American Motorcycle Dealer AMD 222 January 2018 | Page 16

The 2018 show season - a selection As a follow up to the December publication of our unique events listing Year Planner for 2018, here is a quick guide to selected highlights from the motorcycle industry shows, events and expo year ahead. The focus in primarily on the first six months of 2018, but the major events from the second half of the year are also highlighted, with notable ‘mainstream’ as well as V-twin specific events selected. January: International The new year kicks off with the popular UK Dealer Expo opening its doors for the 23rd time for three days from 14-16 January – a mostly ‘mainstream’ expo it is by far Europe’s largest, longest lived and most successful dealer show; www.motorcycle-expo.com A week later Motor Bike Expo (MBE) will fill four halls at the Verona Expo Centre in north eastern Italy from Friday January 18 to Sunday 21. A combined custom and ‘mainstream’ consumer expo, “Verona” has seen attendance grow ever since its move from Padua in 2009; www.motorbikeexpo.it At the end of January, Sweden’s annual show, MC-Massan, returns to Gothenburg in the south west of Sweden (25-28 January 2017) in its biennial rotation with Stockholm, the Swedish capital; www.mcmassan.se. January: USA The month sees the first of the Easyriders Bike Shows at Sacramento, California (www.easyridersevents.com), but the big news for the first part of the year concerns the absence of the V-Twin Expo at Cincinnati after 18 years. As reported in this month’s cover story, its demise, along with the rise of the Dealer Events that the market’s two primary distributors host in February, has massively changed the center of gravity of the spring selling season in Dealer Show terms – both the ‘major’ spring Dealer Shows have now folded, in the space of less than five years. Other January highlights include the second Easyriders Bike Show of the year at Charlotte, North Carolina (January 20) followed by Nashville, TN., a week later (January 27). The same day sees the first of the season’s “New Generation” of custom events, Garage Brewed, being staged at the Rhinegeist Brewery, Cincinnati on January 27 (www.garagebrewed.com); the same weekend one of the market’s oldest and at one stage most influential shows takes place in California, the Grand National Roadster Show, once of Oakland fame, at Pomona, January 26-28. The Progressive IMS tour, with its J&P Ultimate Builder competitions, resumes after the winter break, arriving at Cleveland, Ohio, January 26-28 (www.motorcycleshows.com); the 40th annual Colorado Motorcycle Expo is at Denver, 27-28 (www.coloradomotorcycleexpo.com). February: Europe February sees two largely mainstream shows with the MCN London Motorcycle Show being staged at East London’s Excel Center (16-18; www.mcnmotorcycleshow.com) followed by Swiss Moto at Zurich (22-25; www.swiss-moto.ch); the popular and still growing Motorbeurs at Utrecht in the Netherlands (22-25) is a mainstream event with significant custom and V-twin market action (www.motorbeursutrecht.nl). February: USA The Easyriders Bike Show tour lands at Atlantic City, NJ, on February 3 before reaching a crescendo at Columbus, Ohio on February 10-11. Highlights at The One Moto Show at Portland, Oregon (www.the1moto.com) include indoor Enduro (Friday) and Flat Track racing (Saturday) from February 9-11; racing is also slated to feature heavily at Mama Tried, 16 AMERICAN MOT ORCYCLE DEALER - JANUARY 2018 Milwaukee, Wisconsin on February 23-25 (www.mamatriedshow.com). The Progressive IMS tour and J&P Ultimate Builder series visits Dallas, TX, February 2-4; Chicago, IL., for the J&P Ultimate Builder finals on 9-11; before wrapping up for the season at Washington D.C., February 23-25. The market’s two major parts and accessory distributors are holding their own dealer shows in February: Tucker Rocky/Bikers Choice are playing host to their dealers in Texas on Thursday 8 and Friday 9, with Parts Unlimited/Drag Specialties setting up shop at the downtown Indianapolis Convention Center on Saturday 10 and Sunday 11. March: International March opens with Motocykl, featuring the Bohemian Custom Bike Show, at Prague March 1-4, the first of two shows in the Czech Republic in March (www.motocykl-praha.cz); followed by one of Europe’s most prestigious custom bike shows – the Radical Custombike Show organized by MC Pecquencourt at the Salon de la Moto Pecquencourt in north western France, on 10-11 (www.mc-pecquencourt.com). At the same time three mainstream shows are being staged in three different countries in Europe - Moto Madrid (9-11, www.salonmotomadrid.com); Motosalon, Brno, Czech Republic (8-11, www.bvv.cz); and Moto Days, Rome, Italy (8-11, www.motodays.it). Later in March the focus shifts to Asia with InaBike at Jakarta, Indonesia (22- 24, www.inabike.net) and the Tokyo Motor Show (23-25, www.motorcycleshow.org) March: USA The biggie in March, and one of the major events of the year, is of course Daytona Bike Week, Florida, USA, March 12-21 (www.officialbikeweek.com), which includes the Daytona TT - the opening round of the 2018 American Flat Track presented by Vance & Hines race series. Racing features the evening before the 31st annual Donnie Smith Bike & Car Show at St Paul, MN, on March 24-26 (www.donniesmithbikeshow.com), with ‘War of the Twins’ Indoor Flat Track Racing at the Lee & Rose Warner Coliseum at the St Paul Fair Grounds on Friday 23. April: International Custom Show Emirates is at Abu Dhabi’s National Exhibition Center, UAE on April 5-7 (www.customshowemirates.com), and this year sees a change of venue for Motospring and the 12th Moscow Tuning Show (16-18) to the Moscow Olympic Stadium! Africa’s principal motorcycle event is Africa Bike Week, staged at East London, south of Durban, on the coast of South Africa. There is a second mainstream event in Spain for 2018, Vive La Moto, also at Madrid (www.vivelamoto.es), a show in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine (Motobike, 20-23, www.kdm-international.com) and one of the major motorcycle industry shows of the year, Motorcycle Taiwan, at Taipei, 12-15 (www.motorcycletaiwan.com.tw). April: USA The month kicks off with the always popular Arizona Bike Week, April 11-15 (www.azbikeweek.com) followed by Revival Cycles’ annual Handbuilt www.AMDchampionship.com