What can I say about the 23rd Annual Cycle World International Motorcycle Show in New York? Wow!!! We visited NYC the first weekend of 2004 on a last minute spur-of-the-moment trip. As the sixth stop on their 13-city tour, this show rocked! I originally heard about the show through a flyer that was sent to me. I told Keith about it, left the flyer lay in the kitchen a few days, and then threw it away. Somehow, right before New Year's, it got brought up again. The decision was made and the trip was on.

     Saturday morning Bob, Krista, Pudge & I set off for NYC. The caravan left at 7:00 promptly - oh wait, Bob's alarm didn't go off and we didn't get to leave until 8:00. Anyways, we were on our way. Three hours later we arrived and checked in at the Hilton in Times Square. We grabbed a cab and made it over to the Javits Center (did I mention that this was my first cab ride!?!)

     Walking into the 814,000 square foot building we were amazed. According to Christine at Cycle World there were over 90,000 people in attendance over the three days; New York City is one of their biggest shows. The line to get in wrapped the length of a Wal-Mart three times. Anyways, we walked right up to the press booth, got our four press passes and skipped the line. It's good to have a magazine!

     Did I mention how much this show rocked? Everyone who is anyone was there: Triumph, Harley, Honda, Yamaha, Aprilia, BMW, Indian Motorcycles...I could go on and on. In addition to the standard shops, all the custom creators were present: Orange County Choppers, Indian Larry, Moto-Insanity, Arcos Customs, Pit Stop Motorsport, Bay Cycles and Bronx Power Sports. The line just to see OCC's stuff was at least three hours long and every time Indian Larry showed up at his booth it was like kids lining up for free cotton candy. We saw a ton of great bikes with some insane paint jobs. There were sportbikes and customs painted as The Hulk, The Terminator and one with so many chicks without clothes on it was hard to tell which boob went with which girl. In addition to the dealers, and suppliers of everything from after-market parts, exhausts, and shops that will chrome anything from a whole bike to a chocolate chip cookie, that is if you'd want to a chrome chocolate chip cookie, the insane gods of riding had their videos: Las Vegas Xtreme, D-Aces, and Star Boyz. The quality of motorcycles present was off the charts, from sportbikes to choppers; all of the highest rated bikes were showing off.