2010 Melbourne Motorcycle Expo Pictorial One

by Dave · November 28, 2010

A pictorial look at the 2010 Melbourne Motorcycle Expo – Part One

Melbourne Motorcycle Expo 2010 – Part One

2010 was Melbourne’s turn to host the Motorcycle Expo, which is now bound for Sydney in 2011.

The 2010 Melbourne event saw a number of new bikes released into the Australian market, most of which had already been seen courtesy of the internet shortly after they were unveiled at the European shows last month.

Kawasaki had three new models, the horsepower king ZX10R headlining, with Chris Vermeulen on hand to talk about the upcoming superbike season. Also on show was the W800 retro, which will be a strong seller if response to Motoaus’ feature on it is anything to go by. Rounding out the trio of green goodness was the faired version of the Z1000.

Most manufacturers had at least one new bike if not more – Ducati had the Diavel muscle bike, Honda had the CBR250R, Triumph showed off the new Speed Triple and the 1200 Dorsoduro graced the Aprilia stand. As usual there was a slathering of celebrities and promo girls, Speed TV was filming all day on Friday with Jessica Yates and Kevin Magee, and there was custom bikes aplenty.

Below is the first of 2 sets of images from the Expo, which are the next best thing to actually attending. For the second Gallery of images click HERE

Friday morning, it’s hot and humid, with the usual Melbourne traffic. Stuck in traffic in King St, outside Bar 20.

The huge Melbourne Exhibition Center – known as Jeffs Shed – has some kind of boat parked out the front. Google “Polly Woodside” if that type of thing interests you. Google “Bar 20” if that type of thing interests you. On a related note, Sexpo 2010 was on next door at the same time.

The 2010 Expo saw all the major manufacturers and distributors in attendance, after a few had gone missing in shows past. Zero Electric Motorcycles had a large display with plenty of bikes on show.

Chris Vermuelen looks on proudly as the silk is removed from the sword. Hopefully it will be a sharper weapon on the racetracks than the previous model. Specifications say “YES” In the background, Toby from Fluid PR ponders his 27 media passes.

“The best power to weight ratio of any muscle bike” said Ducati, as they announced the Diavel. Perhaps not, but it’s close if not the cigar. Suzuki’s B-King and the BMW K1300 may just pip it in that regard, but with more hp per kg than a Vmax, and more wheelbase than a B-King, we could be talking close to a 9 second street bike here. Can’t wait to ride one of these beasts.

Whoosh! It’s Honda’s answer to Kawasaki’s runaway best seller in the Ninja 250, a similar spec twin 250. This red CBR250R looked like a scaled down VFR1200, you can decide if that is a good thing or not. An ABS version will be available, and if the price is similar to the Kawasaki, it should be a strong seller.

BMW had the 1600 six cylinder to unveil, but not on the day we were there. Instead we took this pic of the old and new GS adventure bikes, the tri colours looking great.

Can Am had one of each flavour on their stand, as well as a new trailer for the Spyder tourer. Apparently when connected to the the three wheeler it adapted the braking and traction control for the added load. About 8k though.

Aprilia had on display a real Max Biaggi World Superbike RSV4. And on Sunday, they even had a real Max Biaggi. We missed that bit though. Oh well..

All the way from WA – Geraldton in fact – Rob from Redback Choppers had one of his creations on display.

The local crew from Super Streetbike magazine had a number of custom bikes on show, including this blinged Gen 1 Hayabusa.

The crew from Speed TV were busy filming segments at the show. Kevin Magee interviews Australian Supersport champion Troy Herfoss.

Victory had their usual high standard of display. This is a concept bike called the Core, after the process in which the frame is made. From a core. Or with a core.