2014 INTERMOT motorcycle show in Cologne - road trip

[Guest]

INTERMOT trip

part 1

The wife and I went to Cologne last weekend for the 2014 INTERMOT motorcycle show.We were up Saturday morning at 0430 for a 0530 departure. It’s a little over 300 miles away from our house in Vilseck so I was hoping to make it in 5-6 hours.



At first the usual fall foggy mornings persisted but after the sun came up it started to disperse.






As things continued to clear it became possible to up the pace a bit.



Set the cruise control to 115 on the Volvo.



But even at those speeds we can expect to be passed byalmost anybody…like this small BMW station wagon.



As with any trip there were the usual bathroom breaks:



And construction zones, especially between Frankfurt and Bonn.



But, eventually they ended. (The sign loosely translated reads goodbye and arrive safely.)



As we neared Cologne we were well ahead of schedule and in need of coffee.So we decided to stop in Bonn to hit the Starbucks there.

Stay tuned for part 2

[Chris]

INTERMOT trip

part 2

Entering Bonn:



And crossing the Rhine River to get to the old town center.



Found it!



Since we were ahead of schedule we wandered around the old town center for a bit to stretch our legs. It seems a bit quieter than when it was the capital of Germany and that seems a good thing.Our explorations were rewarded by finding an English shop selling all sorts of British snacks and treats.Yahoo! Maltesers, digestives, and real crisps! Bike magazine!



We headed off to Cologne,which is just down the river about 25 miles from Bonn and made it into town without much trouble.Finding the parking confused me for a bit and I must have passed the entrance to the Koln Messe where the show was being held about three times. Here’s a shot of one of the display halls (#11) as I drove by it (again!). The motorcycle show was held in 5 of these halls which were all about the same size. It’s a huge show.



Since I had bought our tickets on line a couple of weeks ago and had printed up the passes we didn’t need to bother buying tickets,especially at “on the day” higher prices. Seemed like almost everybody had done the same and hence no lines at the ticket booths.





Stay tuned for part 3.

[Chris]

Part 3

One of the big differences about the INTERMOT show and others I had been to was that this show was both a consumer show and a trade show. The difference was fascinating. It was chance to see the infrastructure of the industry as very many booths were for the suppliers who made the parts. The next 10 or so photos are just a smattering of the things I noticed from several different companies. It was interesting talking to the vendors from countries like India, China and Taiwan. The basic idea I came away with is these folks would be very glad to make you any part you needed. One vendor in particular had a poster bragging about their ability to reverse engineer a part and produce it in low production lots. As a lover of old Brit bikes I spotted a lot of old Norton, Triumph and Lucas reproduction parts on his shelves. As I made a point of telling him, they were better quality than the originals. I specifically asked if it would be possible to make a reproduction Suzuki mirror in a small quantity of perhaps 100 units. He assured me it would be quite possible and made sure I had his brochures and his card before I walked away. Hmmm…. GS1000S mirrors anyone?






















Stay tuned for part 4.

[Chris]

INTERMOT trip

Part 4

KOSO gauges were there as well as ACEWELL. Here’s the KOSO display.I like them both.







There was every sort of riding gear you could imagine being displayed from dozens of vendors. I couldn’t possibly show you even half of them all so I’ll post a few so you canget a sense of what was there.

The DANE stand has some really good looking riding jackets. I was particularly intrigued by the ľ length jacket and reflective vest with built in red LEDs on the back and white LEDs on the front. I’d think that would help your conspicuity at night.








All the big and little names in helmet manufacturing were there. I just took this photo because I thought the helmet was a little comical.



Riding gear from Pakistan.They specialize in leather gear and will make your design in any quantity you want.It seemed well made to me and with stouter leather than most.



Stay tuned for part 5

[Chris]

INTERMOT show

Part 5

Really good brake setups from the Netherlands.I loved the old widow maker Kwacker 750triple with real brakes on the front wheel.The Bimmer is pretty cool too.















Nitron shocks from the UK are made better than Ohlins but much less well known.Cost about thesame as the Swedish stuff.



This is new, at least to me. An automatic bike wash like the ones you run your car through at the gas station. I’d love one next to thegarage.From France or Italy I think.




Stay tuned for part 6

[Chris]

Part 6

KXD very mini bikes. What is about mini bikes that make even reasonable adults act goofy?






Desmoworld is a German Ducati aftermarkets parts specialist from Furth which is only about 50 miles from my house.They make nice but pricy Ducati “bling” parts. Naturally, their stand was right next to the Ducati factory display area.









Stay tuned for part 7

[Chris]

INTERMOT trip

Part 7

The Ducati stand was big and crowded. There were a lot of people trying the various models out for size as well as a good number of folks just wandering around andlooking…just like me.I didn’t think Ineeded to sit on any of the Ducs since I was pretty sure I already knew theanswer as to whether I’d be a good fit on one.But I did want to see the new Scrambler model to see if it was really something new or a rehash of the tried and true Ducati café racer formula. You know, the recipe that includes a bigL-twin motor, tube frame, and challenging ergos?



As always, the Ducati stand was good for all sorts of eye candy.

There was a racer:



There was a pretty model with a Duc:







There was a racer AND a pretty model:



All cool stuff you’ll agree but where was that Scrambler?


Stay tuned for part 8

[Chris]

INTERMOT trip

Part 8

Found it…



The Scrambler is the Swiss Army knife of Ducatis. It can be configured in a variety of ways andcomes in a variety of colors.There are four versions: Icon, Classic, Urban Enduro, and something called Full Throttle. Each version has individualpaint jobs, wheels, fenders, seats and trim parts. Plainly you can mix and match until you get a version you like. I’m sure the aftermarket parts companies won’t waste any time adding to the options. And surprisingly, for a Duc, its ergos are pretty benign.






I like it. It looks good and probably goes pretty good too. But that small and very cool looking front fender also looks pretty darn useless.

I think the Scrambler may be Ducati’s version of the BMW RnineT. The Beemer has established itself as the customizable platform of choice for a lot of European builders and accessory firms and I think the Ducati Scrambler is aimed for a similar niche. That the RnineT has succeeded at that was pretty evident wandering around the show.In both the custom bikes area and as various accessory firms rolling showcase the RnineT kept showing up. Here’s an example of what I mean at a custom parts and accessories stand, Notice the menu listing what’s available in front of the bike.And yes, I think they came up with a pretty good looking bike.







Stay tuned for part 9

[Chris]

INTERMOT trip

Part 9

Meanwhile, over at the Kawasaki stand, there was some talk of a new model as well. Everybody must have heard about it because, as you can see, there were so many folks standing around you couldn’t see the motorcycles.



But I was determined to get the shots since I had heard about the new bike too. Making my way through the crowd I first encountered the mob around the z800 bikes.They had several in the various colours that are offered and there were people just waiting for an opening to hop on one.They are nice looking bikes but I didn’t feel like bucking the crowd to get too close to one.Sorry.



My wife, proving she’s smarter than me, headed for the info desk to see what sorts of literature was available. Note the Deals Gap shirt.Also note the profound boredom of the girl in charge of handing out the brochures.



I went off looking for information too and found this z1000 cunningly concealed under a girl.



She must be bored too since she’s also looking off into space. I suspect it’s a pretty weird job anyway. Just sitting on a slowly revolving motorcycle and trying to ignore the fact that herds of motorcyclists are ogling you. I wonder how many hours they leave the poor girl up on that bike? I never did see a shift change the whole 6 hours we were there.

Oh, the bike….yes I like it. I know it looks like it’s a cast member for the next Transformers movie but the styling looks aggressive and integrated into the mechanics to me. I almost said “edgy” but that word has been vastly overworked. I understand that there are a lot of folks who don’t think much of the styling. That’s good, that’s one less bike they have to think about buying.You nay-sayers maybe paddling against the stream though…the new Suzuki GSR-S and BMW R1000R have similar styling so maybe this is a trend.

Stay tuned for part 10

[Chris]

INTERMOT Show

Part 10

On to the star of Kawasaki’s show.



This is the subject of the most concentrated media hype I can remember ever attending a new models introduction. There were leaks, teaser videos, and speculative motorcycle press articles by the dozen about this thing. And, after all that, now that we know something of it, it’s even more of a mystery. What, for example, is someone supposed to do with this very exclusive and hideously expensive motorcycle? (It costs 50,000 pounds according to theVisor down website.) The H2R, which iswhat we’re looking at, isn’t street legal. It’s for “track use only” according to Kawasaki but as far as I know there’s no racing class open to a supercharged limited production 1000cc race bike. So, what’s it good for?

Well, it looks really good for one thing. The styling is spot on in a kind of“Bat-Bike” sort of way. The paint is amazing when you see it. It looks like black chrome and is just impossibly shiny. Except for the many parts that are carbon fiber of course.





It’s pretty darn powerful too with supposedly 300 hp on tap. It’s also the forerunner of the eventual street legal version due out later this year.(Which will be pretty pricey too…25,000pounds.)

And it sure looks good.




I think this bike wasn’t built to do anything more than be a technology demonstrator and a means to get people excited about Kawasaki’s again.This is Kawasaki saying it’s still got the moxie and resources to build bikes that can compete with the best there is. That’s one reason the Kawasaki press releases make such a point that the Kawasaki motorcycle division drew on the whole Kawasaki industrial base, including industrial gas turbines and aviation, to build this bike.This bike’s chief purpose has to be as a corporate flagship and to drum up interest for the follow on street legal version.

Because if they built this thing thinking they’d sell enough of them even at $80, 000 USD a pop to recoup the development, tooling, and production costs they’ve been standing way too close to the sake bottle.

Stay tuned for part 11

[Chris]

INTERMOT Show

Part 11

Taking our leave of the wacky world of unusable motorcycles as moto art here’s the new model that deserved to be Kawasaki’s star at the show.And it’s very usable!

The 1000cc Versys:




Speaking of really expensive motorcycle goodies, the Ohlins stand was close to the Kawasaki venue. Good stuff.



Here’s a nice rolling Ohlins display:





There was a pretty cool display of old Yamahas in one hall titled “Forty Years of Yamaha”. Therew ere some old friends in that group I can assure you! Here’s just a few:



Here's a fine example of Parker's RADD front suspension on Yamaha's GTS1000.



Oh my! Isn't this '72 just a pretty as a picture? I bet it didn't look this good when it rolled out of the showroom.






Stay tuned for part 12

[Chris]

INTERMOT trip

Part 12

I have to comment on this one. It’s a 1982 or so RD250LC. I had the ’82 RD350LC in blue when I was stationed in the UK and it remains one of my very favorite bikes.They weren’t sold in the US although the US eventually got the RD350LC YPVS which was known in the US as the RZ350. But the LC was in some ways a better bike, better looking, more balanced and a willing co-conspirator for any sort of looney riding exploit you could dream up. I miss my “Elsie”. The only reason I sold it was to buy my RG500.



This show really did have everything a motorcyclist might need. That includes custom race vans. Like here:





A German sidecar association was there as well and brought along some pretty wild machinery:






I’m sorry but this just WRONG! Turning a Bimota into a sidehack?!?! I’m surprised people don’t chase him down the street waving clubs and throwing bricks.







Stay tuned for part 13

[Chris]

INTERMOT Show

Part 13

There was a nice display of about 30 custom bikes of allsorts. Here are a few that caught myeye.



A chopped Nimbus…now I’ve seen everything.







Note the BMW 1600cc 6 cylinder engine.





Stay tuned for part 14

[Chris]

INTERMOT Show

part 14

Sym had some nice smaller bikes that really appealed to my wife. I know they’re from Taiwan but I think they are sold in the US now. Can anyone confirm that?



Since Sym makes cars and bikes it only makes sense that they would try to make something that combines characteristics of both.



Confusingly all Sym bikes seem to be known as “Wolf” and only the displacement changes the designation. Glad I’m not their parts guy at the dealer. Can you imagine the conversation? “What kind of bike do you need parts for?” The same answer every time...“A Wolf.!”





Stay tuned for part 15

[Chris]

INTERMOT Show

Part 15

Yamaha didn’t have too much but they did have this odd little three wheeler.








And there was some old guy's race bike.



Check out the bug spattered French endurance racer. Did you notice the race number is illuminated? Look at the LEDs inset intothe number on the fairing.Makes sense

.




The Indian stand was a nice surprise. I wasn’t expecting the new Scout and it’s a great looking bike. I particularly like the looks of the Scout engine. The addition of the Scout model is a big step for the new start up bike maker. The move to having additional models is very significant. I hope it means that Indian will finally be around for a while. I’d love to see them make a go of it.










Stay tuned for part 16