XDL Street Jam at Charlotte International Motorcycle Show

Hello Dear Readers,

Last weekend the lovely Mrs. Psyco and I attended the 2013 Progressive International Motorcycle Show at the Charlotte Convention Center in Charlotte N.C. Since it was my first time attending this show I wanted to share my experiences with you. We are morning people and like to pretend we are children of privilege so I sprung for the early admission VIP tickets. This worked out very well for us as two weeks ago my lovely wife slipped and fell in the kitchen on our way out the door. It turns out that some ladies shoes are probably far more dangerous than motorcycles. The first picture above is from the XDL Street Jam show.

The Diavel made me do it!

A couple of years ago one of my very first blog posts was about the introduction of the then brand spanking new Ducati Diavel. Well I finally got to see one in the flesh and throw a leg across it. It fit very well and everything seemed to fall perfectly into position for me, plus with my but firmly on the seat I was able to put my feet flat on the floor. Now I really gotta go get a demo ride on one. The fine people at Ducati Greensboro provided the bikes on display at the show.

Gary Nelson’s Cafe/ Scrambler CB750 was my favorite bike at the show.

Moving on to the show bikes in the J&P Cycles Ultimate Custom Builder contest. The above 76 Honda CB750 is the coolest thing I have ever seen. At the risk of sounding conceited I’ll confess that up until now my all time favorite was my very own Yamaha XT600 supermoto that I featured in an earlier post. But Gary Nelson is one of the most talented vehicle engineers to ever live. Just look at all of his work in NASCAR. No wonder this is my new favorite custom motorcycle of all time.

The Brew Racing CB350 Racebike

In 2011 Brew Racing Frames was my listing as website of the month for December. Nothing is more awesome than seeing a genuine for real racing motorcycle entered in a show like this against all of the pampered show bikes. Enlarge the picture below for it’s racing pedigree.

Brew Racing CB350 Credentials

Triumph Scrambler

Here are a couple of beautiful bikes from the Triumph display, one new & one old.

nothing classes up the joint like a beautiful old Triumph.

One of the most interesting things on display was the Tharo EV Scooter by a division of Tharo Systems.  It does have a much more realistic MSRP (around $4200 or so) than most big electric scooters.

Tharo EV electric scooter

Of course since I just love old rice grinders the VJMC booth was my favorite club/vendor display stand at the meet.

Check out this old CL450 Scrambler.

There’s a soft spot in my heart (or is it in my head?) for old scramblers of any make.

Honda CBX1000 six cylinder

The six cylinder Honda CBX was the epitome of early ’80s muscle bike development. But with introduction of the GSXR soon to come the original musclebike era came to a close in the mid “80s with only the Mighty V Max soldiering on alone until the beginning of the 21st century.

side view of CBX

That’s all for now, but check back soon as  I will post some more pics and my analysis of the good things, and the shortcomings of the show.