NEC Motorcycle Show 2009

Phew! Our feet have hardly touched the ground since going to the NEC Motorcycle Show, yesterday.
For those of you who maybe don’t know, this site is run by us in our spare time around our day jobs, we don’t have a big budget and we only take photos and videos of stuff we happen to be passionate about.

We figure there are plenty of people like us that are more interested in the exciting new offerings from the reborn Norton Motorcycles, Triumph and Royal Enfield than in the latest ever so slightly different from last year knee-down machine.

Yesterday was Trade Day at the NEC and it seemed far less busy than the same day last year, whether that is purely because those in the trade don’t have the budgets this year to send so many of their staff to the show I don’t know, there also didn’t seem to be so many traders there either. However it was good to speak to some stallholders and most seemed to feel that business was buoyant rather than depressed which is good to hear.

We were both really interested to see the new Norton in the flesh and it didn’t disappoint and we will have a short video up in a day or two. Of interest to us, as we hovered around the Norton stand at several points during the day was that current British Superbikes rider Chris Walker seemed to be a permanent fixture, does that mean we will see him racing Nortons next year?

Other highlights of the day for us, was the press launch of the Isle of Man 2010 TT races, videos to come of that too. Steve Parrish spoke to the Isle of Man Minister of Tourism and Leisure, Martin Quayle, who said that following some criticism this year by visitors that they wanted more to do, next year they are looking to improve the attractions for race visitors but improving the number and quality of events on offer – hoorah! as we are booked to go next year.

We also got to interview Nich Brown and Paddy Tyson from the Motorcycle Action Group(MAG) who have just launched their Riders Are Voters campaign www.ridersarevoters.org, in conjunction with the Motorcycle Industry Association (MCIA) and the BMF, who together hope to encourage the One Million riders in the UK to use their vote effectively in the General Election next year to effect change in the policies that affect motorcyclists the most. At Motorbikin.com we are firmly behind the campaign and we hope to encourage you to get behind it to. You can find out how to get involved at Ridersarevoters.org.

Over the coming days we will be sharing our photo and video highlights from the show and we hope that you enjoy them.

First of all here is Bradley Smith, runner up in the 2009 125 Moto GP championship, competing in the Carole Nash Six Wheeled Challenge against Alex Brundle.