Trail Bike Adventure Magazine

Been to the Moto Expo. Feb 22

Monday, 22 February 2010 09:31

I'm just back from the Moto Expo on the Gold Coast.

It's always a smallish turnout there, especially if you've been at the Melbourne and Sydney shows, but this year TBAM didn't have a stall and I was free to just wander around and gasbag to people. It was a very pleasant day - except for forgetting to take my camera. I met up with my son and his family and in being swept away with the grandkids and all, I arrived at the convention centre with no camera. In any case, there really wasn't a great deal to photograph as fas as bikes go. There were some great people, but!

The Suzuki guys were all glowing after the RMX release and it really gives a bloke to lift to see how much those guys (and girl) enjoy bikes.

From Suzuki I wandered over and had a chat to long-time friends and owners of TrailZone, Clubby and his wife Tania. It was no surprise to find Ken Wootton, an ol' mate of very long standing, manning the AMCN stand solo. It seems to be public knowledge, so I guess it's okay to say Ken's FINALLY leaving AMCN and taking over Bike Trader. (As if! Ken would do AMCN if he had to run it out on a Gestetner machine and hand-deliver the mags still smelling of metho).

Marty Kypr was on the Kawasaki stand and brimming with happiness over his new daughter, and understandably happy over the performance of the KXs of late. I met Marty when he was at Suzuki but don't see much of him these days, so that was a lucky meeting.

I also ran into Cam Cuthill, who, for 10 years or so has been a General Manager at BMW Motorrad. I'm not exactly sure of his title, but it doesn't matter much now, because he's left BMW! He was wandering around, unshaven, and looking very relaxed. We had a long, rambling chat over an over-priced coffee and he seems fairly content about things. Miles Davis and the other folks on the BMW stand were all busting with excitement over the new BMWs and were hinting at a release in mid-March. They even hinted that, despite my showing last year, I might get an invite! Hoo-aah! BMWs rock! I have my fingers crossed for that!

Meanwhile, I have a Husky TE310 in the shed and I'm just waiting for local rider Pete Bellew to call so we can go do pics. I'm also still chasing Jay Foreman over his DR650. We'll get that happening when he gets a free moment.

Not much else for this week. It cracks me up when people send those e-mails for the DVDs, by the way. I don't know how everyone does it before I even get my copy, but they do. Maybe we need to give away more than 10.

That's all for today.

TF