Incredible show to kick off the new year. “It was the best show I have ever attended,” said Andrew Calegro, 5-Ball Racing Apparel VP. Andrew attends motorcycle shows and apparel shows all over the country.
“The attendance was well over doubled from last year,” said Kenny Price.
“It’s so great to have it moved away from that crummy Super Bowl date,” said Bandit, the janitor of Bikernet.com.
“I hope to see everyone back next year,” said Kelly Morrow, the marketing director of Performance Machine. “Even the Sunday traffic was substantial and these are the diehard guys who attended this show.”
Here’s my take on the dealer show situation. Last year was tough from a competition standpoint. The Indy show made a push to pull venders away from the V-Twin show to the much disliked show in Indy just a week later. AIM made a mad push to develop a new general show during Daytona Bike Week in Orlando, and Robin Bradley tried like hell to build another show in Europe. All these elements hurt the granddaddy of support shows for the V-Twin industry.
Last year was still a struggling economic year for the country, and when the country is trying to stand on it’s feet once more, the custom motorcycle industry takes a major hit. It’s not like we are building toasters. Add to that a couple of years of drastic winter weather, and motorcycling takes a deeper hit.
“While the Expo has shrunk in size over the past few years due mainly to the economy, many of the major players in the aftermarket V-Twin industry still had a presence,” said Doc Robinson, the Tech Editor from Heavy Duty Magazine in Australia. “Most importantly, the ones with whom I spoke on Sunday afternoon, were positive about the event and overall seemed happy and stated they would be back again next year. Their responses seemed genuine and I didn’t detect any of that “whistling in the dark” kind of bravado that I think has been expressed over the past couple of years at the Expo.” Doc has attended these shows for almost a decade. “This is where I come to find out what’s happening in the industry every year.”
According to industry leaders, “We need to support the V-Twin Expo. This is the only show on the planet that truly represents the V-twin industry to dealers world-wide.”
Captions: Top, Ray C. Wheeler pushing Lyndall brakes, instead of Bikernet, and handling 5-Ball Racing booth security. Center, Bandit signed a deal with Gary Maurer, of Kustoms Inc. to sponsor the Chop N Block tour for 2014 with Ron Harris.
