Welcome to the second installment of my pictorial review of the Charlotte International Motorcycle Show.  For the second post I have actually decided to treat this as a product review, because in a sense that is exactly what the IMS series is, a product produced to entertain and inform motorcycle enthusiasts.

There were displays from all of the major manufactures except for Kawasaki & Yamaha. This did lead to a lot of Facebook grumbling from fans of these two marques. Yes I wish they had arranged to be there, but in this economy it is understandable that some companies have had to curtail such activities. Still there was plenty to see. Harley Davidson even brought in their “demo bike on a treadmill” setup for people to try. The Polaris Corporation set up a display for their recently acquired Indian brand. Of course the first one I made a beeline for was the Ducati display!

The boys from Ton Up N.C. had a fantastic club display with a couple of Tritons and some other fine vintage iron, for everyone to admire. On the other side of the hall were the Antique Motorcycle Club of America, and the Vintage Japanese Motorcycle Club.

Two of the vendors there were for the new lithium technology batteries. I was so impressed with this technology that I have actually become a dealer for the Shorai LFX line so be sure check back here soon as I will be setting up an online store to sell them and will have a link and review posted here.

There were some leather & t-shirt vendors, & of course lots of insurance companies. We got to check out a lot of new lids jackets etc.

The XDL Street Jam show was worth the price of admission all by itself. I greatly enjoyed trying the “Pit Stop Challenge” contest which involved changing the rear tire on a Grand Prix race bike, my time was 24 seconds by the way. And of course as you can tell from my pictures the custom bike show was awesome.

And now for my favorite group the custom crotch rockets.

Out of all the Harleys there my favorite was this give away Sportster built by Roland Sands.

Regardless of what a few whiners on the net have said it was well worth 15 bucks. Hell earlier this year I paid $20 to go to local show that was so dead I left after 20 minutes so to me this one was fantastic. Yes it could have been better; I personally would have liked to have seen more club or custom shop displays, and since there was plenty of space left in the Convention Center an open custom & vintage motorcycle show in addition to the invitation only J&P Cycles Ultimate Custom Builder show.

Mrs. Psyco & I actually sprang for the VIP tickets. It worked out great for us since we are early risers anyway. We got in early & had a little guided tour & got a preview of the XDL show so to me it was definitely worth the extra money, especially since I was pushing my lovely wife around in a wheelchair due to a very badly sprained ankle. We’ll be going back next year.

Even with the giant insurance commercial that dominated a large area of the floor (don’t bitch if Progressive didn’t sponsor this event it probably wouldn’t happen at all), this was still a great way to kill a few hours & meet lots of interesting people and learn about new motorcycles and accessories. So it was worth the few bucks to get in & I am happy to recommend that you try to attend one near you next year.