That’s right! The International Motorcycle Show made it’s annual appearance in the beautiful city of Long Beach! And it was better than ever! Too bad that the weather didn’t cooperate, because it was dreary & raining from time-to-time – so I didn’t ride this year. But I still went & had a great time.Pleanty of killer things to check out including… you guessed it – the NEW DUCATIS! Yeah! Totally Killer!
The new redesigned Monster (GROWL!), the 1098R; the fasted twin on the planet with a heart pounding 180 HP! I guess you would have to have a seatbelt to keep you on that when you rip from 0-60 in what feels like nothing flat. And a custom Monster as well, that looked like it would peel the asphalt off the road just when you would start the motor.
And, there were some amazing custom bikes in the extreme side of the event. Some old rides, new rides, and bikes that were built by hand from scratch. My favourite was the Crusader – deep maroon red with Excalibur swords for handlebars. Every detail was met for that ride and it drew quite the crowd as people snapped away with thier cameras.
What was the most unique thing about this year’s show, was that the weather was beautiful the next day & the red Ducati semi was shining at the entrance in the sun. So what did I do? What any other Ducatist would do. Stop, put my camera on a cone & take a snap in front of the truck with the Long Beach skyline in the background.Ride safe & keep the shiny side up – cheers!
