We passed the Arai tent. I put on a helmet. It fit pretty well and I liked the color scheme. I saw that it was $550 and promptly put it back on the shelf before I broke it and had to buy it.
We came to the BMW tent and I was busy telling my dad about the K1200 GS touring motorcycle when I saw the HP4. You’ve probably heard me talking about it here. It is the better version of the S1000RR, the benchmark for what a sportbike is supposed to be. It’s reliable. Extremely fast, and rideable. It’s also as expensive as the Panigale S, which as I stated before is as much as a new car. I sat on it and immediately felt comfortable and at home. I was surprised how light it was for being a 1000cc monster. They are a rather limited production model based on the S1000RR, which has been tested and proven to the best motorcycle ever since it debuted in 2010. After drooling all over the gas tank, I somehow pried myself away from it’s clutches and moved down the BMW line to find a wonderful surprise in the S1000R, a naked sportbike akin to the SuperDuke you all know I love so much. I had no idea this existed and I feel ashamed for missing out on it. I’ll have something about it in the coming weeks.
The beautiful BMW HP4
I spotted orange and steered my dad toward the KTM area, which was cool because they had an actual shipping container you often see in shipyards as their display floor. The sides opened creating a sort of showroom floor on the inside with hardwood floors underneath an RC8 and a 450 SX-F. On the outside of the container on the traditional I-X Center floor was a bright orange SuperDuke. It was as wonderful as it looks in pictures. I took a seat and noticed how comfortable it was. The seat felt good and the bike didn’t seem as wide as I thought it would be. It was bolted to the floor in the upright position so I couldn’t tell how heavy it was, but I’m sure it’s heavy. I spotted a black one and went over to examine. A KTM official began speaking to me about it. I asked him the starting price since I couldn’t find that anywhere for my SuperDuke article and he said it was just under $17,000 and would be hitting showroom floors in March.
The KTM 1290 SuperDuke R.
I ended my time at the show in the Kawasaki tent where I got my first glimpse at the new Z1000. It’s in the same category as the SuperDuke, but actually looks meaner. It has a high shoulder line that flows up from the front fender and swoops down after the tank onto the seat before rising again in the tail. I thought it resembled a hyena the way it’s headlight is sat low on the forks and its lines flow up and down. The headlight itself is four projector lenses that are sort of squished into a narrow housing making the bike appear as though it’s giving you the evil eye. It was a charcoal silver color with regular Kawasaki green accents, but the accents didn’t pull the squid-ness into the bike that is often associated with the all-lime green Kawasaki color scheme. It was tastefully done and it looked fantastic.
2014 Kawasaki Z1000.
Thus ended my day at the motorcycle show. We took a short lunch break and didn’t buy a thing. Honestly I was a bit disappointed by the vendors. I was expecting there to be good deals on equipment, but the best deals were on cheap equipment like off-brand helmets and knock-off sunglasses. I was really hoping I could score this Jorge Lorenzo helmet at a decent price. They had them there, but they were over $500 and had zero discounts attached. Consider me bummed. I chatted with the Dunlop rep about their Sportmax Q3 tire that I’ve been keeping my eye on since my machine will need some new rubber come spring. He gave me the info I was looking for, but had nothing for me in terms of discounts or upcoming price reductions. Rats.
All-in-all it was a great day. I got to talk motorcycles with my dad and brother and anytime you get the opportunity to do that, you should consider yourself lucky. It was well worth the $15 admission and the price of gas. I’m just glad I didn’t walk into there with $100,000 because I would have bought five different bikes. My insurance agent would’ve had a career day.