Bennington Triumph Bash

My buddies and I are thinking about attending the show in NYC on January 23. Is this show worth the effort to attend?

Absolutely... We make it a regular yearly event.. Make a day of it with the city and the show and then drinking at an Irish Pub... Hoping this year we dont get kicked out of the restaurant like last year..

If you come to show with us ill fill you in on what heppened last year...LOL

Suffice to say we had to buy alot of other peoples ruined meals...LOLOLOL

Got my tix already. I'll be on line at 11:30 Friday morning...

Rockers CT wrote:Absolutely... We make it a regular yearly event.. Make a day of it with the city and the show and then drinking at an Irish Pub... Hoping this year we dont get kicked out of the restaurant like last year..

If you come to show with us ill fill you in on what heppened last year...LOL

Suffice to say we had to buy alot of other peoples ruined meals...LOLOLOL

plus we were called nazis!

ahahahha I totally forgot about that.. Yeah we were called Nazi's ahahah brilliant...

Sounds like there's an interesting story behind this. Who the hell called you Nazis?

--mark

Post a report when you return. If it's good I'll go to Cleveland and try to get a few new distributors for my waterproof/stretchable seat covers.

BTW-I'll have a few as prizes for the 2011 Bash as well as a few other goodies: you can seethe covers at www.kingoffleece.com. Try not to laugh too hard at the U-Tube vid!

Its a little snowy this am but I live nearby so I am walking over to the show around noon. Oddly and for the 1st time I can remember, the boat and bike shows overlap at Javitts. Its a good display from OEMs and vendors and they had the stunt area indoors last year.

See you there-

the boat show has better bikini babes
I'll be at the bike show tomorrow

[/img]

It seems a bit higher in the saddle then my Tiger. Front suspension is firm-much more than my Tiger was before upgrades. Seating position and reach to the bars is just right. It's a cool bike. Ditch the tires.

I have a 30" inseam, and I was flat footed on the bike. Not the prettiest bike I have ever seen, but that's not what it is for. The new Sprint was very sleek, and the red & white Thruxton with the stainless arrow exhaust was super sweet. My buddy must have gone back and sat on it 5 times (or maybe he was just checking out the girl at the raffle table - Triumph had a LOT of guys milling around there. Wow!)
Overall, I'm glad we went, but there wasn't that much to see. Too many trashy vendors selling chinese screwdriver sets, etc. for my taste. I also think Triumph made a big mistake in not having real British-speaking staff manning the display. That is what makes them so special, (even though some are assembled in Asia now). The bikes themselves, however, definitely held their own. The only other bike that received as much attention as the new Tiger was the beemer touring rig with the straight 6 in it. Honda's paddle shifter V-whatever something was also pretty nice looking, and I was disappointed that Kawasaki didn't have the twin cylinder W-whatever there to see. As for the v-twins, they all looked alike to me, and my buddy Terry with the '74 Honda twin that was flying in formation with the Rockers last year commented about how sad it was to see Honda having gone the way of the copycat to HD. Maybe I am biased, but I don't think anyone else shows the individuality of their designs as well as Triumph, and even when they enter a segment such as the new Tiger's introduction, they still have features which are not a copy of someone else. Hell, as long as they stick to their brilliant twins and triples, they will always stand apart from the rest. I just wish I could afford the new Tiger XC and a new Sprint GT. Oh well...

sevy wrote:I also think Triumph made a big mistake in not having real British-speaking staff manning the display. That is what makes them so special, (even though some are assembled in Asia now).

Well, the folks who run/work for Triumph US are Americans, so it wouldn't have made much sense to import Brits to work the show. They wouldn't have known anything about the business side of things on this side of the Atlantic.

I was disappointed that Kawasaki didn't have the twin cylinder W-whatever there to see.

Yeah, sadly it's not available in the US.

--mark

Ohh the W800... Looks pretty cool.. its the big brother of the w650!

mark wrote:Well, the folks who run/work for Triumph US are Americans, so it wouldn't have made much sense to import Brits to work the show. They wouldn't have known anything about the business side of things on this side of the Atlantic.

I don't think they would have to know anything about the business here if they knew and were passionate about their bikes. I was imagining the experience of listening to one of the engineers describing their design thoughts or pointing out the features that make the bikes different, using words like "brilliant" and "bloody"; sort of like that chef, Jamie Oliver who did that Food Revolution show. I pictured lots of enthusiasm and energy, and not just another salesman like all the rest working the show. As it was, their staff was no different than any of the other vendors, in that they could have been selling any brand of bike (and in truth, these guys from the local shops probably do run multibrand stores). I guess I just didn't feel any inkling of the bikes' heritage, and at least for the Bonnie family, that is a big selling point I think. (Does anyone really think "American" when the Bonnie or Thruxton comes up in a conversation? Gosh, I hope not.)

Heading to Cleveland Friday for the show. Looking to get some new distribution onboard-and see a bunch of very cool bikes. I'll be the one in the BTB shirt!