Motorcycle live 2019

[lukeyman]

I was going to ask who took out what? And whether they'd consider buying based on the short ride?

I quite fancy a ride on the Svartpilen 701. Or an Interceptor. But my friendly dealer has one of those anyway.

[tedblog]

boyse7en said:

Nobody is restricting choice. If a manufacture/stand wants to have promo girls they can. There's no ban or efforts to stop them.
It's just that most companies have decided that promo girls don't provide a decent return on investment for their business, or don't promote the company in a way that they wish it to be perceived.

Nothing to do with investment , its definatly the later? Its not the thing to do anymore , the days of the glamour model are well and truely over. I just find it funny its the ones who have made their fortunes from it are the ones saying its not correct anymore?

[boyse7en]

tedblog said:

Nothing to do with investment , its definatly the later? Its not the thing to do anymore , the days of the glamour model are well and truely over. I just find it funny its the ones who have made their fortunes from it are the ones saying its not correct anymore?

When i said ROI i meant that a promo girl is around £150 a day through an agency, if they're not getting the company an extra £150 in profits every day then it is an easy expense to cut. In these lean times every cost is coming under close scrutiny.

But it is ironic that the companies that were quite keen on flashing a bit of someone else's flesh have now seen the light and are converts to the cause

[V8RX7]

I was in the 2.30 group, I asked for the Husky 701 but it was unavailable (as in, it wasn't there / broken) so I had the 690.

As I'd asked for a supermoto I was told told NO wheelies, NO stoppies and put behind the leader - I've only ridden around 200 road miles in my life and was more worried about dropping it / holding everyone else up, I'd arrived on my KTM with knobblies and there wasn't much grip.

The lad behind me had the Indian which I would have liked to try.

I thought the show was great - I ran out of time and didn't see everything and came home in the dark - that was a first, my headlight is just to give my location, it illuminated nothing, combined with visor fogging or watering eyes when I opened my visor it was an memorable trip home.

Although I came across a 2 mile queue and it was nice to be able to "filter" past - not entirely sure of the legalities as I've never done that before either - I'm usually on the mud.

There were a fair few pretty girls in tight clothing but I was happier with the 50+ cloakroom lady who was full of banter when I told her not to get too excited as I was about to remove my trousers.

[RemaL]

SamR380 said:

Glad to hear your friend is ok. Its a shame places like the NEC don't make water bottle refills available, there must be lots of people who get dehydrated rather than pay £1.90 for a bottle of coke.

Whats more astounding is that the NEC ( info from the medic) only employs him to deal with every member of the public who has any medical issues through the day. The way they get away with this is every security guard has basic first aid and from what I was informed they also panic if anything out of the norm happens as they are not trained.

1 medic on duty at the NEC bike show. How many go, 1000's or 10,000's a day

Shocking

On a light note going back over the weekend

[Rick1.8t]

On the subject of 'promo girls' - I dont think there are particularly any less of them, they are just not dressed in an all-in-one lycra romper suit anymore and are more likely to be seen in 'flattering' versions of company clothing.

I know of a couple that worked at the bike show who a few years ago would have been dressed up in some luminous, branded spandex skirt and top but were instead this year there in jeans and a company polo - A family member has done some of this work for BWM, same kind of provided clothing.

I think its an improvement, its a much better image overall than before, took my better half and didnt have to explain to her why companies were advertising tyre warmers with a lycra clad woman - the only people I can see being bothered would be better off taking their entry fee to broad streets titty bars....

[MrGman]

Came away today wondering how the new fireblade is going to sell with the pricing

Standard Fireblade is £20k SP £23.7k when the competition is
R1 £16.8k R1m £22k
BMW £15.3k M Sport £19.7k
Ducati V4 £20k V4S £24.8k

It's not just the price, the attention to detail is so lacking compared to the other competition.

One thing i do know is the new 1290 superduke is a good looking bike, and some of the new MV's

[Krikkit]

V8RX7 said:

I was in the 2.30 group, I asked for the Husky 701 but it was unavailable (as in, it wasn't there / broken) so I had the 690.

As I'd asked for a supermoto I was told told NO wheelies, NO stoppies and put behind the leader - I've only ridden around 200 road miles in my life and was more worried about dropping it / holding everyone else up, I'd arrived on my KTM with knobblies and there wasn't much grip.

Ah I think you were the group after me then, the 690 went out in our group on the same position so it wasn't personal.

Apparently the 701 never turned up, done kind of mixup as it was supposed to be the SM you rode.

Rick1.8t said:

On the subject of 'promo girls' - I dont think there are particularly any less of them, they are just not dressed in an all-in-one lycra romper suit anymore and are more likely to be seen in 'flattering' versions of company clothing.

I know of a couple that worked at the bike show who a few years ago would have been dressed up in some luminous, branded spandex skirt and top but were instead this year there in jeans and a company polo - A family member has done some of this work for BWM, same kind of provided clothing.

I think its an improvement, its a much better image overall than before, took my better half and didnt have to explain to her why companies were advertising tyre warmers with a lycra clad woman - the only people I can see being bothered would be better off taking their entry fee to broad streets titty bars....

Yep, lots of pretty girls there, the only Spandex was on the ladies from Maxxis that I could see.

Works for me, if that's the middle ground. As noted it's easy enough to find a titty bar and see some real skin which is just as genuine.

Edited by Krikkit on Friday 22 November 19:13

[Triaguar]

MrGman said:

Came away today wondering how the new fireblade is going to sell with the pricing

Standard Fireblade is £20k SP £23.7k when the competition is
R1 £16.8k R1m £22k
BMW £15.3k M Sport £19.7k
Ducati V4 £20k V4S £24.8k

It's not just the price, the attention to detail is so lacking compared to the other competition.

One thing i do know is the new 1290 superduke is a good looking bike, and some of the new MV's

My thoughts entirely. I went to look at the new Blade and was a little surprised at the price. Speaking to a representative on the stand I was told that they were not particularly aiming it at selling to the public but the focus was on winning TT,WSB and BSB. And profits for Honda would come from elsewhere, i.e. Africa Twin. Sitting on the bike it did seem far less comfortable than my current one, is this more track focused? I don't know. Leave that to some of the track people on here. Just left a little confused is this bike for me, a very enthusiastic road rider, or not. What about the adage win on Sunday sell on Monday?

[NS400R]

Triaguar said:

My thoughts entirely. I went to look at the new Blade and was a little surprised at the price. Speaking to a representative on the stand I was told that they were not particularly aiming it at selling to the public but the focus was on winning TT,WSB and BSB. And profits for Honda would come from elsewhere, i.e. Africa Twin. Sitting on the bike it did seem far less comfortable than my current one, is this more track focused? I don't know. Leave that to some of the track people on here. Just left a little confused is this bike for me, a very enthusiastic road rider, or not. What about the adage win on Sunday sell on Monday?

You're not the only ones. At that money the BM is a clear winner with plenty of money left over for the inevitable repairs

Jokes aside, the price of sports bikes has gone silly. For a toy, there is no way your average can even entertain one.

[podman]

NS400R said:

Triaguar said:

My thoughts entirely. I went to look at the new Blade and was a little surprised at the price. Speaking to a representative on the stand I was told that they were not particularly aiming it at selling to the public but the focus was on winning TT,WSB and BSB. And profits for Honda would come from elsewhere, i.e. Africa Twin. Sitting on the bike it did seem far less comfortable than my current one, is this more track focused? I don't know. Leave that to some of the track people on here. Just left a little confused is this bike for me, a very enthusiastic road rider, or not. What about the adage win on Sunday sell on Monday?

You're not the only ones. At that money the BM is a clear winner with plenty of money left over for the inevitable repairs

Jokes aside, the price of sports bikes has gone silly. For a toy, there is no way your average can even entertain one.

I think the price of many of the bikes has gone mental full stop...the sportsbikes look good value when you look at the single cylinder off /dual road bikes...A CRF450 making a whooping 28BHP for over £9,500 & £8,000+ for a motox bike....!

Anyways, I went on Wednesday, enjoyed the show, so much so im going back on Sunday to have another proper look round(going in a large group is a laugh but I always miss things ...) and hopefully return with a new Abba Sky Lift bike lift thingy...

[MrGman]

NS400R said:

You're not the only ones. At that money the BM is a clear winner with plenty of money left over for the inevitable repairs

Jokes aside, the price of sports bikes has gone silly. For a toy, there is no way your average can even entertain one.

I most certainly can’t, I thought I was bloody lucky to just scrape enough together to spend 14k on a secondhand R1, I wouldn’t spend that much again now though so most certainly rules me out of the modern 1000s.

[V8RX7]

I thought I was just getting old... I think of a new bike as £8k, loads were £18k upwards

[Krikkit]

podman said:

I think the price of many of the bikes has gone mental full stop...the sportsbikes look good value when you look at the single cylinder off /dual road bikes...A CRF450 making a whooping 28BHP for over £9,500 & £8,000+ for a motox bike....!

That's my current pickle- I want an enduro but the things are so expensive it's crazy.

[NS400R]

MrGman said:

I most certainly can’t, I thought I was bloody lucky to just scrape enough together to spend 14k on a secondhand R1, I wouldn’t spend that much again now though so most certainly rules me out of the modern 1000s.

I have the current SP Fireblade. Awesome motorcycle but not worth the £13k cost to upgrade from the RR6 I had from new before it. And that's the issue. The RR6 was more than you'd ever need for the road, so you're no quicker on the SP despite the electronics/suspension. The new one is more comfortable though...

[poo at Paul's]

Krikkit said:

podman said:

I think the price of many of the bikes has gone mental full stop...the sportsbikes look good value when you look at the single cylinder off /dual road bikes...A CRF450 making a whooping 28BHP for over £9,500 & £8,000+ for a motox bike....!

That's my current pickle- I want an enduro but the things are so expensive it's crazy.[/quote

28hp?? Mine makes more than double that!!

[V8RX7]

poo at Paul's said:

Krikkit said:

podman said:

I think the price of many of the bikes has gone mental full stop...the sportsbikes look good value when you look at the single cylinder off /dual road bikes...A CRF450 making a whooping 28BHP for over £9,500 & £8,000+ for a motox bike....!

That's my current pickle- I want an enduro but the things are so expensive it's crazy.

28hp?? Mine makes more than double that!!

I thought he'd made a mistake as my mate runs a CRF250 and it makes 26bhp but MCN said:

"When seeing the spec sheet of the 450L many thought that there had been a mistake on the bhp figure. Honda claim 24bhp, which is practically the same as the 250L and around 20bhp less than you would expect from a modern 450cc single. But there is no mistake, to increase service intervals and meet strict Euro4 regulations 24bhp is all you have."

[WarnieV6GT]

V8RX7 said:

I thought he'd made a mistake as my mate runs a CRF250 and it makes 26bhp but MCN said:

"When seeing the spec sheet of the 450L many thought that there had been a mistake on the bhp figure. Honda claim 24bhp, which is practically the same as the 250L and around 20bhp less than you would expect from a modern 450cc single. But there is no mistake, to increase service intervals and meet strict Euro4 regulations 24bhp is all you have."

Christ.

[mygoldfishbowl]

poo at Paul's said:

Krikkit said:

podman said:

I think the price of many of the bikes has gone mental full stop...the sportsbikes look good value when you look at the single cylinder off /dual road bikes...A CRF450 making a whooping 28BHP for over £9,500 & £8,000+ for a motox bike....!

That's my current pickle- I want an enduro but the things are so expensive it's crazy.

28hp?? Mine makes more than double that!!

My 1975 Kawasaki 350cc F9 bighorn is 28hp.

Edited by mygoldfishbowl on Saturday 23 November 08:22

[Krikkit]

V8RX7 said:

I thought he'd made a mistake as my mate runs a CRF250 and it makes 26bhp but MCN said:

"When seeing the spec sheet of the 450L many thought that there had been a mistake on the bhp figure. Honda claim 24bhp, which is practically the same as the 250L and around 20bhp less than you would expect from a modern 450cc single. But there is no mistake, to increase service intervals and meet strict Euro4 regulations 24bhp is all you have."

For that money you'd have to have a KTM/Husqy surely? Their Gucci bikes are that money and loads more power despite being euro 4.