the lost time, not to mentionrelieving some of the built-up tension accumulated over the previoushour and a half.
So, ''Why bother going to the NEC Show at all?''you may well ask. And it is a good question. We know that the off-roadofferings will be minimal as the NEC has always been all about roadbikes. In recent years this has meant, ''all bow to the knee-downbrigade'' but as there has always been at least a token off-roadpresence then it has only been fair to make an effort.
So what, if anything, was different this year?Well, as usual the Japanese Big Four had all dragged their off-roadbikes along and at least got them out there on display. And Kawasakiand Suzuki in particular made an effort with riders on hand and staffwilling to talk off-road. As last year, I never found anyone on theHonda stand even remotely interested while Yamaha's stand was like aghost town, at least as far as staff went.
KTM was, of course, a hub for off-roaders and MDShaun Sisterton was out front virtually all day, eager and able to talkKTM to anyone who was interested. The sheer number of orange models andthe variety and variations grows by the year from the tiny two-strokemodels up through single-cylinder four-bangers and onto their mighty1200cc V-twins.
Directly facing KTM was its teutonic rival BMWwhich had cheekily placed its innovative G450X enduro model out therein KTM's face. It was disappointing though, that little effort had beenmade to make a fuss of the G450X and it was plonked at the end of theline like a bargain-basement model. In actual fact when you get upclose to the new baby Beemer you realise what a breath of fresh air itis. The bike looks much smaller in the flesh than it does in merephotographs and the simple yet clever design urges you on to lookcloser and closer at the detail. The G450X really wasworthy of mounting up on a pedestal in the glare of the spotlights.
The other surprise was the smart, Italian, Benellithumpers, the MXer which is due to land on these shoressometime in December followed by an Enduro version next March. Bring'em on!
I never actually spotted any trials models - no,that's a lie, on reflection Royal Enfield had several of their retroBullet models on their stand which actually sported an impressive rangeof models. They would have been genuine show-stoppers in the 1957 Showbut I really don't know what you are supposed to say about them 50years down the line. Well done to India for keeping them going Isuppose. As Britain threw its motorcycle industry away in the 1960s, tobe followed by most of the rest of its manufacturing heritage, there issomething quite bizarre about importing a machine now built in the fareast but which was designed here in Britain in the middle of the lastcentury. We didn't want it 50 years ago but suddenly there's ademand...?
The big manufacturers continue to put their faithin the ageing, born-again biker generation (of which I have to admit tobelong) whether in the knee-down stakes, beloved off the mainstream m/cpress as they are dragged off to exotic race circuits to test' bikesin conditions as far removed from the real-world (cold and wet) aspossible - or the Harley style cruiser market. Don't suppose you canblame them as this is presumably where the big bucks are made althoughwhen you see the discountsbeing offered you do wonder how sometimes.
Not to worry, if the NEC is not to your taste thenmaybe next week's The Dirt Bike Show is. All the 2008 off-road bikesyou can shake a stick at, if shaking a stick is what floats your boat...