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North
American International
Motorcycle Supershow
Toronto International
Centre, Toronto, Ontario
January 4, 5, 6 2002 |
The ICOA Benefits(Again)from
the work of Few Good Members!
Again this year the ICOA
gained tremendous positive
exposure as a result of the
efforts of a few members.
In this case, Steve Wallington,
the Ontario Director and
James Elliot, the Eastern
Canada National Director
were the driving force behind
another successful foray
into the vast Toronto Supershow.
Assisted by fellow Canadians
Leigh Cohoe, Larry Stutt,
Archie French and Armand
Hogue they put up a first
class display. They manned
it for three days with a
little help from Jim Thomas
and Bill Elliot and some
of their fellow ICOA members
from America. The booth featured
posters explaining the various
systems on the CBX (lighting,
lubrication, etc) and display
boards with actual engine
parts along with the now
famous rotating engine display.
The engine is probably the
biggest attention getter.
Steve Wallington built this
a few years ago and is one
of the biggest drawing cards
of our booth. Bikes displayed
included 1979’s owned
by Archie, Steve and James
along with 1980’s owned
by Larry and James. All of
them looked great and were
the source of lots of attention
and questions from the crowd.
Crowd? Did I say crowd? It
was estimated by the organizers
that over 62,000 folks attended
the show over the three days,
which is up about 17% from
last year. Our club was one
of many including The VJMC
(Vintage Japanese Motorcycle
Club), the GWRRA ( Gold Wings),
CVMC (Canadian Vintage Motorcycle
Club), the Retreads, HOG
and many many more. The clubs
filled one hall, which by
itself was the size of one
of the Cycle World Shows
held in the US.
The rest of the vast International
Centre was filled. All the
major motorcycle manufacturers
had displays featuring their
latest models. In between
and around them was a collection
of accessory vendors covering
every conceivable thing that
a motorcycle owner could
want. We Americans really
make out well visiting and
shopping in Canada because
our dollar goes a long way.
When we were there the hotel
was $105.00 per night (CAN$)
which translated to roughly
$62.00 (US$). Our thanks
to James Elliot for arranging
some first class rooms at
bargain prices fairly close
to the show. At first things
look expensive until you
realize that if you multiply
the Canadian asking price
by .62 the cost in US$ is
usually pretty attractive.
I always pick up a couple
of cases of Mobil 1 for motorcycles
from David Swain (www.swainracing.com)
because David is such a nice
guy and the price is right.
Things like riding coats,
helmets and gloves can be
real bargains if you can
get near the vendors booths.
It seems the show attendees
wait all year to buy their
gear because every booth
that had good selections
of products were mobbed with
customers.
Once again the ICOA was
well represented by the few
hard working Ontario Chapter
members mentioned earlier.
The thing that struck many
of us was the large number
of local (Ontario) CBX owners
who stop by the booth each
year. Most aren’t in
the club because they don’t
want to pay the dues. Then
they have the gall to show
up at the booth each year
asking us technical questions
that only a CBX owner would
know. We were tipped about
this last by Steve Wallington
and James Elliot and at that
point stopped being so “helpful” and
started telling these fellows
to go to the club web site
and join the club.
Without sermonizing too
much it seems like all of
our events from rallies to
shows to writing for the
Xpress is done by the same
few people. The rest of the
members would do well to
get involved. Those of us
from the States who worked
the booth at the Supershow
had a great time talking
to other motorcyclists who
were curious about the CBX
and our club. Being involved
is a very rewarding experience.
Give it a try with us sometime
!
U.S. members at the Toronto
Show included Bob Buehler,
Mike Brown, Mickey Cohen,
Jack Gutshall, Bill Hertling,
Paul & Sonya Jaslovsky
and yours truly. All of us
would like to thank our Canadian
hosts for a great time. “British” Paul
Burdett did his usual great
job of showing us around
the city on Saturday night.
A good time was had by all!
Dennis
Remember: Four wheels move
the body, two wheels move
the soul......
Member ICOA-International
CBX Owners Association
Member HSTA-Honda Sport Touring Association
Member Turbo Motorcycle Owners Club
Member Honda Riders Club of America
Member IXXRA-International XX Riders Association
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