The show has come and gone for 2016. Hopefully this means that our riding season will soon be upon us. It’s March and we are slowly starting to see the weather change in our favor. How was the show you may be asking if you are someone who didn’t get the opportunity to make it to the Montreal show, or maybe didn’t get a chance to make it to any motorcycle show. Well I’m gonna tell you my thoughts.
We attended the show on the Saturday and my guess would be that Saturday is probably the busiest day. It definitely felt like it was as the show, in my opinion was good and busy. We arrived in Montreal around 10:30am. For those that did not buy tickets in advance you were welcomed with a very long lineup. If this was your first time at the Montreal Show you would look at this line and think that you would be standing in line for just about forever. I must say though that the staff and organizers have the ticket process down! They move people through that line at an incredible rate. So don’t be taken back by what looks to be a never ending lineup.
Once you are in the show it is setup very similar to every year that i have had the opportunity to attend. So I at least felt very comfortable walking around. One of the things that you do wish may be an impossibility to change would be that you enter the show almost directly in the middle of it. Making it feel like you don’t know where to go as soon as you enter. Other than that the show flows fairly well.
Most of the big brands are there. Harley, Yamaha , Ducati, Kawasaki, Honda, etc, etc. There were a few of the smaller brands that I had seen in the past that weren’t there this year, but over all you get to see the big boys and their toys.
One of the biggest differences that I did see this year was what type of bikes seemed to be in focus or were drawing the most attention. I’m a cruiser rider and honestly except for HD, Indian and Victory most of the other brands were really showcasing their Adventure and Crotch Rocket bikes. 
I’m not really big into the crotch rockets, but I am interested in the adventure style bikes and they were there in abundance. I saw adventure bikes that i honestly had no idea were even available. This is a genre that seems to be growing and growing and the bike manufacturer’s are definitely showcasing what they have.
On the other side of actually siting on the bikes there was a section for sales. Some of the resellers were doing a great job and were fairly well stocked. But others were letting you try stuff on and then offering to have to item shipped. I know of a lot of people who were not down with this. There was no way that they were going to give someone their money in hopes that they may get the item and to be honest I would probably agree. If you are coming to the show you should be prepared for your customers to take your stuff home with them.
All in all I thought the show was great. So far it’s the only show that I attended this year and it has definitely got the blood bumping in anticipation for the 2016 riding season.
Here’s a quick little video that I made while playing around in iMovie. Nice and short. Also if you head over to our youtube channel ( www.youtube.com/gregtoope ) you will see that we have uploaded a large amount of motorcycle walk arounds that we did while at the show.
Hope you enjoy.
