Economic fears combined with a relatively poor show layout - seeing North America’s largest motorcycle show essentially split in two with the relocation of part of the event to the new Lucas Oil Stadium - didn’t stop manufacturers and attendees from taking advantage of less competition to forge ahead for the 2009 riding season. Dealer Expo is where the deals are made to bring you all the kit you need for your motorcycle for the upcoming riding year, and there were clearly fewer attendees and exhibitors. There was also a conspicuous absence of some major players.

Overall, the mood with both exhibitors and attendees was positive – the people who were there were serious about doing business, and that’s good for you, the end consumer as more cool new products will be guaranteed to hit the shelves for the upcoming riding season.

Some notable disappointments were the non- Sportbikesish “Sportbike” section of Lucas Oil Stadium, which lumped Customizers in with tee-shirt vendors, sunglass salesmen and chrome Cruiser bits. The Asian invasion of the Indy show continued this year despite the elimination of the Chinese Pavilion. The real problem created by the elimination of the Chinese Pavilion was that we could no longer clearly tell if there were less counterfeiters or more counterfeiters attending the show, or in fact who was real, and who was Memorex. Why they still let anyone get away with this is beyond our comprehension.

Behold... the fake Yamaha...



Behold... the fake BMW...



fake BMW assembled with only the highest quality of packing tape...




The layout of the new Lucas Oil Facility portion of the show felt a little bit like being forced to shop in an Ikea (anyone who's had the misfortune of trying to exit an Ikea quickly will know what we mean). Show organizers forced all attendees to visit the Stadium to register. Those who worked their way through Stadium exhibits soon discovered that it was a one entrance/exit venue that forced you to return the length of the Stadium and show to get back out - with an event that requires as much walking as Dealer Expo does, this was irritating.

Where will this all take us? Who knows – we’ll find out at the end of the end of the riding season!


Stay tuned for Bikeland’s Show Picks for 2009 to be released later this week.




Source: Bikeland.org