Running into its 14th year, the annual BIKE EXPO at Padua has established itself already as THE season opener, not only south-side of the alps: With lots of visitors passing the gates already on Friday, both Saturday and Sunday. Again the show was crowded beyond belief! There were times when you thought that this exhibition could hardly get any bigger – but every year, the BIKE EXPO – formerly established as Chopper & Custom Show – extended it’s grip on hall after hall!
The empty room between Halls 7 and 8 was bridged with a roof, thus creating another hall for Honda. As in 2007, all available halls were full to the max with motorcycles and custombikes. The big Motorcycle Manufacturers are out in force – and so is the italian Custombike Scene: Two Bikeshows by the main Custombike-Magazines PLUS the selection of the Top-3 Customs for the World and European Championship of Customizing 2008 added a lot to the popularity of this event! More trophys to win – and BIKE EXPO organisers again dug deep into their pockets: The “Best of Show” Winner got a € 5.000,– cheque for transport to the World Championship in the USA, 2nd and 3rd are invited to the European championship at Mainz/Germany in March!
Bertrand Dubet has come quite a long way to show his extraordinary bike project named “V-Rage”: Based in Toulouse, not too far from the hi-tech Airbus aircraft manufacturing plant, the creator of Odyssey Motorcycles has already a reputation for building one-off show-winning custombikes which are ahead of their time and spearheading new technology. Having introduced the rolling chassis already at the KUSTOM SHOW in Paris in spring 2007, the BIKE EXPO saw the roll-out into the show circuit for a view dates, before the bike is delivered to the customer, a closely guarded name in international ball-sport business. The 1.600 km trip paid off with two huge trophies of both “Best of Show” of the Freeway Bikeshow and the BIKE EXPO’s own show judgment, performed to the rules of the AMD World Championship of Custombike Building. Not to forget a 5.000,– € boost for the trip to the World Championship at Sturgis/South Dakota, sponsored by BIKE EXPO!
Italy is motorcycle crazy: No matter how often those manufactures ride on the edge of bankcrupcy or are taken over. Those classic names seemingly can’t be ereased: Benelli, Moto Morini, Moto Guzzi, MV Agusta, Bimota and the greatest of this year: Ducati! Thank god for that! After winning the MOTO-GP for the first time, the Ducatisti are certainly goin berserk. And the Enduro World Championship went to Italy too. The best receipe for a successful BIKE EXPO 2008 – and a start into the 2008 season: Sportbike, Streetfighter, Chopper or Custom – not the question at Padua.
Once again bigger than in previous years, the season-starter south of the alps attracted huge numbers of visitors. Estaimated at somewhat around 100.000 local and international visitors squeezed through the halls in three days, confirming that motorcycles are still a hot toppic in Italy. The sheer numbers of visitors is thanks to the fact that the BIKE EXPO has become a family event – with something to see for everybody: Trial demos with bikes and bicycles, demorides by Yamaha and Triumph and the first testrides on experimental Hydrogen-powered Motorcycles! Not to forget the national Enduro-Team that made a demo run and race at their trophy receiption on Sunday afternoon.
Padua BIKE EXPO is gearing up for the 15th anniversary edition in 2009: The big halls are showground for the big motorcycle brands, while the custom shops, distributors and dealers remained in their traditional locations, teh size of the booths changing to the tidal currents of their business. Beside the big manufacturers – and there were a lot of classic italien names back on the catalogue – and distributors, it’s always the small shops and customizers that make the BIKE EXPO at Padua worth the visit.
The quality of italian customizing can keep up with the rest of the world – both in terms of style and quality. The special exhibition of “Italian Design”, which presented some of the highlights in clothing, parts, accessories and motorcycles has become a permanent part of the show and those weird looking scooter-type Hydrogen-Bikes were not only on static display! The research team of Enviroment Park offered short testrides on these extraordinary rides in which Hydrogen is directly converted into electrical energy.
In the 2008 bikeshow circuit, no less than 3 bikeshows competed for winners. “Biker’s Life” magazine set up the Custombike- & Car-Show at the pavillion – and a Fotostudio to catch the latest bikes of the italian customizers. Taking a complete hall, the hi-class custombike show attracted international entries from as far as Germany and Slovenia! Competing “Freeway” Magazine came back in force with their own 90+ Bike Show for Freeway, Kustom and racer, with a considerable number of creative “Old School” motorcyles, powered both by the classic Pan’s and Knuckles as well as more modern power-sources. Both Biker’s Life and Freeway’s “Best of Show” made it into the Top-3 of the BIKE EXPO’s traditional own Bikeshow-Judgement: The ultimate “Best of Show” is selected from all the bikes exhibited – no matter if bikeshow or booths. A monumentous task for the jurors selected by the AMD World Championship of Custombike Building Team – but one they got used to in the last few years.
Last years winner Luciano Andreoli returned from the World Championship 2007 with a lot of new ideas and his “Project count” – last year's winner was “Project 8” was now up to “17”. Nevertheless, the bike had been put to 3rd place by the stunning displays of Fred Kodlins new “JFK” Bike and the show sweeping “V-Rage” described above. Just to add another cool detail of the reverse tuning, automatic transmission Engenuity engine: Instead of a simple key, the bike is activated by fingerprint-identification!
Fred Kodlin built another bike for a German businessman Michael Lorum and won the “Best of Show” at the Bikers Life show for the second year in row. Rather than taking his “Best of Show” Daytona Trip win, he donated the Daytona Flight back to the “Task Force Italia in Motor” who will auction it off for road security for italian motorcyclists – a generous move by the well known german custom pro and his cool modern Old-school Lowrider, dedicated to John F. Kennedy. Luciano Andreoli will enjoy another chance at Mainz/Germany, where the European Championship will give away another 3 tickets to Sturgis 2008 during the Custom Chrome Dealershow on March 30th.
