Decided at the last minute, that a visit to Intermot, in Cologne, was just the trip to round of my first year of Bird ownership.
Billed as the largest bike show in Europe, the show covered ten halls, two of which would?ve equalled the size of last years NEC show! It?s primarily a trade show but they also lay on stunt shows, two rounds of the German supermoto championship, some sort of teenage road races, as well as the opportunity to have a go at trials, enduro (easy and hard courses) riding. You could also test ride the latest bikes, apparently they had 200 bikes available but I?m sure it was only 147. There were beginners lessons, improvers lessons, slow riding competitions, etc. etc.
And the latest bikes.were on view. Ranging from the barking B King, to the GTR1400, with the worlds longest exhaust. The new Hornet was nice but looked like Hondas lame attempt to copy the others, the Fireblade had new colours, yawn! I asked about a new Bird and I think what he said was we either have to wait nine years or there isn?t going to be one?. :dunno:
My favourite bike was the new Kawasaki Z1000. Not everyone?s cuppa, it would be total waste of time me owning one, but if I had the money I would buy one.
The show was superbly organised, it was in Germany after all, cheap at 19 euros for a two day ticket, no parking charges (you parked next to the elevators taking you to the halls), excellent cheap grub and had fantastic entertainment.
The only slight disappointment was that you couldn?t buy anything! Actually a good idea as you weren?t pressured by the sales people on any stand and there were no stands selling four year old naff helmets or garden furniture or even the latest iridium sunglasses?.
So we had a great weekend, thank you very much, ?24 return on the tunnel, cheap entertainment, lovely weather, met some lovely people and even running out of petrol in Belgium and missing our train back, couldn?t spoil the enjoyment. Oh and the worst motorway cage drivers? Apart from us, the Belgians!
Will we go to the NEC? man8um
Billed as the largest bike show in Europe, the show covered ten halls, two of which would?ve equalled the size of last years NEC show! It?s primarily a trade show but they also lay on stunt shows, two rounds of the German supermoto championship, some sort of teenage road races, as well as the opportunity to have a go at trials, enduro (easy and hard courses) riding. You could also test ride the latest bikes, apparently they had 200 bikes available but I?m sure it was only 147. There were beginners lessons, improvers lessons, slow riding competitions, etc. etc.
And the latest bikes.were on view. Ranging from the barking B King, to the GTR1400, with the worlds longest exhaust. The new Hornet was nice but looked like Hondas lame attempt to copy the others, the Fireblade had new colours, yawn! I asked about a new Bird and I think what he said was we either have to wait nine years or there isn?t going to be one?. :dunno:
My favourite bike was the new Kawasaki Z1000. Not everyone?s cuppa, it would be total waste of time me owning one, but if I had the money I would buy one.
The show was superbly organised, it was in Germany after all, cheap at 19 euros for a two day ticket, no parking charges (you parked next to the elevators taking you to the halls), excellent cheap grub and had fantastic entertainment.
The only slight disappointment was that you couldn?t buy anything! Actually a good idea as you weren?t pressured by the sales people on any stand and there were no stands selling four year old naff helmets or garden furniture or even the latest iridium sunglasses?.
So we had a great weekend, thank you very much, ?24 return on the tunnel, cheap entertainment, lovely weather, met some lovely people and even running out of petrol in Belgium and missing our train back, couldn?t spoil the enjoyment. Oh and the worst motorway cage drivers? Apart from us, the Belgians!
Will we go to the NEC? man8um
