It’s Show time at the NEC...
Published: 29th November 2007
Author: John Dickinson
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 to the NEC Motorcycle show which was starting its annual 11 day run and the first shock, at 6.30am, was being charged £1.07p per litre of diesel as I reluctantly filled-up. God’s teeth. And the second treat, shortly after, was wasting around an hour crawling in typical stop-start fashion down past the East Lancs Road...M62 junction...as far as Stoke actually before the traffic eased. At such times you do begin to wonder why you are bothering. Thank heavens for the M6 toll road which allowed us to regain a bit of the lost time, not to mention relieving some of the built-up tension accumulated over the previous hour 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-road offerings will be minimal as the NEC has always been all about road bikes. In recent years this has meant, ''all bow to the knee-down brigade'' but as there has always been at least a token off-road presence 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-road bikes along and at least got them out there on display. And Kawasaki and Suzuki in particular made an effort with riders on hand and staff willing to talk off-road. As last year, I never found anyone on the Honda stand even remotely interested while Yamaha’s stand was like a ghost town, at least as far as staff went.
KTM was, of course, a hub for off-roaders and MD Shaun Sisterton was out front virtually all day, eager and able to talk KTM to anyone who was interested. The sheer number of orange models and the variety and variations grows by the year from the tiny two-stroke models up through single-cylinder four-bangers and onto their mighty 1200cc V-twins.
Directly facing KTM was its teutonic rival BMW which had cheekily placed its innovative G450X enduro model out there in KTM’s face. It was disappointing though, that little effort had been made to make a fuss of the G450X and it was plonked at the end of the line like a bargain-basement model. In actual fact when you get up close to the new baby Beemer you realise what a breath of fresh air it is. The bike looks much smaller in the flesh than it does in mere photographs and the simple yet clever design urges you on to look closer 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, Benelli thumpers, the MXer which is due to land on these shores sometime 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 retro Bullet models on their stand which actually sported an impressive range of models. They would have been genuine show-stoppers in the 1957 Show but I really don’t know what you are supposed to say about them 50 years down the line. Well done to India for keeping them going I suppose. As Britain threw its motorcycle industry away in the 1960s, to be followed by most of the rest of its manufacturing heritage, there is something quite bizarre about importing a machine now built in the far east but which was designed here in Britain in the middle of the last century. We didn’t want it 50 years ago but suddenly there’s a demand...?
The big manufacturers continue to put their faith in the ageing, born-again biker generation (of which I have to admit to belong) whether in the knee-down stakes, beloved off the mainstream m/c press as they are dragged off to exotic race circuits to ‘test’ bikes in conditions as far removed from the real-world (cold and wet) as possible - or the Harley style cruiser market. Don’t suppose you can blame them as this is presumably where the big bucks are made although when you see the discountsbeing offered you do wonder how sometimes.
Not to worry, if the NEC is not to your taste then maybe next week’s The Dirt Bike Show is. All the 2008 off-road bikes you can shake a stick at, if shaking a stick is what floats your boat...