FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The 34th Annual Cycle World International Motorcycle Show
Long Beach Convention Center, California—Nov, 1999
This years event was my first major motorcycle trade show. And what an event it was! All of the major players were exhibiting their full product lines in a most spectacular manner. American Honda and Harley-Davidson had perhaps the largest real estate at the show. My favorite exhibit was the Ducati booth which is the focus of this article (some of you already know that I plan to buy a Ducati Sports bike). It was a very large exhibit with their entire line up of 2000 models. The featured bike was of course the "Number 1" Vance/Hines bike ridden by Ben Bostrom. Simply, spectacular!
Although the Ducs "look" pretty much the same as last year, new for 2000 Ducati has replaced their much hated self retracting kick stand for a more conventional one (cheers from the crowd), The Supersport 750 and 900 now come with higher handlebars, better front brake disks and clutch mods. For pictures click here.
The Superbikes 748 and 996 models carry on the tradition of "king of the hill" for 2000. The 748 comes in three flavors: 748 the standard "road ripper", the 748S with a number of trick components including adjustable steering geometry, Marchesini 5 spoke wheels, and Showa rear shock. An d the 748R which is their limited production "race only" bike. The 996 comes in the same 3 configurations only bigger, badder, louder and more expensive than the 748s.
The "live action" for the show was the Observed Trials riders showing off some very extreme cycle action. It was so cool I had to Check out some pics.
Aprilia’s Mille RSV drew much attention from the crowd. This is one trick bike! It feels a little fatter than the Ducati - but oh what ever. I am not good enough to tell the difference on the track anyway - so what me worry!
Triumph had a smaller booth but the Daytona 955i was a show stopper.
Honda featured a couple of superbikes along with 2000 cruisers, motocrossers, ATVs et al. The RC51 could be called the "Race ready replica." It is being touted as the "out of the box" race winner at $10,000.00 a pop. The CBR929RR is also very, very cool at 375 lbs! Kawasaki featured their new lineup of superbikes as did Yamaha.
As I left the show, I felt quite satisfied. This was my first show after all and I am glad it left a good impression on me.
Hope to see you all there next time!
BTW, here is a link to the Ducati Web Ring - Great sites!
This page was last modified on: 05/21/05
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