Stoneleigh extravaganza
By TMX Archives on 23rd Nov 06
FOLLOWING last year's record crowds the seventh Dirt Bike Show at Stoneleigh Park was expanded for 2006, giving visitors an unrivalled opportunity to see everything that's hot in the world of off-road biking and including live entertainment that was fun as well as skillful.
At time of going to press, attendance figures had yet to be confirmed but Promoto, who have run the Show since its inception in 2000, are confident that their initial count of 19,000 through the turnstiles is accurate to within a fraction. The weekend was very busy, with the only marked decrease in crowds on the Friday, which was undoubtedly due to torrential rain that made road travel almost impossible in the Midlands.
THE 2006 Dirt Bike Show, staged at Stoneleigh Park over four days last week from Thursday to Sunday, November 16 - 19, did its best to be all things off-road to all men (and women) mixing up 2007 bikes from all the major manufacturers with lots of bargain buys in the retail hall plus a superb live-show in the separate all-seater arena – which did a roaring trade with four full-on shows each day for the four days – and all credit to the trials and mini-bike boys, the last show was as fresh as the first.
Highlight of the show for trials fans was the UK debut of the Beta REV4 four-stroke trials bike – in fact it was only beaten to the World preview by its twin which was unveiled at the Milan Show earlier in the week. Only these two complete and running bikes exist at the moment but the Beta proved a sensation and importer John Lampkin was rightly proud as punch over his new baby.
Trials was also represented by John Shirt with his display of red and black Gas Gas two-stroke beauties while Nigel Birkett had his Scorpa range up for grabs with the updated 160 four-stroke attracting plenty of attention and firm orders.
On the MX front, the Big Four Japanese factories had their full 2007 line-ups while if orange is your colour then KTM had a model to suit you, whatever capacity you wanted from 50 to 1000cc. And who can resist hanging around and drooling over the gorgeous blue TM models. Where else but Italy could TMs come from?
For full report and pictures see T+MX News, Friday, November 24, 2006.