I JUST WANT 2 RIDE!!

International Motorcycle Show

I went to the show (Debbie had to work again) with my friends Tim, Karma and their daughter McKenzie. We got a bit of a late morning start but got lucky with the metro (subway) and made to the show at about eleven AM.

The show was held at its now normal location, the DC convention center. The last time I had attended the event was two years ago so I was looking forward to seeing new products and get any cool swag. One note of interest was that attendance was free for military, with ID cards, but Deb had bought my ticket as a Christmas gift before we knew of the discount….oh well.

Progressive Insurance is the major sponsor of the event and their area was front and almost center to the entrance. They and an old school electric slot car race track setup for people to race in order to earn a t-shirt. We did not race but the race track was cool. OH, Flo was not there.

In addition to the major manufactures there were a lot of vendors but, I do not think there were as many as the last time I attended. The crowd was about the same, it was a nice turn out on a wet, rainy day.

The only disappointment for me was in the helmet area, I am looking for a new modular (flip-up) helmet to replace the Fulmer that I currently own. My Fulmer’s locking latch broke and is over five years old, it needs to be replaced. I am interested in the Nolan 104 and was hoping to check it out at the show but no one had the Nolan helmets.

2014 Honda Valkyrie

We took a good look at the new Indian bikes, they are nice! I was surprised to see that they are using a mono-shock on the rear end (see pic below). There were a lot of folks swirling around the Indian booth which made it hard to take good pictures but also indicated that there was real interest in the bikes.

I also looked though the Victory, Honda, Yamaha and Ducati venues. The new models for those bikes were out and had a lot of interest from the crowds. The Honda area was very packed with bikes. Because of how close they were to each other and with the crowd of people it was almost impossible to get a picture. The Honda that was getting the most attention, at least when I walked though, was the Valkyrie.

After we were done with the show we headed back to Tim’s and Karma’s house. When we got off the metro the consensus was to go to Chili’s for lunch…this was where the most interesting part of the day occurred!

As we were walking into the restaurant a guy was coming out and asked Tim for a smoke, to which he replied “Sorry, we don’t smoke.” At that the guy became belligerent and started yelling and cussing at Tim. This guy was a bit on the big, solid size and I thought he might be trying to start something. I moved to the right of the two of them, I was placing myself in a position to jump in if the guy made a move, it was very clear that he had been drinking….or something! Luckily for him (it would not have been a fair fight) he chose to move on.

When we went into the restaurant we found out that they had just refused him service because he was causing problems. But, even with that we had a good day with friends and motorcycles!