IMS LongBeach 2016

The International Motorcycle Show at the Longbeach convention center is an impressive display of today's top companies from the motorcycle industry. For whatever reason Triumph motorcycles (aside from a dealer booth) and Alpinestars weren't present, but every other major motorcycle manufacturer and gear company was there. All of the new bikes that have recently been unveiled at shows in Europe were on display as well as a massive collection of vintage bikes and custom builds.


EBR was the only company to officially unveil their latest product having recently started up production again. Eric Buell himself was on sight to explain the naked superbike that's his latest creation. It's essentially their flagship superbike without the fairings, a lower seat, higher handle bars and differently tuned suspension, making the bike more street applicable. The black on black paint scheme and attention to detail are fantastic and its upright seating position felt comfortable but still somewhat sporty. Arguably it's coolest feature is the onboard computer and sensors linked to the backlit full color lcd display. This includes hundreds of different types of data analysis that can be viewed live on screen and a full diagnostic suite that can be run on the display, saving you the $50 fee for simply discovering if/what's wrong, charged by dealerships and shops. I would expect other high end manufacturers to follow suit in the near future as this is an incredibly useful and easy to use feature.


A large section of the show was taken up by private collectors, each displaying anywhere from 1-20 of their rarest vintage bikes. There were a lot of old retired championship race bikes and other classic racers from half a century ago. One collection included a 50cc Italijet racebike with a sidecar built for racing). There was a group of post WW2 American bikes and a collection from "The Antique Mtorocycle Club of America". The show also included custom builds from all different eras each competing in one of several categories as well as best in show, industry favorite and public favorite by vote.

All of the major manufacturers had huge displays, each one carefully crafted to create a certain feel which isn't easy to do inside a massive warehouse. Ducati's display in particular was plain classy. The 4 major Japanese bike companies were all there, showing off their new bikes for 2017. These companies in addition to displaying motorcycles also had many of their other non-two wheeled products on the floor as well such as jet skis, ATVs, side by sides, snowmobiles, even generators.


All in all it was a well organized fun event that really did have something for everyone. Even having seen photos and videos of some of this year's new bikes, I still couldn't fully appriciate some of them until seeing them or throwing a leg over them in person. The morning and afternoon were press only and consisted of various presentations being given by bike companies until 3pm when the event opened to the public. This year's MotoAmerica champions in the superbike and supersport classes, both of whom ride for Yamaha were also present, shaking hands and signing posters. There were test rides of certain bikes being offered to any licensed (& sober) interested riders. (Sadly not including the 2017 R6). Southern California plays host to one more big motorcycle show in the summer as well, but I highly recommend anyone in the area attend next year's IMS.