motorcycle live

i don't know if it's just me or does anyone else feel's lonely in a crowd? that feeling of 'not quite belonging?', had that yesterday at the 'motorcycle live' show at the nec in birmingham, me and dangerous decided not to go week's ago and yet, a last minute descision friday night saw us following the crowd's to the premier bike show of the year, don't know if it's because we usually do it on a week day rather than the weekend and so it's not so busy, or rather, is it me being a miserable cynical old bastard, looking around i wonder what i have in common with the majority of these people, the brutal truth is not a lot really, yes we all love motorcycles, or do we?, have they just become a must have accessory like the latest phone, the trendy pair of jean's or swearing your undying love for this year's premiership champions? [even though you were born and bred in derby, or leed's or heaven forbid that shithole down the a52, at least they support their local team, but only because they are to stupid to jump on the latest bandwagon]back to the plot, the rickman stand, me and dangerous are stalking like a pair of britney spear's fan's, perving over the steve mcqueen grey triumph, the oil-in frame t140, [same 41.3mm fork's and yokes as on the aermacchi] we are the 'motorcycling live' version of beavis and butthead,the bloke on the stand check's out our frame number, it's a 1968 frame, supplied to the legendary lawton and wilson in june / july, originally as a 350, so, what happened inbetween and how come it ended up with a 250 rammed up it? fascinating stuff, other bikes that hit me were the batham's, tony rutter kawasaki, the yamaha rd 250 white and red 'speedblocked' 'stroker, the baron's speedshop triumph, beautiful, then there's the detail's, the gold nitrited, ohlin's forked and brembo mono-block calipers on leon haslam's wsb bmw, the 'bling' street fighter with the honda fireblade cast aluminium sub frame, subtle as a lady trump, the honda legend's endurance racer, brilliant, fly-blown, filthy and kentucky fried greasy, just as it finished the race, nothing compares to a used racebike, nothing, had a good look at the kawasaki concept bike, liking it in theory, but, it didn't quite do it for me, the flat-plank monkee seat and the billet headlamp rim jarred, loved the pipes though, the last port of call was the norton stand, i know stuart easton has had some shit in the past but at least he's trying to take the norton legend forward, 'macker's' tt bike still does it for me, my lasting impression of the show? there were a lot of people, not many were spending any money, [time's are hard] lot's of people walking around with 'carole nash' calenders and other freebies, not many people can afford a new bike, in my opinion that's good, there are so many donor part's and old bikes that just need some fettling without having to spend a fortune on a 'toy' that will spend the majority of it's life standing in a shed....