Stay On The Black were in attendance for the 2009 Carole Nash Motorcycle Show at the NEC in Birmingham.
First things first the Norton stand is absolutely the business and a must see. Their Café Racer’s are simply stunning though even if you order one at the show you’ll have to wait until April 2010 before you receive it.
Ducati are here, though bringing just two bikes in the Hypermotard 796 and Mulistrada.
Suzuki have the largest of stands celebrating 25 years of the GSXR with an excellent centre piece showing the GSXR over the years. Suzuki also unveiled a limited edition 750 GSXR and when Suzuki say limited they mean limited, just 25 will be made available!
Alongside this Suzuki revealed the GSX 1250 FA in the UK for the first time to some suitably subtle ooohhss and ahhhs.
Suzuki also mentioned they would be offering Suzuki riders special track days with various race riders taking part as well. More info on that when we receive it.
Suzuki race director John Reynolds paraded Yukio Kagayama to show their mouth-watering BSB team with Tommy Hill on Work Suzuki’s.
Sylvan Guintoli and Leon Haslam will be on Allstar Suzuki bikes in the WSB which is the first time Leon has had a full factory race team in his career.
KTM have brought their entire factory along it seems and have a number of bikes to unveil such as the gorgeous 125 concept that isn’t far off how it’s going to look in production we were told.
KTM also brought with them a unique Red Bull liveried RC8 and gorgeous Duke 690.
BMW had S1000RR’s all over the place and also made sure the NEC was watching when they unveiled their Concept 6. This is apparently a fully working concept bike with rumours it may not be a concept for that long.
Triumph are celebrating their Ohlins collaboration with a one off custom Speed Triple that has over 30 coats of paint to get a carbon fibre look along with a brand new rear end. They also mentioned, on several occasions, that they will be expanding their range ‘significantly’…all eyes on them then.
There was a plethora of equipment on show at the show but Knox really grabbed people’s imagination with their new hand armour, or Handroid as it’s been dubbed. The gloves have an exoskeleton protection system and a BOA lacing system. They certainly feel snug and secure once on
Carole Nash had their Britain’s Got Biking talent final with Darren Gough drinking plenty of champagne…oh and giving out prizes. First price went to a Norton rebuild costing over £20,000 to restore!
Allen Millyards 500bhp Viper V10 motorcycle was on show. This has to be one of the most amazing looking bikes we’ve ever seen, it’s literally a V10 Dodge Viper engine put into a motorcycle. The bike has already hit 207mph making it the world’s fastest production motorcycle. We think it’s capable of much more but how you’d hand on (or corner) is beyond us!
