NEW PRODUCTS AT INDY DEALER EXPO 2009 - UPDATED!
For those of you who don't know it, the Indianapolis Motorcycle Dealer Expo is one of the most important annual events in the two-wheeled world. Each year, countless distributors, dealers, companies, manufacturers, industry-types, media members and riders head to the Dealer Expo (affectionately referred to as "Indy") to see the latest and greatest products and services being offered to our sport. Although the show's main purpose is to allow dealers to better stock their shelves and floors, Indy is still the premier venue for companies to make new product releases, major announcements or to simply just show off their goods. While this yearly event is closed to the public, Dirt Rider will be in full force for 2009 to bring you, our loyal reader, all things cool from the Dealer Expo's floor.
Like everything else here at Dirt Rider, the annual trip to the Indy Dealer Expo started out innocently enough - send a few editors, an army of ad sales guys, some support staff, a few corporate suits and a publisher to baby-sit the whole lot, and come back with the scoop on the freshest motorcycle products that we'll all be drooling over for the next few years. 2009 is no different, except this year DR is planning up-to-date coverage of the event that is sure to knock your riding socks off. Read on to see what the plan is:
It's on!
Send one editor, you have a story. Send two, and you have a competition. Chris Denison and I got volunteered to travel from sunny So Cal to the chilly snow of Indianapolis, and about five seconds after that Chris's big mouth started (his mouth is even bigger than his ears!) about how he could easily cover more ground in two days at Indy than I could in three. Thus, a competition was born, and I knew it was up to me to shut Chris up! He has been to the show a few more times than I have, and as such bet me that he could find the show's coolest product. What I lack in experience, I make up for in... well, I cheat, but more on that later. Regardless of how, I'm sure I'll find the show's coolest new product.
The rules are simple: The first of us to find each cool product at the show gets credit for the find, and over the course of the weekend we compete to see who can find the best hot, new item of the Indy show. We're going to use this story to break-in this cool new event feature on our website (it hasn't even been started up yet!) by first posting this engaging story intro, then constantly updating it with blogs and photos of the products we find over the long weekend of February 14-16. Then, sometime next week after we shake off the jet lag, we'll narrow our picks, compile the top ten goodies into their own blog and let you readers decide who came up with the coolest product.
Funny, we haven't even come up with the wager yet, but I'm sure we'll have some appropriately dumb ideas on the long flight to the show. And we'll keep you updated on that, too, through this event feature. Basically, we're going to keep everything right here nicely organized for you (that's the idea, anyway), so stay posted, look over the cool things I find for you, browse through the mundane accessories Chris bores you with, and get your voting muscle ready. Before I turn this intro over to Chris, let me mention I am going to work on getting some products donated to my cause so that they may be given out to the participating voters. I'll buy your vote! I'm corrupt, and I'm not shy to admit it. This is Indy, not Chicago!
-Pete Peterson
Prepare for the Coolness
All right, let me set the record straight right here and now: Yes, both Pete and I are extremely competitive individuals. And yes, we have a semi-friendly contest between the two of us to see who can rock the Indy show the hardest for the dirt crowd. But Pete doesn't stand a snowmobile's chance at Glen Helen of beating me in the race to find the single coolest product of the Indy trade show. Here's why: although he is a diligent, hard worker with a knack for corruption, I've got one thing going for me that Pete will never have, and that's experience. I've been going to Indy since I was just a ramp kid looking for sponsors, and this "time on the track" is something that can be bought or acquired. I know how the Indy show ticks, how companies like to display their new wares and who is most likely to have the best goods. I also know how to avoid the miles of interminable street and scooter goods that dirt riders like us don't give two squirts of chain lube about. Pete has effectively challenged me to a duel, and I'm more than prepared to hand him his virtual pride on a platter packed with cool products.
But what exactly can we expect out of the upcoming Indy show? Well, there are certainly going to be endless displays of existing products, many of which have been slightly revamped, tweaked, revised or simply updated for 2009 and could quite possibly be the belle of the ball. But there will also be those elite "new" products that will be uncovered during the course of the weekend, and in this element of the show lays the big unknown. Will the hottest item from Indy be something we've already seen, or will some ingenious company blow our minds with a truly new, totally unheard of product? Only time will tell, but if you keep an eye right here on Dirt Rider's Indy Trade Show coverage, I promise that you will know as soon as we do! Stay tuned to www.dirtrider.com throughout the weekend for constant updates and the latest news from the 2009 Indy motorcycle trade show, and also to see me lay waste to Pete Peterson's claimed ability to bring you the latest and greatest before I do. You're done, Peterson!
-Chris Denison