emptysea
Road warrior
Thread starter
Spent all afternoon and evening on Friday at the bike show. This is the third consecutive year where I took the afternoon off of work to enjoy the show. On the face of it, this might seem like a waste of a day since I am not in the market for a bike or gear, but I really do enjoy spending that afternoon at the show even though I wander around by myself for much of it. I think that the Chicago version of the IMS coming at almost exactly the midpoint of our riding winter has a lot to do with it.
Typically, I meet up with a group of (mostly) V-Twin riders at Hofbrauhaus before the show for some German food and beer and then we head over to the show and I kind of wander off by myself. This year, because of a major snow storm, I ate some German food and drank some German beer alone. Although, there was an Indian rider on the bar stool adjacent to my own and we had a nice conversation while we noshed on sausages and kraut.
I walked from the restaurant to the convention center, picked up my complimentary ticket (One small perk of being a Progressive Insurance agent is that I get 8 free tickets to this show every year), and headed in. Spent some time with my Progressive rep, got my free coffee mug, t-shirt, and swag bag and commenced to wandering.
I scoped out the new Goldwing, which is way more impressive in person than even in all the videos and photographs I have seen. Spent a lot of time in the vintage bike section, tried on some jackets and gloves, and meandered around for a few hours until Cheryl and some other friends arrived.
Almost bought the Mobile Warming heated jacket, but decided to wait to pull the trigger on it. That was the only item I was seriously going to buy.
Cheryl sat on a bunch of bikes. She really liked the lowered BMW R1200GS and, surprisingly, a couple of Harleys--She'd have the Sporster/Bobber (or whatever it's called) as a second bike, I think. She was shocked and impressed that she could 'fit' on a Wing. It's too expensive, but I bet she test rides one this spring. She sat on the NC700x because The Ferret wanted us to look at it...still too tall for her taste. In the end, the Indian Scout set up for 5'6" and under fit her perfectly and our friend Jennifer (a new rider) liked that one best, too. We will see if the CTX is traded in this year.
After the show, we went for pizza at Gino's East with Cheryl's brother, Mike and Jennifer, and a small group of mostly long-distance rider types. Great pizza and a couple of beers and talk of Iron Butt rides past and to come made for a wonderful end to my day.
Just a few more weeks and the season will be here again. Until then, I have a bag full of bike brochures peruse to while away the time.
Typically, I meet up with a group of (mostly) V-Twin riders at Hofbrauhaus before the show for some German food and beer and then we head over to the show and I kind of wander off by myself. This year, because of a major snow storm, I ate some German food and drank some German beer alone. Although, there was an Indian rider on the bar stool adjacent to my own and we had a nice conversation while we noshed on sausages and kraut.
I walked from the restaurant to the convention center, picked up my complimentary ticket (One small perk of being a Progressive Insurance agent is that I get 8 free tickets to this show every year), and headed in. Spent some time with my Progressive rep, got my free coffee mug, t-shirt, and swag bag and commenced to wandering.
I scoped out the new Goldwing, which is way more impressive in person than even in all the videos and photographs I have seen. Spent a lot of time in the vintage bike section, tried on some jackets and gloves, and meandered around for a few hours until Cheryl and some other friends arrived.
Almost bought the Mobile Warming heated jacket, but decided to wait to pull the trigger on it. That was the only item I was seriously going to buy.
Cheryl sat on a bunch of bikes. She really liked the lowered BMW R1200GS and, surprisingly, a couple of Harleys--She'd have the Sporster/Bobber (or whatever it's called) as a second bike, I think. She was shocked and impressed that she could 'fit' on a Wing. It's too expensive, but I bet she test rides one this spring. She sat on the NC700x because The Ferret wanted us to look at it...still too tall for her taste. In the end, the Indian Scout set up for 5'6" and under fit her perfectly and our friend Jennifer (a new rider) liked that one best, too. We will see if the CTX is traded in this year.
After the show, we went for pizza at Gino's East with Cheryl's brother, Mike and Jennifer, and a small group of mostly long-distance rider types. Great pizza and a couple of beers and talk of Iron Butt rides past and to come made for a wonderful end to my day.
Just a few more weeks and the season will be here again. Until then, I have a bag full of bike brochures peruse to while away the time.
