NYC show

sunday, sunday, sunday...



hi, renard.

 

I'll be at the show Sunday. Should be a fun day!

 

I'll be there too.

 

Between 11:00 and 11:30 I should be able to see all 4 of the production bikes I have any interest in looking at, and between 11:30 and 12:30 I should have enough time in looking at the 4 race bikes I can't afford (or the Factory wouldn't sell me if I could!), and then I'm outta there..........

 

A quick review:



DUCATI BOOTH

Obviously, they're expecting a crowd, for all of the 1098s are in a walled off area. Only the Hypermotard and a Bostrom 996 were outside for easy viewing. Inside was a few sport classics in red, Monsters, a Parts unlimited 999R, and all three of the 1098 modles. You can sit on the base 1098, but not the other two. Even though the S model is the same, but with some special stuff, it just looked a bit better, more Ducati like. No one seemed too impressed with the looks of the 1098 in person. Veglak said it best "if you were to slap a Kawasaki sticker on the tank, you wouldn't think twice about it". Seeing it side by side with the 999, and you'll see. Most Japanese bike fans will probably see this as a plus, but I guess it's personal taste.



Hypermotard was a dissapointment when you realize it's just a Multistrata with different body work :-(



The highlight of the booth was a finished Desmodichi. Now THAT was the bike Ducati should have made for masses. Absolutely drop dead beautiful.



APRILIA/VESPA/PIAGIO/SUZZI BOOTH

Same old same old. They had the new Aprilia Supermotard/dirt bike on display. Looks better in photos than in person. Just not as polished as the KTMs and Husqvarnas. Take note of the Guzzi Griso and how oversized eveything is. Then take note of the skinny forks from the RS250 on the front. Piaggo must have had a batch of them laying around from the 250 and couldn't stand throwing them away.



VICTORY

Take a look at thier version of the Gold Wing. I give them credit for style, but man, the thing is HUGE! They created this giant retro/Cadilac style fairing that just goes on forever. A simple tip over would be a least $5,000 in repair. And as large of a fairing, it leaves a huge opening behind the front tire. I guess they never designed it for the rain, for all of tire spray will shoot up at the rider.



KAWASAKI

Only thing would noteing was a 200+HP giant jet ski. Better suited as a mini tug boat.



SUZUKI

Except for Spies superbike, not much else to look at.



HONDA

Take a look at the special edition VFR with retro red white and blue Interceptor paint. Can't miss it. New CBR was there, looks like they tried to knock off some of the R6s style. Zemkie's FX bike was kind of tucked away in the corner. Strange.



YAMAHA

Rossi's GP bike is worth a look. Very nice. Hackings #1 bikes were both there as well.



H-D.

More mega cruisers and Buells on their sides. It's funny when then disply them like that, for the front forks are always turned, like the bike just lost its front end.



MV AGUSTA

They had the 500cc Cagiva Mito prototype on display, which is a basic 125 Mito with an SMR510 motard motor in it. Eveything seems to fit very well, but the Mito frame and suspension looks a good 10 years out of date. If they do bring it to market, it'll fill an interesting void in the sportbike market. One of the reps said they're hoping to keep it under $8,000 or so.



The other highlight of their section was the $125,000 F4CC. Nice, but I'd rather have two Demoduccis for that kind of dough. Most of the past Special Edition F4s (Sienna, Ago, Tamburini) went for around $50,000. I don't see the CC as twice the bike, but i guess the Michael Jordans of the world need new garage art to look at.



BMW

The San Jose Boxer race bike was there along with riders (forget their names). A very sporty looking K1200 hyperbike was shown, along with the new F series motard. A pretty well rounded sellection of new bikes of all shapes and sizes from Baravia.



VINTAGE DIRT BIKES

If you're into them, they had a VERY nice collection of dirt bikes from the 60's on up, all restored with historic info on each one.



AND NOW THE COOLEST PART OF THE SHOW

The Newmar Allstar Class-A motorhome with DOUBLE SLIDE OUT GARAGES! This has got to be the ultimate track day vehicle on the planet! Top quality everything from stainless steel garage cabinets to a separate 40+ gallon pump tank for your race fuel. Like all mega RVs, the inside was all top quallity leather and wood, nicer than the average Weston hotel room. On sale for $209,000.

 

Rich,

If you post pictures, you'll save me $40 and 4-1/2 hours on a train. :wink:

 

Rich......FYI;

One of the San Jose BMW riders who won the 8 hour @ Daytona this past fall is a Cherry Hill, New Jersey native named Nate Kern, and his first taste of a racetrack was at a Reduc event about 10 years ago, when (with urgency!) I had to bump him down from the Advance Class all the way to the Novice Class and provide him with his own personal instructor before he and his raggedy ass yellow ZX7 streetbike killed someone. He rode like a blind drunk, and in spite of me joking with his "mentor", Dean Scarpa, that he might want to consider a different sport, within 3 years he was winning local amateur races, and is now often pictured on BMW's home page. He's very fast.

Go figure.....

 

Hey Rich...you mean the highlight wasn't the Thai food after the show? I can't believe it! Don't worry, we'll get back to Ethiopian next year when Eve's around...with her AND John V. on my side, I can easily out vote Pete and head back to Meskerem next year...! :wink:



Anyway, for us the highlights of the show kind of went outside the usual manufacturers displays, though I will agree with Rich that the Desmosedici was the best bike on the floor. Our cliff's notes:



DUCATI

Peter and I were very underwhelmed by the 1098 in the looks department in person. I don't know who decided on the placement of the base model 1098 next to the Parts Unlimited 999R, but the 999R blows it away in the looks exotica department. Also the "new blue" and the retro models...I liked it when one would come out once in a while, or when someone would come out with a kit like the Squalo or more recently the last Poppogolini/NCR bike. Now the retros and their spinoffs are just feeling gimmicky. I think Ducati suffered a huge panic attack leading up to and surrounding the 999, and imo, have not handled it well over the last couple of years.





BMW

Peter was very interested in the new BMW sportbike (R1200RS?) and I had a fond reunion with the R1200GS, sitting on it and recalling our wonderful time riding the Turkish Aegean coast. If ever I have the extra income, I could see us owning one, or a pair, in addition to the track bikes...but they are expensive...maybe better just to continue to plan the trips and rent.



VINTAGE MOTOCROSSERS

The vintage motocrossers were really cool...Peter especially liked the Rickman Metisse (sp?)...which apparently you don't see around much anymore. The collection was nice: 60's and 70's marques from Ossa, Hodaka, Bultaco, Maico, Rickman, CZ, among others...Peter and John V. could help me with what I left out...and I always enjoy the mini-history lessons in bikes I get from Peter since those models were around during his early years of lusting after and owning those bikes (he had a '68 Bonneville, and a Trophy - I forget what year).





THE REALLY GOOD STUFF



There was a 1973 John Player Norton, unrestored, sitting in the same state it had been in (but in a bit more deteriorated condition) when Peter Williams set the IOM TT lap record on it in '73 (107.???mph). There was a journo from Moto Euro magazine sitting with it and had we gone back on Saturday, we would have been able to meet and talk to Peter Williams himself. Darn. At any rate, the journo was really cool and answered a bunch of our questions about the bike...as well as recounting the funny story of how Bob Iannucci had tracked him down and basically "told" him that he and Peter W. to be at his house/vintage race bike showspace in Brooklyn for dinner that night...they were certainly in for a treat, as Iannucci (Team Obsolete) has one of the most amazing collections of vintage racebikes around. So that was a nice chat.



More info on Peter Williams and the John Player Norton:

http://www.nortonracing.co.nz/about04.html



The next we chatted with Roosevelt "Rosey" Lackey, who last summer rode an Eraldo Ferracci tuned MV Agusta to set the new Production Bike Land Speed Record at the Bonneville Salt Flats: http://www.ferracci.com/community/story-landspeed.php



The bike he broke and set the new record was there, and it was an incredible coup for MV considering the big top speed claims that the Japanese manufacturers once liked to make about their litre bikes (the record was won from a GSXR 1000). Talking to Rosey alone was like taking another history lesson, as he has been competing and winning land speed record trophies at the Bonneville Salt Flats since 1967, and has been friends with and raced alongside guys like Don Vesco, Dick Manning, and Burt Munro, to name a few. When you meet a guy like that, you just sit there and ask as many questions as you can.



Those were the highlights for us...also there were a few very pretty vintage MV Agusta championship winning racebikes there.



Oh, and yes, we did run into Nate K., who had ducked away from the BMW section and chatted briefly with him regarding his upcoming season. Unfortunately, he's running into some AMA rules politics and cannot run his aircooled 1200 twin in Superport (Superstock?), as he was able to do the year before in WERA. Something to do with Harley getting in with their big cc bike with pushrods, and BMW (who also use tiny pushrods) jumping on that bandwagon. Then Harley pulls out and suddenly, according to AMA rules, BMW's pushrods don't count...wha? Another case of the AMA willing to make allowances when it benefits Harley but nobody else. Nate's just bummed since he really wanted a shot at an AMA season and it seemed like up until that moment this year had been his best chance...oh well, he's smart to stay with BMW, they seem really behind him no matter what he does...



Anyway, a good show mostly for the unusual stuff that was there...it would be nice if they had more motorcycle personalities that you could really talk to and leave with a bit more knowledge about the sport we love than when we came....for us that's the most fun of all.



Hope everyone else had fun too...did anyone end up getting to chat with Peter Williams?



kath

 

Well......from the perspective of someone who looks at ALL the sport bikes. as opposed to those from only Europe <gggg>, the show again reminded me why I only go once every five years or so; wading through a sea of cruisers with 300mm rear tires and what used to be Japanese sport bikes that now look like LSD induced Las Vegas nightmares is never rewarding, but I need to look at and touch a MotoGp bike every so often 'cause it just makes me feel a little closer to God. And I have about as much interest in Vintage bikes as I do in aging starlets; might want to watch a 2 minute video of watching them perform in their prime, but I have no interest in throwing a leg over them now.

Beyond the new CBR600RR, (which feels soooo tiny and soooo light!) the Japanese had little to offer, although Valentino's M1 can keep my eyes entertained forever, and although the GSXR that Spies used to humiliate every racer in America last year was pretty cool, the quick change hardware on Vesrah's GSXR1000 Endurance bike was even cooler....an up close and personal demonstration of sub 10 second pit stops that change rubber on both ends and add about 6 gallons of fuel might have made my trip a bit more rewarding.

And the bike that Kath and Rich found so unimpressive, the 1098, was the most difficult to see, as there seemed to be hundreds of folks who were indeed impressed......one of whom was me. Although from a technological perspective, the 65 thousand dollar Desmodichi made every other production machine look like a wooden bicycle, it wasn't as pretty as the 1098S, and certainly wasn't finished as well as Michael Jordan's new MV, which @ $125,000. is about 90 grand too much........it is however, an absolutely gorgeous piece of jewelry. One might argue that the Desmodechi is really a race bike with lights, and therefore deserving of it's somewhat crude finish, but not only was the paint and glasswork on Rossi's used M1 far better, the glue that held down the foam seat actually held it down; I guess Sake is better at prepping the surface than olive oil, but hey......what do I Know :?

 

Bob wrote; " but I have no interest in throwing a leg over them now."



Nor they you Bob.

 

Mike...

Whew....I'm breathing a sigh of relief, as the thought of just watching them try to even "lift" a leg seems all wrong.

 

Thanks for links Kath.



I don?t know about other's opinions but between the Honda 600RR, Kawasaki ZX6 and Yamaha R6 in track trim with a racing paint job and a quick look and you?d be hard pressed to tell one from the other; the Yamaha looks the most unique only because its air inlet is the most unique. They all look almost exactly alike. I saw a photograph from the Dunlop Daytona tire test with a CBR600RR and a ZX6R (viewed from the front) and had to look very close to see the subtle differences to determine which was which.



From what I hear Nate is also of the polite ones who actually has time for people. People get into the sport from different back grounds or perspectives but being nasty always seems to predate a quick boot.



?KAWASAKI

Only thing would noting was a 200+HP giant jet ski. Better suited as a mini tug boat.?

Like this: http://koti.mbnet.fi/~soldier/towboat.htm

http://koti.mbnet.fi/~soldier/index.html



I can understand Bob?s point of view. I was at the MotoGP Laguna event in 2005 and got to see what interests me the most and no matter what we wish to believe things just don?t change that much in 5 years. I?ll get to see most of what?s in NYC for nearly free at the local dealership without having to deal with crowds and the hassle of visiting a place I really have no desire be. Perhaps Ferracci will have their usual Daytona party and I can stop by watch some of the race and see some of the bikes even closer. The 1098 looks sweet. What I?d really like to see built is a 400cc sport bike at the MotoGP level. That would be something. Sort of like a 4-stroke version of a 250-GP



To me seeing the motorcycle sitting still is like going to see the Mona Lisa or the Venus de Milo at the Louvre and a curtain is blocking 80-90% of the art work (not that I particulary ?love? those art pieces but they are viewed by common society as ?high art?). Only at speed is a sport bike (street sport bike, superbike or MotoGP {cars too}) truly a piece of art. How much better is it to see some of the world?s best riding these to their limits. I get to see my 125-TZ every day sitting on my porch and my R-1 in the garage when I leave for work.



Why I feel Hopper is one to watch in 07? Because seeing how quickly he got his GP1 machine to its limit in first practice and knowing the reason he didn?t go much faster the rest of the weekend was because the motorcycle Suzuki provided wasn?t capable. Watching him two wheel drift that bike through T11 at Laguna Seca is truly a piece of art. From early season testing so far its seems the Suzuki 800 will be competitive. That and the KR machine will be interesting with Kenny Lee Roberts on board. I imagine this year will be the closest racing we?ve seen in GP1.



Out if curiousity I did some calculating (could be calculated differently with concern to the Assen round). If Nicky wasn?t in MotoGP Rossi is champ at 253 points, Capirossi 2nd with 237 points @ 3 wins and 5 seconds with Pedrosa in 3rd @ 3 wins and 2 seconds.



Why is roundy round racing so popular? Because you can see the whole track, all the time, from the comfort of your seat with your beer in hand. Sad but true. More people will show up for a local dirt track event than most AMA SuperBike rounds. Its funny (to me at least) that track riders (track day or racers) are viewed as crazy by those that ride wheelies on the highway in rush hour, Mach III on back country roads or even just aggressive street riding.



Speed doesn?t kill. It?s the sudden stop which ends your trip that kills.

 

I look at these shows more as an excuse to go hang out with the guys, look @ and talk bikes in the middle of winter.



I spent more time checking out the S4rs monster than the 1098. The 996 Bostrom was very cool.



I didn't know who Nate Kern was but they had a real nice picture of him hanging waaay off the BMW. So i had some cute girl autograph it and I'll hang it in the garage. It amazes me how fast they can make those things go. :shock:



I purchased a photo of Rossi at speed in the rain with the reflection of the bike in the water on the track. If you saw it, it looks better than my description, pretty cool. The guy threw in a pic of Edwards and Rossi comming down the corkscrew at Laguna too.

He had some real nice stuff if you're into that.



I'm pretty sick of seeing cromed, 300 tire, DVD playin, bling bling crap. Instead of T shirts maybe STT could get some leather vests. I'm sorry I guess I'm just a country boy but I just don't get it :?

 

I like looking at the old bikes because oftentimes the design of the tank alone is more beautiful than most modern bikes in their entirety. Also the engineering is much simpler and cleaner, and there's beauty in that, too. Other than that, I like to see a vintage bike actually go...like when Mike D. rode his 1970's SS (is that a 750 or a 900 Mike...I forgot?) at Summit Point. There was nothing like the sound of that thing roar down the front straight. Awesome.



Yeah the Vesrah endurance bike was hot...as well as stuff like the quick disconnect brake lines on Rossi's bike (though we saw it years ago on other race bikes).



Discussing it again, Pete and I agreed that Ducati's closed display area was silly...and lame that the Desmosedici was displayed against a wall limiting viewers to three sides. Duh.



Walter, you may never have met Nate, but I'm sure he was at Reduc (however briefly) at the same time you were. We remember when he was flat broke, didn't have a bike, had to pay for school, and much to his girlfriend's chagrin could think of nothing else but racing. His desire and determination (and the humorously rabid support of his friends early on) to get on a bike and start doing trackdays and racing have paid off in a fairly modest but very nice way, but his beginnings may be a part of his being more down to earth than some others. Hope he continues to do well with BMW.



Oh yeah, that reminds me....we also love the HP2...but can't help thinking that maybe it's almost too focused...apparently it's a handful in tight trails and likes open off-road sweepers better...if you want to drop $21000 to do Pikes Peak, though, then that's the bike for you.



anyway...I suppose we were more focused on the off-road stuff since we've been catching highlights of the Dakar Rally the last couple of weeks...and they make it look like a whole lot of fun. Considering we have a 4 month off-season...hmm....



kath

 

Nate should continue to do well with BMW if he can control his compulsive lying and impulsive bridge-burning and back stabbing. An aquaintance of mine described him thusly: "Nate is a lost soul with racing as his redemption from what ever underlying issues he masks with this racing activity." He's currently searching for his 3rd sponsor in as many seasons although BMW Motorrad NA has given him a bike to ride this season and paid him a stipend to work the cycle shows. his two previous sponsors will only state for the record that he worked for them- off the record, the say many colorful things that I won't repeat on this family site. Cherry Hill/Desimeone BMW, will call the police if he comes within 100 ft.

To his credit, Nate's perhaps the most talented rider I've ever seen and he's a natural schmoozer, as the many positive comments about him at the show attest. He's been a PR coup for BMW- he just needs to control his behavior.

Not a N8! fan any more...

Lance

 

ouch! perhaps the burning desire to race has clouded his professional/career judgment? dunno, but seems like he's still got a decent enough deal going with BMW...for his sake I hope it doesn't get messed up...maybe he ought to have a manager or agent to handle his business affairs so he can stick to racing...



kath

 

a manager would certainly help him. I lost track of how many times he got DQ'ed last season for having the wrong number or forgetting to go to post race tech inspection. dnf's for not checking his bike personally and dumping all the oil because his oil filter wasn't on all the way... :roll: if his bad behavior doesn't get him, his ADD just might... still he did nonetheless manage 5 #1 plates last season in CCS, on a BMW sport tourer.

 

Hello Kath,



The SS is a 1977 900. I keep thinking of bringing it out again but the 999 is too much fun and light years better



Lance,



I don't know Nate so this is not a judgement of him.



In my experience "natural schmoozer" and the negative attributes you describe, too often go hand in hand. This is often because telling the truth offends too many people.