Bike Show

Ricky and I took some rare time off and headed to downtown Washington D.C. to catch the 2006 Cycle World Motorcycle Show. It turned out to be a great chance to see all the new bikes coming out this year. The big players were all there in force; Yamaha, Honda, Suzuki, Kawasaki, BMW, Harley, Ducati, MV Agusta to name a few.

You were allowed to touch and sit on just about every bike in the arena.

Memorable Bikes:

Yamaha M1 - Rossi's race bike was right at the front door. There are several shots of this bike in the gallery linked below. When Ricky and I looked into the exhaust pipe, all we could see was pipe, no packing at all! It was pretty cool to see all the additional sensors deployed on the bike; speed sensors front and back, fork travel sensors, etc. Look at the closeup I took of the M1's front wheel for details.

2006 Yamaha R6 - This bike garnered more than its fair share of interest. I overhead a couple of guys describing it as a "race bike with lights". If this show was any indication, Yamaha has the rest of the middleweights covered this year. The upcoming race season will tell.

2006 Honda Goldwing - This is the first production motorcycle that ships with an onboard airbag system. This looked a little strange, but I would like to see if it has any real world impact on a crash. Note that I said I would like to see this, not volunteer for it.

2006 BMW K1200S - Ricky really took a shine to this bike. I didn't get a shot of it, but this bike really fit him good.

2006 Limited Edition Suzuki Hayabusa - Ricky's love affair with the bus continues.

Yamaha seemed to have more bikes than anyone else, as they had multiple version of the big sellers on hand (R1 & R6 in multiple colors).

One thing I did buy was a set of custom fitted earplugs made onsite by a vendor. More on these after I roadtest them.


2006 Cycle World Show - Washington Convention Center