Motorcycle Live

[odachi13]

Did anyone manage to go to Birmingham in the past week?

I went on the opening day last Saturday and had a good day looking at everything, sitting on everything, getting as many freebies as I could and most importantly - I didn't impulse buy anything I didn't need!
Had a package deal with a nearby hotel which included a stay, food, tickets and return taxi for two so didn't go on the bike this year.

I was interested in quite a few different bikes as I'm moving on from the FZ6 in the spring. The MT-09 Tracer is quite nice, although the dash reminds me of those indestructable JCB phones but shows a whole bunch of usefull touring info and it starts at £8100 with ABS and traction control as standard. In competition though Suzuki's new GSX-S1000F is very nice as is the (expensive) BMW S1000XR. All in all, I went there with a few questions about my next bike and came back with more!

Some eye candy:

 

[payneib]

I went. The show was great, but the day was terrible over all cause of traveling to get there being a nightmare. Missed out on any test rides, and the off road thing was shut.

Tried on the MT07/09 and the tracer. Didn't realise how small they were. Really liked the kawasaki vulcan. And the H2R, oh the NOISE!!!!

 

[odachi13]

Travelling in the taxi from the hotel alone took 45mins in the morning. Next year I'm going on the bike again, you sail on through and as most of the queing cars are bikers themselves you get plenty of room to filter.

And the H2R, oh the NOISE!!!!

Couldn't hear hear someone stood infront of me at Yamaha when it was on the Dyno and that was 2 halls away!

 

[payneib]

Yeah, I would have been on the bike, but: the tyre that was supposed to last me until Christmas didn't have as much rubber left on it as I thought it did, so had to go in for an emergency tyre change on Tuesday. They took the wheel off and the drive side bearing fell out in lumps, and they couldn't get a replacement until Wednesday. So I went down in the car, it should have taken two and a half hours, so I gave myself three "just incase". I got stuck in morning traffic my end, then on to the motorway. The M18, M1, M42 were all 50mph limit roadworks, and the motorway past Sheffield was total gridlock. It took four hours to get there. The way back, I left at 2, hoping to pick the bike up before the garage shut, thinking there'd be less traffic. There was more, it took closer to five hours to get home. The traffic at the NEC itself was great. Busy, obviously, but it kept moving, and the roads in the centre are well designed that if you miss a turning or get in a wrong lane, it's easy enough to go to the next roundabout and come back, without losing too much time. Maybe the NEC people should take over the motorway network?

I managed to pick up some heated gloves at 10% off, a lifetime supply of scottoiler oil at two for £10, a few nicknacks for the tool box at pennies, obviously my new neckwarmers and a few freebies. But the last Sunday is the day for bargains, unfortunately I was at a family function.

The Crankd show was good, despite the massively annoying American announcer. Three hours was just enough, could have done with another hour, it'll be interesting next year to see how much time I need to fit in everything I want to do.

 

[PhotoAl]

I live in Birmingham - sigh - it's the other one. Thanks for the posts, almost ruined my keyboard drooling over the R1!