The location is beautiful as London Excel is located near a dock, and me just wanted to give some time shooting some water and power boats, but the approaching crowd towards the venue and numerous bikers gang passing by, remind me to visit the show first.
I was already behind my planned time schedule and realized that even it was Sunday, the visitors turn out was noticeable. Finally stepped inside the venue and reached S6 hall where the action was taking place. After a joyful short interaction with the ticket collector, I went inside and first thing I encountered was, lot of crowd. At first glance, I actually thought that the hall was small but it was after an hour, that I well realized that I haven’t covered even the half area of it. I was so excited to be there that I immediately starting taking pics of various bikes and stalls. Stupid me. I was so involve with the camera that I realized I am not giving enough time to myself to actually stop, look and admire the beauties standing in front of me, therefore I decided to have a casual look of the place first and then come back for images and video shoot. First thing the visitor could see in the exhibition was the “reality”. There were 2 stage with real bike wreckages, involve in road accidents with the accident site on the background
Absolutely loved the concept. What a silent way to alert that sometimes fun comes with risk too. Moved ahead and the first stall I saw was of Honda, though it was the smallest stall compare to other bike manufacturers but one needed an oxygen cylinder to breath, as there was no space to even scratch your butt and the bike that was the glory of the Honda stall was the ’08 CB1000R. I never judged ’08 CBR until now, because people say that it looks much better than in pictures, but I was not convinced (total personal opinion here). There were hundred other bikes in that hall which looked way better then CB1000r, but might not perform as well as this “punched nose” machine. CBR125, Goldwing, Hornet 600 and one pocket bike added the bike count. There was a Honda’s British superbike pro racer, Leomn Haslam signing autographs for the fans. I don’t take autographs of people I don’t know.
Next was Yamaha, again not to much space for people to get a proper view of the bikes from a distance. I guess, because it was allowed to sit, crouch and feel the bikes personally, they were not placed in some kind of elevated stages, making the bikes visible to every body at the same time. That made taking pics an annoying and strenuous experience. You will hardly see any bike without a person sitting on it, in my pics, because everybody wanted to know how the sitting posture and feel of the bike is. The bikes Yamaha had 2 racing edition R1s, FZ1 both (ABS and without ABS versions) but surprisingly MT 01 was missing (or did I missed it?). They also had their ’08 model line up of R6, maxi scooters and learners bike YBR125. But the real deal for me was ’08 YZF-R125. “WOW” was my first reaction to the bike, as I sat on it. This bike, from no where feels like a 125cc until you want to hear the engine. Very comfy, sporty and not that small in size as you would expect. I don’t know how R15 looks in flesh but I truly hope that Yamaha possibly had pictures of R125 beside their sketching pad when they designed R15, if only it is really not a R1 DNA. YZF-R125 is a perfect bike for those how don’t mind buying an over priced ride and want to start/learn basics of sport biking. For once, I imagined myself riding this bike here may be in future, but with the price of 2 R-125, why wouldn’t I’ll buy a bike having four and half times bigger engine capacity, but that’s again a personal choice and baseless dream for now. I can right now write a full “totally biased” essay on R125, but it’s 2 in the morning here and I have my college tomorrow. Anyways, R6 with golden rims looks smashing besides the fact it’s a 135 bhp “ride anywhere, anytime” capable bike.
Suzuki stand was the most detailed one I would say displaying every single model they have in their portfolio plus the new ’08 range is really promising. I would commit here at this point that I have started having a thing for GSX-Rs now I Don’t know why. May be it’s the design or the competitive pricing, but I am falling in love with blue colour. Revised 600, 750 and 1000 with B-King and GSX1300R, I believe they have answers to every secret wish. I won’t go blah-blah again, about things I would kill somebody to get hands on but would rather try to give details of what happen in London Motorcycle Show 2008. However, don’t complain if I talk less or nothing at all about cruisers and touring bike, because I like faired objects. The new 750 is totally seducing, thought one might argue that 600, 750 and 1000 share visual identities but even twins have different figure prints. I have no shame in making it to public that I would look terribly ugly and skinny on ’08 B-King. That bike need a brave heart to right and control, at least that’s what I figured out from its appearance, but it’s a piece of art. 650F is a nice street bike and would be surely easy on long rides I think.
Ducati? I don’t even wanna start this. An Italian will be an Italian and that’s just mere words. If numbers ever excite me then it would be 1-0-9-8 and 8-4-8. I previously saw few first hand reports, comparison with 1098 and riders views about new 848 and after Ducati decided to discontinue 6XX superbike series, 848 had too much expectations from everyone and she proved herself, perfectly. MCN reviews the bike as a smaller 1098 engine version but that’s the only difference they think, both 1098 and 848 have. 848 is said to be more “flickable” than 1098 and easier to handle at high speeds, with not much difference in top end. I felt really good after visiting Ducati stall and physically interacting with the bikes. No doubt, Ducati is exclusive and wears an attitude of its own; so much that their website requires you to sign up to download a simple wallpaper, cool enough. Monster tricolour looked good but I was a bit disappointed not seeing 1098 in the same colour pattern. Moved ahead with head still face still turned to 1098 until I see this RC8.
KTM stall was cool too, with Dukes and dirt bikes range. Their newly launched RC8 is surely creating wave and I could hear comments about the bike where people saying “it pretty good” or “this one is exciting”. Had to wait as 3-4 guyz were keener then me to hop-on the bike. I smiled, said “please” and stood along side for the mean time. Finally the young lads stepped down and here I go. Not bad at all, I said to myself. The bike offers you comfort and confidence, but if I could somehow ride it, (of course virtually in simulator) then that would have been a complete experience but this was one of the many things I was surprise to that not even a single bike company had a simulator for visitors to throttle the bike. I was very much expecting this thing in LMS. Another thing that deeply hurt me was all the babes were GONE, and I had no idea where. MCN website www.motorcyclenews.com/mcnbabes (PS: mature content) played trick on me by showing hundreds of gorgeous entries for the show, but there were only 3 girls in total, in which 2 were out of shape. Nevertheless, visiting Kawasaki stall and seeing ZXR1400 and Ninjas changed my mood and I dropped the idea of suing MCN magazine.
Kawasaki new range was not so appealing for me. And to be straight down, I personally never liked Kawas, and not in mood to write about them half hearted. Sorry Kawasaki. But, Ninja 250R is a good bike for India and I am glad that it’s coming. It’s has a bit low sitting height of 775mm (for me that is, I am almost 6 feet) but of course no compromise except that part. Again, I can’t help my self directly comparing it to R125, in terms of appearance and feel only. R125 for me, any day, though I stupidly forgot to look at the price of Ninja 250R. I think Bal/Kawa, who ever will be responsible for pricing, should release the 250R with a sensible price tag, so that more and more people can get familiar with well made bikes.
This write up is getting painfully longer and sorry, if you feel it has nothing new to say. I’ll just rap up with BMW stall review which was the last minute sneak in. I knew almost nothing about BMW but now have slight blur picture of what they do and what they make. The HP2 Sports was one BMW bike of whom I clicked the most shots (remember? I still love faired objects) but I think they speak to limited genre of consumers, who have old and good faith in BMW. I will try to ponder more about this company in coming time.
Beside the bike companies, there was a large market of riding gears and aftermarket stuff. If got time will post about them too, but there’s nothing much to tell besides some exhaust makers and after market panel stalls.
Images of every manufacturer is uploaded in our blog. Enjoy
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