Some of you reading this blog may have recently attended the London motorbike show held at the ExCel centre in the Docklands which was held for 3 days 14th – 16th Feb 2014. Hopefully you spotted us and came across for a chat, we were on the Kawasaki stand this year working alongside the Kawasaki Riders Club as their Motorcycle Touring Experience Partner. This is something we are extremely pleased about and are looking forward to developing in the future. You can read about how they and we got on at their facebook page.
We have been asked “do we have to own a Kawasaki to come on one of your tours?” – to which the answer is “No” – all marques of motorcycle are welcome to join us whether it be on a tour or on one of our ride-outs, having said that we will be working with their Riders Club to involve Kawasaki motorcyclists as much as possible.
The show is smaller than the one held at the NEC, Birmingham in November/December each year which was commented on by several people we were chatting to, but it seemed to be well attended and there were many of the main manufacturers on site and live shows going on at different times during each day in the Revolution action show which saw John McGuinness and his team mates Ian Hutchinson and Jamie Whitham battle it out with the opposing team headed up by Michael Dunlop with his team mates Michael Rutter and Phillip McCallen, these shows always drew big crowds of spectators and we had a good view of it from where we were positioned 🙂
On the Kawasaki stand on the Friday of the show, three time British Superbike Champion Shane Byrne unveiled his 2014 Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki bike and in this photo he was being interviewed about the year ahead. Also on the stand that day was Stuart Easton who will partner “Shakey” in the 2014 season. Chris Walker was also on the stand throughout the weekend talking with people who are interested in his Race School
With being on a stand it is not always easy to get around and see what is on offer but we do know that there was a Custom Bike Championship at the show with around 50 motorcycles on display and the winner was Destiny Cycles with their bike ‘Carousel’. Interviews were held throughout the weekend by several people from
The Adventure Zone such as Simon Pavey, Nick Sanders and Charley Boorman (amongst others). Whilst in the Adventure zone some of you may have visited Paul and his team at Open Road Rentals, worth taking a look at if you are in need of a rental motorbike and you can find their details on our links page.
Hopefully you enjoyed your visit and whatever your experience of the show was it will have been a good way to start the 2014 motorcycling season 🙂