It’s almost – almost – the end of the big bike show season. And the MCN London Excel show continued the positive vibe from the UK trade felt at the recent Trade Expo, NEC and Milan shows. A big turnout from south-east bikers – organisers claimed 38,767 visitors – plus good levels of spending meant retailers at Excel left Docklands happy. And with new bikes on show for the first time from BMW and Triumph, plus plenty of personal appearances by top racers, there was plenty for the public to see too.
Triumph’s celebrating its 25th anniversary this year – the first Hinckley bikes hit the showrooms in summer 1991 – so expect news from the British firm throughout this year. The new Tiger Sport was unveiled at the London show.
Triumph’s Ruth Speller said: “It’s been a really positive show for us and the perfect environment to launch the new Tiger Sport 1050. We needed to book our biggest ever stand at the London show to display our 33 bikes and the visitor feedback to them has been fantastic.”
Joining the Tiger Sport in the ‘new bikes’ slot was BMW UK’s range of special edition ‘Iconic 100’ centenary bikes. The Munich firm showed off four bikes – an R1200 GS, GS Adventure, R1200 RT and R1200 RS. The bikes are all high-spec versions with one-off paintwork inspired by 1970s and 1980s colour schemes plus specially embroidered Iconic 100 seats. Limited to 100 of each model, they celebrate 100 years of BMW, which launched as Bayerische Motorenwerke in 1916.
Rebecca Donohue, head of marketing at Carole Nash Insurance, said: “As title sponsors for the last several years, we were incredibly impressed with the event, with strong attendance numbers backed up by positive feedback from visitors and exhibitors. Throughout the three-day event, we enjoyed meeting with bikers, and seeing them enjoy our new virtual reality Race with Ron Haslam experience, which was a massive draw on our stand, not to mention mixing with some of the biggest names in British biking!”
Rob Aherne, managing director of motorcycling at Bauer Media, summed up: “The feedback from everyone that we have spoken to is that the 2016 Carole Nash MCN London Motorcycle Show was our best yet. Some of our exhibitors enjoyed record-breaking sales figures and we’ve already had re-bookings for 2017, which shows just how important the show is to the industry and points to what a staple of the motorcycling calendar it has become.”