Just a couple of photos from our annual winter pilgrimage to the NEC in Birmingham for this year’s Motorcycle Live show — an event that’s basically Christmas for motorcyclists, but with more leather jackets and fewer snowflakes. As always, the show was a feast for the eyes — bikes as far as the eye could see, each one shinier and more tempting than the last. It’s the kind of place where you instantly start imagining yourself racing down the road on a bike that costs more than your car. The stands were packed with everything from helmets that look like they were designed by NASA to gloves that could probably withstand a bear attack.
And, of course, there were loads of ladies doing their best to tempt us with offers of exclusive deals on all things bike-related. Some of them had the kind of energy that could convince you to upgrade your entire riding gear just because they smiled at you, while others were busy telling us how we could finally get that exhaust upgrade we’ve been dreaming about. It was the usual mix of ‘I don’t need that, but I want it!’ and ‘You’re telling me I should buy that?’ – the kind of temptation that makes you want to buy a new bike, even if you don’t technically have the garage space for it.
We spent the day wandering from stand to stand, drooling over bikes we couldn’t afford, testing out gear we didn’t need, and pretending we were serious contenders for MotoGP (if only we could manage to stay on the bike for more than 5 minutes). All in all, another successful trip to the NEC — though we might need a second mortgage to pay for the bikes we didn’t buy and maybe a bigger garage for all the new gear we might go back for!
