11th - 15th October 2006: 5th 'International Motorcycle and Scooters Fair' at Cologne (Germany). It's the world leading show for motorized two-wheelers. No less than 187,000 visitors this year from 120 different countries.
I was invited to show my bike at the 'Custom Competition Cup' which was organized for the first time at the Intermot.
The description on the event's site promised a lot: 'huge Hall of Fame making Hall 10 the ultimate Eldorado for the 2006/07 customising season'. The first sentence did not appeal to me though: 'Chrome is sexy' ;-)
The engine needed some cleaning up after 14,000 kilometers.
Fresh paint makes it look like new.
During my trip to the Nitrolympics at Hockenheim (D) the small cracks in the exhaust finally evolved to big cracks.
Eddie Duine, a specialized stainless steel welder, did a perfect job restoring it. Read my report here.
I replaced the original oil hoses with stainless steel ones.
Being at it I replaced the petrol hoses as well. Minor changes but still: improvements.
On October 8th I trailered the bike to Cologne, bodyguarded by my wife and our fierce dog.
It was quite a shock to realize that all the bikes had to be parked in vivid painted metal crates, strapped with green bandages. On the left you see the GSX-R1100 from Dino, one of the Lunatic Fighters from Germany.
It got even worse: the bikes were piled up!
Some hardcore Vespa bikers brought in their pride and joy.
On the way back we rode from one traffic jam into the other.
We killed the time dressing up our dog.
One week later, October 15th, my sister, my brother-in-law and me visited the huge and very crowded event. As you can see on the picture most of the sixty bikes present were crated and put in a square around some platforms with big choppers on it. The crated bike owners, like me, were not amused: we served as a kind of bike-wallpaper. The reason why the choppers weren't crated? Well, they just wouldn't fit in. Next time I'll weld another meter box section in my swing arm, that's for sure!
This is not a good way to show bikes.
The distance between the bikes and the visitors was minimal because the exhibition space was far too small for that many bikes: touching and pinching was inevitable.
Just an impression of two minutes.
The typical German streetfighter style was well represented by some extreme mean-skulled high arsed streetfighters.
Some of the lucky chopper b*st*rds (okay, they weren't too blame) were astonishing. This highneck chopper, called 'Guilty', was made by Fred Kodlin and won Best of Show. Kodlin had no less than four of his bikes on the podium. I wasn't too impressed though.
Kodlin's bikes were no competition compared to this beauty: 'Spectacula', built by the German company Thunderbike. All computer designed, CNC milled mixed with oldfashioned crafsmanship. In 2006 it won, amongst other big awards, the European Championship and got Runner Up at The Rat's Hole Custom Bike Show at Daytona. The curves and the details ... simply amazing.
Just look at those curves. The bike's curves, that is ;-)
The talented Dutch company J&J Streetfighters presented two bikes: their slick Suzuki 7/11 called 'The Frog' and this far-out 'Stealth Fighter'.
And then there was this beautiful styled Duc.
By filling in a form (or lots of forms...) the visitors could vote their favorite bike. Dino's bike won in the category 'streetfighters', I got third place which I thought was quite exceptional in an arena filled with striking designs and high quality.
Award #14 is a glass sculpture in a wooden base.
I met Lothar Steinmetz, free-lance motorcycles journalist. He showed me his Intruder named 'LOST'.
Slick design and ... invisible switches activated by magnets in the gloves.
Afterwards he mailed me some pictures; same concept, different modeled.
Of course I made a quick tour to see some more of Intermot. As expected one day turned out to be far too short to see all which is presented. Like the B-King, Suzuki's 2002 design study which is finally going to be built.
I liked this R1 very much: hard-edge, big compressor and even bigger rear tyre.
Another restyled R1 for quite a different purpose: this Dutch biker rides his R1 around the world. One would expect an all-road bike for this kind of worldtour.
Of course Boss Hoss was present as well. This V8 solution is not my cup of tea; I think I can do better. Wait and see ...
Talking about extremities: quads in every form were excessive present at the event.
Honda presented its new airbag on the Goldwing 1800. Wow!
(duhhh...)
A special exhibition showed bike designs by amateurs and pros. On the picture you see a BMW called 'Birdcage'.
It was striking to see how many of the designs were hard-edge style.
Another example.
I met some familiar faces at the show. On the left you see Suzanne (ArtEZ), on the right boyfriend / ratbike builder / bike photographer Floris (RBRP).
A preview of Sabine Welte's book 'Extreme Bikes' was shown. Visit her renovated site for more information.
No less than five pages will be spent on the CBX. Wanna order? ISBN 3765477834.
Bought myself some nice tools for a sharp price: a '150mm dividing attachment' for the mill and a '300mm precision parallel and altimeter device' for marking.
At the end of an event the site always looks robbed.
Will I ever put my new bike on the Intermot again? Nope.
Unless the competition area gets twice as big and the bikes are presented in a decent way. Showbikes simply deserve a better presentation than this.
