Last Saturday I went to the Carole Nash Bike Show at the NEC at the invitation of Honda. Me, Phil and Colin met with Fiona Cole (lovely, efficient, Honda PR person) and collected our free passes for the day and later spent some time with her in discussion over a cuppa. And it made a nice change to be listened to and our opinions garnered rather than the usual verbose renderings about how the latest super fast plastic crotch rocket is going to change the world.
And the evidence was on the stand. The new NC700 based range of bikes, the Crossrunner and the Crosstourer (I'm ignoring the new Fireblade) are all evidence that Honda has taken it's corporate head out of the sand and is back in business producing inovative bikes that reflect the demands of the modern motocyclist. I/we had a great day out. The show was loads better than the last one I visited 3 years ago (and by all accounts the 2 I missed were abismal). Walking round the 3 large halls and checking out the stands and displays one could sense that the motorcycle industry, while having a rough time of things of late is actually starting to fight back and looking to win our hard earned money by producing products that more people will buy.
Honda UK should stand up and take a collective bow accompanied by a pat on the back. School report should read "has at last woken up to the possibilities... ". I hope this revival continues because it promises to be quite exciting IF they can get thier pricing structure right.
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