Motorcycle Live 2025

Looking great in your Ducati T-shirt Ade

 

That first Ducati in your pictures looks like you would be riding an ironing board.

 

It was more comfortable than it looks and was probably just as padded if not slightly more than my Fireblade seat (not very!) or Street Triple seat before I had it re upholstered for long tours. Both of those are plank - like and suit me fine. I don't think anyone buys a Hypermotard for touring comfort....just a bit of hooliganism and fun . The riding position was actually really nice, I loved it!

 

Heading there tomorrow and looking forward to it.

 

Just got back, I surprisingly enjoyed it, managed to see all the stands, I was there for 6+ hours, took my own grub. It's a bit pricey but I think that's me for a few years now. I must admit to really loving the Scrambler 400XC. It surprised me how big it felt for such a small cc bike. The Chinese bikes are there in force, and they are turning out some cracking bikes. Only time will tell if they have the reliability of the bikes we own today.

Then there's this beauty

I'm getting old, but this just ticks all the boxes for me, I loved @Wessa 650 Interceptor. If I didn't have my 95 Thunderbird, this would be in the garage, for me to
over

 

I can’t say I’m that impressed by any of the “Hypermotard” offerings TBH. They’ve sprung up on the back of the Supermoto/Motard genre which are, basically off road bikes with modified suspension, better brakes with road wheels and tyres. I’ve never owned one but I’ve ridden one and they are real weapons when correctly set up, super light, powerful and extremely nimble, especially on bumpy back roads.
I guess the big manufacturers wanted to cash in so they replace “Super” with “Hyper” , bolt on all the necessary extra road crap and give them weired paint schemes in an attempt to fill (create?) a new niche in the market.
Then again I seemed to have developed a penchant for Classic Twins so call me a GOG!

 

5 good looking blokes there.

 

Unashamed fan of a weird paint scheme here .

 

Out of interest, as a few of you have mentioned it, how much was the food?
We went to the NEC motorhome show mid October and we bought a few coffees, £8.20 for x2, each time which I didn't think was too bad. We didn't eat as we had some snacks in a rucksack but I'm curious if the prices vary with the audience.

 

Take your own food and drink, someone mentioned £35 for fish and chips. ( I'd have walked away, but that's just me ) Plenty of seating around.
If you're going by car, prepare to crawl to the NEC, and I mean CRAWL, the traffic and roadworks are horrendous. So if your sat nav tells you that when you leave from home that you'll be there at bang on 10am, bung another 50 mins on top, and you'll be close to the arrival time. Same getting out too. Enjoy it of you go.
Don't forget the bargain price to park a car of £18.95, you may still be able to buy the £10 parking on line still ??

 

With the prices you’re mentioning my new helmet from SPORTSBIKESHOP at 20% off is looking like a better and better deal.
This one.

 

The Sportsbike shop just can't be beaten. I can't remember what it was, but one stall was proudly announcing a great show price of say £150, it was £20 cheaper in the Sportsbike shop. I think the days of a bargain at the motorcycle show are long gone now. I didn't go there with a view to grabbing a bargain, what drew me there this year was the shear amount of bikes that have been launched this year. To go and see all the bikes I wanted to see, would see me doing more miles to different dealers, than one trip to Birmingham.

 

That probably has a lot to do with the cost of a stand at the show. Just look at the price of parking and entry and imagine what exhibitors are being charged.

 

My sister in law, owns her own business , and decided to do do a stand at a business show a few years ago, she was gobsmacked at the price they wanted. I can't remember how much it was, but needless to say it was a one off for her company.

 

Ufcking hell £20,000. Glad it worked out for him and his business.

 

£20k! QED.