Manchester Motorcycle Show 2009
Added on Friday, January 16th, 2009 by Carole Nash Editor
Manchester Motorcycle Show 2009
The annual Manchester Motorcycle Show, held at the old G-Mex complex is often seen as a barometer of the bike industry. Alastair Walker took a chilly ride-out to a winter warmer.
Times are tough, no doubt about it. Now, motorcycling isn’t immune from the chilly winds of recession, but that said, I actually rode my trusty Triumph Sprint over to Manchester Central and one of reasons I did so was because motorbikes are endlessly addictive.
I love dodging traffic jams, parking restrictions and getting 50mpg whilst I’m travelling - plus it‘s fun, even if it‘s cold and slippy out there at the moment. Despite the economic gloom, I believe that bikers will sell their grannies rather than give up on two wheels, no matter how bad things get this year.
Biking is also fun and that’s why plenty of people were checking out the latest new Fireblades, R1s, GSXR750s etc at the show. Nothing fires the blood like the idea of getting an new bike and I thought the latest VFR800 in white really looked the business. I’d get one if Honda saw sense and junked that daft V-tec system and their unreliable cam chains.
Hunts Honda had some show special prices, with a few hundred quid off the cost of many models, meanwhile Road and Racing had the full Suzuki range, with many bikes available for just a quid deposit, interest free finance for 42 months. Try getting that sort of credit from your friendly High Street bank!
It was a shame to see Williams BMW had only brought a few bikes along, and one jazzy GS model had a leopard-skin style paint job on the gas tank. Can’t imagine many BMW owners fancying the Bet Lynch look, but what the heck do I know? Leopardskin could be coming back along with 70s power cuts, dole queues and classic rock music.
Over at the Stockport Harley-Davidson stand, the guys had some cool custom bikes on display, the Buell 1125 CR and the latest Rocker C Harley, which I think will take over from the Fat Boy as the one Hog that everyone really wants to own.
Being a bit of an old giffer, I am starting to look at the classic bikes sections at show more closely as my hair relentlessly turns grey. It was nice to see the Suzuki Kettle Club’s display of GT750 machines. These bikes were the sports-tourers of the 70s, advertised by Barry Sheene no less, and the red GT750B model was a stunning restoration.
There were some great classic race bikes on show, including a Ducati 600 Pantah and a Cotton 250 V-Twin. Cotton were once serious contenders in the 250cc GP race championships and this bike was raced by Rocket Ron Haslam - Leon’s Dad - back in 1978 at the TT.
As I’m scribbling away at a book on café racers at present ( The Café Racer Phenomenon, published by Veloce later in 2009 ) I was keen to look over the NorGod café racer on show. This bike utilised a Norton featherbed frame and Godden V-Twin speedway engine.
Don Godden’s motors were the engines to have in 70s speedway, unless you ran with the Jawa 500, and this V-Twin 1000cc beast was created for sidecar speedway outfits, featuring 4-valve heads and chain-driven camshafts. Advanced stuff for its day and I bet this particular café racer could test the limits of the old 40s Norton frame to the limit.
It would have been good to have some of the specials bike builders and the classic chaps, being interviewed, live on stage too.
The Carole Nash Construct at the NEC showed that technical stuff can be fascinating, so I’ll volunteer to ask some daft questions to you restoration and custom bike builders next year at Manchester. You know, incisive stuff like `Er, what’s that shiny bit do there?’ and so on…
FROM CHEESE-GRATERS TO BIG DIGGERS
I watched in amazement as the female presenter for Channel M TV casually agreed to stand in the middle of the metal Globe, whilst Finnish stunt riders Heidi and Mikka razzed around her head at about 50mph on their dirt bikes. Truly, the lady has some bottle and I suggest Blue Peter snap her up as the female John Noakes of the 21st century.
Apart from the bikes whizzing about inside the big cheese-grater, there was some uncanny balancing from Dan and Martin, the Xtreme Trials riders. This year they had brought a large digger along to play with and they made jumping their bikes out of the digger bucket look far too easy. Great show.
Yes, Manchester’s bike show is lacking a little oomph now that the outdoor stunt show has gone, but the city deserves a winter showcase for all that’s fun, new and unique in biking.
