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My wife and I have been going to the NYC Motorcycle show since the first "Great American Motorcycle Show" happened in the 1980s. That first year it was relegated to just a piece of an exterior corridor that circled Madison Square Garden. The entertainment was a movie projector showing of "On Any Sunday" in an area walled off with curtains and Doug Domokos "the Wheelie King" was doing wheelies on Honda trike ATVs. The show has grown since and been moved to the Jacob Javits Center, on the west side of Manhattan. And in the past few years it's shrunken down a bit, probably a reflection of the overall motorcycle industry.
![20181201_152951 Empire State.jpg]()
This year was a good show. There were lots of custom bikes, including too many HD "Draggers" that had saddle bags and rear fenders that almost extended into the next zip code. They're cool enough, until you walk past what seems like a platoon of the darn things. The custom that got my vote was a shovel head.
![20181201_094451 Shovel.jpg]()
The entire frame, coupled with a tank below the engine was the oil tank. The rear fender and another tank below the seat carried the gas. And it's got a couple thousand miles under it. I talked with the owner and he said that it's already sold to Pink. She's some sort of celebrity.
At the back of the show we were wowed by the Confederate display. They've been making truly amazing S&S powered machines for years. But the central bike was an exercise in extremes!
![20181201_110150 Confederate.jpg]()
I have never seen any other motorcycle that visibly showed so much machining! The cam drive is visible behind clear plastic.That's gasoline visible in the tank under the seat (and in the aluminum cylinder in front of it). The engine is 132 cubic-freakin' inches! The guy at the display has already ridden it 25,000 miles and that included "the Tail of the Dragon". At $125K, I still wanted to remortgage my house for one.
All of the OEMs were there and they had lots of beautiful bikes to sit on and drool on. But when we got to the BMW display... OMG!
![20181201_111549 BMW Nostalgia.jpg]()
I thought that I was looking at a one-off custom. A modern example of one of the most iconic BMWs ever produced. The original R7 was made in 1934 and only one was produced. It was the first motorcycle ever to have telescopic forks and it was gorgeous. The new one is based on the R NINE T. And you can actually buy them. Starting at $49,500. Only a strong (but weakening!) sense of fiscal responsibility is stopping me from going deeper into hock.
This year was a good show. There were lots of custom bikes, including too many HD "Draggers" that had saddle bags and rear fenders that almost extended into the next zip code. They're cool enough, until you walk past what seems like a platoon of the darn things. The custom that got my vote was a shovel head.
The entire frame, coupled with a tank below the engine was the oil tank. The rear fender and another tank below the seat carried the gas. And it's got a couple thousand miles under it. I talked with the owner and he said that it's already sold to Pink. She's some sort of celebrity.
At the back of the show we were wowed by the Confederate display. They've been making truly amazing S&S powered machines for years. But the central bike was an exercise in extremes!
I have never seen any other motorcycle that visibly showed so much machining! The cam drive is visible behind clear plastic.That's gasoline visible in the tank under the seat (and in the aluminum cylinder in front of it). The engine is 132 cubic-freakin' inches! The guy at the display has already ridden it 25,000 miles and that included "the Tail of the Dragon". At $125K, I still wanted to remortgage my house for one.
All of the OEMs were there and they had lots of beautiful bikes to sit on and drool on. But when we got to the BMW display... OMG!
I thought that I was looking at a one-off custom. A modern example of one of the most iconic BMWs ever produced. The original R7 was made in 1934 and only one was produced. It was the first motorcycle ever to have telescopic forks and it was gorgeous. The new one is based on the R NINE T. And you can actually buy them. Starting at $49,500. Only a strong (but weakening!) sense of fiscal responsibility is stopping me from going deeper into hock.
