Milan Bike Show - a few thoughts
Posted: 12 Nov 2018, 15:30
Another good weekend away, this time to a bike show I've wanted to visit.
It's massive. I reckon it's easily twice the size of the NEC Bike show, if not 3 times. Every single bike manufacturer you've heard of plus dozens more were there. I was surprised how many scooter and push bike stands were there as well, I guess it makes sense seeing as Europeans do use scooters more than we do. I reckon you could do two days there.
It's not a place to go to if you don't like crowds. It was packed. Everywhere. Even around the accessory stands. I wouldn't mind seeing if I could get a media pass if I go back.
Getting to a bike was a struggle. Some of the bikes were cordoned off but the cordon was close to the bike. If you wanted to see it you had to physically shove your way to the front. Taking photos was tough. I didn't notice I was doing it but D6Nutz made a comment that I was sticking my shoulders out to block people from coming past
One method to keep people at bay was sticking a model on a bike. Fine, but that meant you couldn't sit on the bike or take good shots of the machine.
Some of the stands were very impressive. The Honda stand had two Africa Twins which were sat on about 4 tonnes of rocks and sand. All of the big companies brought more than one of most models which meant you got to sit on them where possible. We used a technique of getting on one side, then getting off on the other side while your mate got on the way you did.
There were loads of electric bikes there. Some of them looked really good.
Despite how busy it was the staff on the stands seemed to be happy to chat and spend time with you.
One final thing - while I was happy to join in with the locals in barging people out of the way to get to bikes, I wasn't going to allow my strong British sense of the beauty of queuing to be abused by 3 locals. Oh no. Nothing was lost in translation when I had my say. God save the Queen.
It's massive. I reckon it's easily twice the size of the NEC Bike show, if not 3 times. Every single bike manufacturer you've heard of plus dozens more were there. I was surprised how many scooter and push bike stands were there as well, I guess it makes sense seeing as Europeans do use scooters more than we do. I reckon you could do two days there.
It's not a place to go to if you don't like crowds. It was packed. Everywhere. Even around the accessory stands. I wouldn't mind seeing if I could get a media pass if I go back.
Getting to a bike was a struggle. Some of the bikes were cordoned off but the cordon was close to the bike. If you wanted to see it you had to physically shove your way to the front. Taking photos was tough. I didn't notice I was doing it but D6Nutz made a comment that I was sticking my shoulders out to block people from coming past
One method to keep people at bay was sticking a model on a bike. Fine, but that meant you couldn't sit on the bike or take good shots of the machine.
Some of the stands were very impressive. The Honda stand had two Africa Twins which were sat on about 4 tonnes of rocks and sand. All of the big companies brought more than one of most models which meant you got to sit on them where possible. We used a technique of getting on one side, then getting off on the other side while your mate got on the way you did.
There were loads of electric bikes there. Some of them looked really good.
Despite how busy it was the staff on the stands seemed to be happy to chat and spend time with you.
One final thing - while I was happy to join in with the locals in barging people out of the way to get to bikes, I wasn't going to allow my strong British sense of the beauty of queuing to be abused by 3 locals. Oh no. Nothing was lost in translation when I had my say. God save the Queen.
