MCN London Motorcycle show
MCN London Motorcycle show
January/February 2008
Gallery of photos
Held at the Excel centre in London, it's actually an impressive setting right on the river in the heart of the Docklands, next to the Yacht hotel a decommissioned cruise liner converted to a hotel, I arrived just before 9am on Sunday along with a hand full of other cold bikers, the temperature was just above freezing.
As I entered the Excel building I had a strange feeling of deja vu, I had never been there before yet it felt familiar, shrugging off the odd feeling I waited while they opened the gates and airily waved my newly acquired press pass as I entered the main hall, we were greeted by the Carole Nash girls clad in very tight green outfits that made them look like refugees from an action comic - anyone remember 'The Green Lantern'?.
A brisk walk around the main hall to get a feel for the event left me disappointed, it was all the usual stuff, loads of stalls selling similar kit at knock down prices, admittedly there were a lot of bargains out there including one stall selling what looked like quite serviceable waterproof jackets for £15! The four big manufacturers were there although if you painted all there bikes the same colour you would be hard pressed to tell who made which, all Japanese bikes are starting to look the same, there were some notable exceptions, the ER6 from Kawasaki has to be one of the ugliest bikes I have ever seen, it looks like it has been throw together from a kids toy set and I still think the Z1000 is a weird looking bike that has not decided what it wants to be.
The strangest thing was the Victory Starship Enterprise, sorry Vision Tour, a humongous great thing that looked like it had been designed by the creators of Star Trek, more like Star Shrek in my opinion but some people liked it, one chap I spoke too was quite enthusiastic about it, he was thinking about buying one to go to France on but his wife was equally adamant about not getting on it at all as she hated it, which the chap seemed happy about!
Motorsickle is planning a venture that will require us to acquire a couple of new bikes, so I thought I would sound out the main marques as to what bikes they thought would do the job. I'm not going into full details here, look out for them later this year, but we were looking for bikes that would be reliable and comfortable particularly for someone over 50 (Me) over a long(ish) distance in a short time without using any motorways.
The main marques.
I tried talking to several of the paying clientele there about their views of the show, all without exception did not want to be filmed talking on camera, how weird is that! One girl even chased after me to tell me I could not use a picture of her, was that not your husband then? If she had not seen the press pass would she still have gone after me? She was scary!! The general impression that I got from the punters was of slight disappointment, most had gone to try and pick up a few bargains from the stalls and check out the latest models, five actively told me they were surprised that Triumph had not made an appearance, as was I.
Bikes are becoming all very similar, the differences between the marques is getting smaller all the time, it has got to the point where hundredths of a sec on the 0-60 times differentiate the bikes rather than any really distinguishing features. Most riders, if they had the balls to admit it, could not use a modern motorcycle to its full potential, besides the fact it would be illegal on British roads the only way to get full performance is on the track.
Is it not time that one of the big four took a different tack? I'm not saying I know which direction they should go, just that I'm bored with looking at the same bikes over and over again. Try something different guys, take a chance.
Wandering over to check out the stunt show, it took all of ten minutes to bore me. I'm not dissing the skills of the stunters, but I have just seen it all so often it does not hold my attention any more.
Having stayed at the show for nearly 3 hours I was leaving the building when it hit me, this feeling of deja vu! I had, it was like Bluewater or Lakeside, perhaps the whole thing reminded me of a shopping centre, the stalls and stands rather like the standard formula shopping mall.
The whole 'show' thing has become a set formula that never changes, have I been around these shows for so long that I have become jaded towards them? Or is it the way it is now?
Why do they hold these shows in the winter? NEC was November and now this one in Jan/Feb are they trying to put us off? There must be a lot more people who would turn up if they held these shows when it's a bit warmer, is it our own fault for putting up with it?
Back in the good days of Earls we would wander around for the whole day, I'm sure there was a lot more to see and do back then. Maybe it's the rose tinted glasses or even old age creeping up on me that makes it feel that way, I am looking forward to getting to more shows this year although it's a bit worrying that they could end up boring me to death with the same things over and over again.
Held at the Excel centre in London, it's actually an impressive setting right on the river in the heart of the Docklands, next to the Yacht hotel a decommissioned cruise liner converted to a hotel, I arrived just before 9am on Sunday along with a hand full of other cold bikers, the temperature was just above freezing.
As I entered the Excel building I had a strange feeling of deja vu, I had never been there before yet it felt familiar, shrugging off the odd feeling I waited while they opened the gates and airily waved my newly acquired press pass as I entered the main hall, we were greeted by the Carole Nash girls clad in very tight green outfits that made them look like refugees from an action comic - anyone remember 'The Green Lantern'?.
A brisk walk around the main hall to get a feel for the event left me disappointed, it was all the usual stuff, loads of stalls selling similar kit at knock down prices, admittedly there were a lot of bargains out there including one stall selling what looked like quite serviceable waterproof jackets for £15! The four big manufacturers were there although if you painted all there bikes the same colour you would be hard pressed to tell who made which, all Japanese bikes are starting to look the same, there were some notable exceptions, the ER6 from Kawasaki has to be one of the ugliest bikes I have ever seen, it looks like it has been throw together from a kids toy set and I still think the Z1000 is a weird looking bike that has not decided what it wants to be.
The strangest thing was the Victory Starship Enterprise, sorry Vision Tour, a humongous great thing that looked like it had been designed by the creators of Star Trek, more like Star Shrek in my opinion but some people liked it, one chap I spoke too was quite enthusiastic about it, he was thinking about buying one to go to France on but his wife was equally adamant about not getting on it at all as she hated it, which the chap seemed happy about!
Motorsickle is planning a venture that will require us to acquire a couple of new bikes, so I thought I would sound out the main marques as to what bikes they thought would do the job. I'm not going into full details here, look out for them later this year, but we were looking for bikes that would be reliable and comfortable particularly for someone over 50 (Me) over a long(ish) distance in a short time without using any motorways.
The main marques.
- KTM, all the bikes looked vaguely the same and fell into one of two groups, touring/adventure or super motard, the orange-black corporate colours don't do it for me, the black is rather boring (and I like black on a bike) while the orange is rather gay, can I say that? Okay, effeminate then, bloody Clarkson! The people on the stand also didn't like the name Ewan being mentioned, you dropped the ball there guys! Although I was feeling a bit mischievous when I brought that up. Up until I mentioned that, the guy I was speaking to had been quite helpful to the extent that he kept pointing out the same bike regardless of any information I gave him, it got boring, it was like that was the only model he knew anything about. I really would like to take one out for a longish test just because I think they could be very good bikes, I have heard of reliability problems although these are just hearsay.
- Kawasaki, lovely chatty bloke who pushed me in the direction of the GTR1400 again I think he missed the point of what I was trying to explain about the trip, he kept going on about sat nav - ABS - Electric screen etc, mind you I suppose his job there was to try and sell me the bike and to be honest he, like the others, was probably fed up explaining everything to a load of wannbes.
- Suzuki, I asked for a brochure on the latest models to be told they didnt have any left, ok, is there someone I can talk to about the bikes and our requirements, no problem I'll find someone, I chatted to the poor young bloke who did try to help for 15 minutes before I walked away then realised I had missed Charlie Boorman....oh well, he probably would not have spoken to me anyway.
- Honda, I had a great chat with a chap called Dave who was most helpful regarding the models he thought would be the correct choice for the trip, I was thinking about a CB1000 but after talking to Dave he pointed me in a different direction with the Valdero, now I personally don't like the styling of the Valdero it looks like a half finished posers bike for the over 50's, Yamaha did it better with the TDM, Dave got locked into trying to sell me the Valdero a bit to hard. A subtler suggestion which has possibilities was the Transalp, looking more like a cross between a super motard and a tourer these days it did have a certain appeal.
- Yamaha, Charles Bozon was the most helpful chap, after explaining what I wanted he went through several possibilities pointing out the good and bad points of various models, I originally thought about the FJR1300, Charles pointed out that if we were not doing any motorway work the Fazer 1000 would be a far better choice especially down the twisties. Charles was also the only one to give me his business card.
- Buel/Harley, I could not catch the attention of anyone for long enough to talk to, an extraordinary number of *cough 'older people' had flooded the stand and to be honest I don't think one could do the job.
I tried talking to several of the paying clientele there about their views of the show, all without exception did not want to be filmed talking on camera, how weird is that! One girl even chased after me to tell me I could not use a picture of her, was that not your husband then? If she had not seen the press pass would she still have gone after me? She was scary!! The general impression that I got from the punters was of slight disappointment, most had gone to try and pick up a few bargains from the stalls and check out the latest models, five actively told me they were surprised that Triumph had not made an appearance, as was I.
Bikes are becoming all very similar, the differences between the marques is getting smaller all the time, it has got to the point where hundredths of a sec on the 0-60 times differentiate the bikes rather than any really distinguishing features. Most riders, if they had the balls to admit it, could not use a modern motorcycle to its full potential, besides the fact it would be illegal on British roads the only way to get full performance is on the track.
Is it not time that one of the big four took a different tack? I'm not saying I know which direction they should go, just that I'm bored with looking at the same bikes over and over again. Try something different guys, take a chance.
Wandering over to check out the stunt show, it took all of ten minutes to bore me. I'm not dissing the skills of the stunters, but I have just seen it all so often it does not hold my attention any more.
Having stayed at the show for nearly 3 hours I was leaving the building when it hit me, this feeling of deja vu! I had, it was like Bluewater or Lakeside, perhaps the whole thing reminded me of a shopping centre, the stalls and stands rather like the standard formula shopping mall.
The whole 'show' thing has become a set formula that never changes, have I been around these shows for so long that I have become jaded towards them? Or is it the way it is now?
Why do they hold these shows in the winter? NEC was November and now this one in Jan/Feb are they trying to put us off? There must be a lot more people who would turn up if they held these shows when it's a bit warmer, is it our own fault for putting up with it?
Back in the good days of Earls we would wander around for the whole day, I'm sure there was a lot more to see and do back then. Maybe it's the rose tinted glasses or even old age creeping up on me that makes it feel that way, I am looking forward to getting to more shows this year although it's a bit worrying that they could end up boring me to death with the same things over and over again.
Pyro
