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MCN London Motorcycle Show 2008 - Bob Pickett is happy to be able to report on just the one show this year, thanks…

Click here for the 2007 show review

MT-03 - why oh why isn't this more popular? THE SHOW IS DEAD! LONG LIVE THE SHOW! Or to put it another way, after last year’s shenanigans with two London motorcycle shows within a week of each other (see the 2007 review for more details), the cobbled together hastily interloper at Ally Pally bit the bullet. This meant that manufacturers, traders and the most important people (you and me, the buying public) knew where to go this year.

With eight official manufacturer’s stands in place (well up from last year), this meant that the public had a proper chance to put bums on seats and get a better feel for where their hard-earned cash would be going in 2008.

Serious touring looks like being popular, with bums hitting seat on bikes like the FJR1300A... This also gave Motobke.co.uk the chance to get back to our standard format for this review – wander about the halls, see where the most interest was shown on each of the stands - and let you lot know. Then in six month’s time, when a clutch of these bikes re-appear in the showrooms as “Shiny Bike Syndrome” turns to “Actually I don’t think I really like it as much as I thought”, you will be geared up and knowing what barely ridden bargains to hunt down.

So what was tickling the bike buying public’s fancy this year? Well at a glance, it would appear that we’re thinking about doing a spot of touring. Did I say spot? More like putting some serious miles under our belts. Sports-Tourers and Full-Blown Tourers were proving very popular indeed – but of course this is Superbike-Island Britain, so you’re never going to get completely away from bums in the air machinery.

The most sat-upon machines at each stand were, in no particular order:

... and ZZR1400 KTM – a LOT of attention was being aimed at their radical, Science-Fiction inspired RC8 sportsbike. Other than that, as you would imagine the Adventure was the next most popular.

Meanwhile at BMW, the HP2-Megamoto and Hp2-Sport gathered big crowds. But backsides were being put on the serious mega-mile tourers such as the K1200GT and R1200RT.

But this is Britain, so sportbikes were still popular, like KTM's sci-fi RC8... Suzuki's stand was – as you would expect – seeing a lot of activity around the GSX-R range (with people heading for the race-colours 600 and 1000 bikes. For some reason, the 750 was in a sharp black and silver scheme… which possibly had people less aware that this was the bike that a lot of people think is the best of the GSX-R range. But significant numbers were looking at, sitting on and making serious noises about the new GSX650F. If the attention levels were anything to go by, this looks like being a real success story with both men and women as both sexes clambered on it in a steady stream all day.

At the Honda stand, the new stubby-faced Fireblade was the main draw. But Honda gave serious space to their CBF range – not matched as far as I could see by public interest levels (aside from possibly the 1000 – again a bike with touring capabilities). It would seem that they are determined to get us riding the CBF range… only time will tell if they are successful.

... and BMW's HP2-SportIt wasn’t an easy job to know what was popular at the Harley-Davidson stand. They were plagued all day with seemingly hundreds of small children, crawling over their bikes making “vroom-vroom” noises. Possibly encouraging for Milwaukee’s sales figures in 20-odd years time, but frustrating if you were an H-D salesman at the show I’d imagine. Last year’s debutant, the KR1200 did seem to be drawing the adult market – and significantly a lot of female riders were taking an interest. Harley have been actively courting the female market for a few years… is their hard work starting to pay off?

But for the rest of us, big draws were the ever popular Monster... Yamaha? – back to the touring concept, with the FJR1300A being a hard bike to get near and sit upon. Other than that, standard Yamaha viewing traits, with the R-range of sporty stuff being played with as you’d expect. But I must confess to wandering off and having a quiet sit on the MT-03 (and for some reason, being about the only one. If I had space in the garage for a pure “take it out and have a play, no reason for owning it but to muck about and have a giggle” machine, the MT-03 would be it. Why it isn’t more popular is beyond me).

Which brings us to Kawasaki. Two bikes drawing the crowds? Backing up my earlier statement, both the sporting and touring sides were represented, with the ZX-10 and ZZR1400 being major draws. One surprise, bearing in mind that at the time of writing this review it is the best selling of the three, the multi-purpose Versys was being largely ignored in favour of it’s odd-looking siblings, the ER-6f and ER-6n.

(Before disgruntled owners write in, I OWN an ER-6F and love it to pieces).

... along with Suzuki's new GSX650F - no teapot this one Finally, at Ducati there were lots of bums landing on the 1098 and other sporty stuff. But the serious, “I’m sitting on this with a real intent to see if I like it enough to buy” audience were heading to the Monster range. So the “bike that saved Ducati” is still drawing the punters. Evidence that when you get it right, people will keep coming back for more.

Verdict: Talking about getting it right, credit where credit is due to the organisers.

Despite being squeezed into just the one hall this year, it was still easy to walk around, look at bikes and crucially, get to sit on them in a relaxed atmosphere. One slight niggle, the parking. The stewards were enthusiastic, they were helpful, but clearly don’t ride bikes. There were a number of complaints that they were trying to get people to park their bikes directly in front of ones already parked up – which would have blocked them in. I refused to do so – and heard a number of other riders telling them the same.

One major disappointment? No Triumph stand. This is one of the premier shows in the country, so not having our only major manufacturer exhibiting their wares is inexcusable (and your reporter wanted to have a sit on a Street Triple, following Matt Dunlop’s road test elsewhere on this site).

Of the manufacturers that were there, best stand has to go to Suzuki. Well laid out, good use of space made it easy to get a look or sit on a machine that took your interest. Poorest? Sorry Honda, but for all your nice raised areas that allowed people to come and talk to your staff, down in the middle it felt like a cramped corridor and didn’t make me feel like staying put for long.

Overall, now that the London Motorcycle show has been able to concentrate things without a spoiler on the other side of London, they put on a good show. Well done and let’s hope this benchmark can be maintained in 2009.

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