Click on the picture to see the rest of the pics from the bike show.

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And so, with that lovely introduction, let's get on with it!

the bikes.
Let's be honest here. There really isn't much by way of new and exciting advances in bike technology this year. Each manufacturer only had a couple of new bikes for '03 (if that), and by and large, nothing really stood out as the "must-see" of the show for me.

Naturally, there was the new SV650S and SV1000S. Perhaps I'm a traitor to the cause, but neither of these bikes do a thing for me. The copper color SV650S is actually an interesting color (in a good way), but I'd really like to have a chat with whomever then decided that the decals on the side should be orange. It's hideous. We're 22 years past the 1970s, and someone just can't let it go. Personally, I don't like the new pointy look, but it's not horrible in and of itself, and the same people who loved the Fazer (or last year's constipated wasp Interceptor, for that matter) should love the new look of the SVSs. Other than aesthetics, the bike's ergos seem relatively unchanged. It seemed to have a taller seat height, but that may just be that I'm used to my slightly squished gel seat by now.

The Ducati 999 was the other bike I was looking forward to seeing, and I'm happy to report that it looks much nicer in person than in the pictures I'd seen. They had the translucent show bike there as well as the "normal" red faired one, which was pretty cool (though you couldn't sit on the translucent bike). It was fairly comfortable for me; I didn't have the usual tiptoe-reach-to-the-bars problem that I've had on other Ducatis, though it does have the "tank pressing on bladder" issue. The plastics behind the seat are also much wider than I expected; I kicked it pretty damn hard getting off the bike, and all I could think of was breaking $23,000 worth of motorcycle. Eek. My only complaint (aesthetically, of course, since I've never ridden one) is that the sidestand is really fooking ugly. I mean, come on. Did they use up all of their alloted good taste on the rest of the bike (exhaust notwithstanding)?

Kawasaki probably had the most new bikes at the show, and it was a nice selection. They had both blue and red ZX-6RRs in addition to their '03 model ZX-6Rs and the new ZR1000. The latter was a neat standard but pretty tall for me. Stephanie seemed to really like the ZRX1200R, too. All in all, the Kawa booth was a winner.

Heading back over to the 'Zooks, we goofed around on the V-Strom (thankfully, up on its centerstand, so we didn't have to attempt to stand it up) and some dirtbikes. This was the shocker of the show for all of us, I think -- we all want dirtbikes now. At some point within the past year, something in our collective Motorcycle Brain clicked and suddenly, we all started salivating over the thought of owning motocross bikes and......I hesitate to even say it....pickup trucks. Yes, yes, it's true. We looked at the pickup trucks on display. We did. Peter sat in one. We pretended we were driving up to Tahoe. We pretended we were carting our (hypothetical) dirtbikes around. It was embarrassing. I'm too young to be drooling over pickup trucks!

Over to the Yamahas. I had a brief fling with the flame-painted R1, which I ceased admiring as much once I remembered that this wasn't a custom paint job and that every squid and his brother will have one at Alice's by next summer. Ah well.

The Hondas. Dear me, what shall I say about the Hondas. For some reason, Honda decided to be a big shit this year and not let anyone sit on any of their new bikes. Why? Who knows. My guess for the truly new ones -- the Rune, the CBR600RR -- is that they aren't close enough to production to let people sit on them. Honda got flak last year for showcasing an Interceptor that was missing actual engine parts ("wow, it sure is light!"), so maybe they're hedging their bets this year. It was annoying for the 919 and the SuperHawk though -- these are bikes whose only difference from last year is color and they still had one example of each, up on a pedestal. How bloody ridiculous is that? I might as well just take last year's pictures of us sitting on SuperHawks and 919s and photoshop the new colors on. Christ, Honda, what were you thinking? That said, the CBR600RR looks nice. I thought the Rune was probably the most interesting bike at the show. Not my kind of ride personally, but it's interesting. Probably weighs a bazillion pounds though. I wouldn't know, since we couldn't, ahem, sit on it. Honda did slightly redeem itself in my eyes with the hilarious inclusion of the Bondage GoldWing. Perhaps it's a San Francisco thing, but I nearly busted a gut when I saw that thing. Oh my.

Buell kicked our asses this year. Not only did they have THREE Firebolts to sit on (hello, Honda, you listening?), but they tipped one over to maximum lean angle and propped it up just so that we could take stupid pictures of ourselves on it. Got a knee down, I did. Boy howdy. Props to Buell for having, bar none, the funnest booth at the show.

the swag.
Our first stop was to Helimot's booth, so I could drop off my pants (they have a defective zipper that they're going to replace). We chatted for a while, and I upped my street cred by getting hugs from both Els and Helmut. Woot! I ended up buying two HeliMufflers for Peter and myself, proving once more my utter inability to resist buying things from Helimot.

The only other swag I bought at the show is almost too embarrassing to mention. You see, dear readers, I have a deep, dark, guilty secret. It is filthy and disgusting and tears away at the moral fiber of my soul, but yet I still indulge it. I... I like watching those stupid motorcycle stunt videos. Yes, it's true. Show me a boy wearing jeans and sneakers zipping down the highway atop a furry bike while DeathMetalZombieFace plays in the background, and my white trash soul comes right on out. I bought 3 DVDs under the pretense of showing them at next weekend's Hot Tubbing Motorcycle Movie party (not a complete lie -- they will be shown at said party). Since giving these morons money is enough to increase my squidliness by association, I have taken the purchase price of these three terrible videos, and have donated an equal sum to the MSF in an attempt to karmically balance myself once again. Let's all pray that it works.

the peeps.
There were quite a few people I knew there this year. Pretty scary. Steven from Sport-Touring.net was there with his girlfriend Tanya, and I got to prove to him that Peter actually exists (always tricky, since he has a habit of being "busy" on my ride weekends...). We ran into Fred and Diana at the Aprilia booth -- Fred got to try out the pillion seats, as he doesn't ride. This combined with his being ill that day makes Fred an official Good Sport. Peter and I ran into Tony and Stephanie fairly early on, and we met up with Ceej and David after an hour or so. The six of us wandered around together for the rest of the day (as you can tell by the pictures), and I couldn't think of a funner group of people to, well, sit on things with. Y'all make walking around for miles under flourescent light in under-ventilated rooms full of overpriced plastic playthings a lot of fun. How long until the 2003 bike show?