In the States ~ International Motorcycle Show

[Moike]

I get the call Wednesday night, "We had a vendor cancel on a 10x20 (foot) booth... if you can get down here (75 miles away) tomorrow with a sidecar to put on display it's yours for free." A booth that size at the International Motorcycle Show is usually a couple grand, so yeah... I didn't hesitate to say yes.

So I found myself in the garage to the wee hours fabricating/welding body lifts to display the new Becker and throwing together a press kit out of nothing since nobody here in the States has any idea what sidecars are since they turn left -and- right.

The response was incredible. I had my laptop hidden in the cockpit with speakers, and a monitor on top the intake cowl... streaming the Superside FIM races off of Google video from my wireless card. Most of the time it was crowded in front of the rig with show goers stood there shoulder to shoulder with their jaws hanging open watching obviously mental people crawl around on low flying rocket ships.

Over the course of the three days I ended running out of all 250 of our team business cards, I was writing the website address for the sidecar org. on the back of sponsor stickers till I ran out of all my sponsor stickers, and I even signed a bunch of autographs... that's a first.

[RP]

Good for you. I expect there will be several people cancelling show space from now on

[d.laidlow]

Very good

[scud2]

Top man, Keep pushing the cause. If you showed the superside vid from Assen..... That makes us famous in the states as we were the ones upside down on it..........Fame at last

[Moike]

Top man, Keep pushing the cause. If you showed the superside vid from Assen..... That makes us famous in the states as we were the ones upside down on it..........Fame at last

I didn't want to say anything, because I know how we all cringe at crashes. But the Assen one was the most played, because of the crashes and the flips. The "OOOHS" and "AAAAHS" during some of the 'incidents' were the best reactions and drew big crowds. I got to play tour guide and explain while it looked bad, the rigs had quite a bit of 'give' and the shells acted as roll cages for the drivers most of the time seperating from the lightweight chassis. And that the 'impact' on the passenger by the 'other' sidecar was far less painful than it looked given the 'crush zone' of the modern carbon/kevlar nose cone on a side car. More pride than pain, and note that everybody walked (mostly) away. It was excellent PR and thanks to all at Assen involved who suffered the bumps and bruises to enlighten literally thousands in three days in the States at a big motorcycle show.

Here's a few more photos.







And, my own personal commentary...

[Jeff]

Good work Moike, is it quicker with the body lift kit? Or are you using the Becker for dirt track in the off season?

Jeff

[supaG]

Hoosier tyres on an outfit, sweet!

[Moike]

Hoosier tyres on an outfit, sweet!

That's what Becker prefers to run on his rigs... It came with the Hoosier shoes. We'll shoehorn the Yokes on before the start of the season as they're our rubber.