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The
Long Beach Motorcycle Show
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The annual Long Beach Motorcycle
Show has exhibits from manufacturers and aftermarket companies.
Kawasaki exhibited their police motorcycles. Just about every
manufacturer had bikes you could sit on. |
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A closeup of the side cover
on the Kawasaki Police 1000. |
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Here's what a motor officer
sees. |
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The Police 1000 has special,
run-flat Dunlop tires that are not available to the public. |
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This is a special windshield
mounting system. It allows the windshield to easily break off the
motorcycle if the officer crashes into it in an accident. |
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One of BMW's new custom
cruisers on display. |
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BMW's police cruiser.
Nope, the negative was not reversed. I guess this is so that if you
see one of these in your rearview mirror, there's no guessing about who's
following you. |
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One of the showgoers checking
out the BMW police bike. |
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BMW's new, limited-edition
Randy Mamola R1100S. This is a beautiful motorcycle. |
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Randy Mamola's name on the
tank. |
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Carbon fiber valve covers on the
Mamola bike. These really looked cool. |
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The carbon-fiber front fender
on the Mamola bike was tastefully executed. Under close examination,
you can se that the fibers running longitudinally are blue, picking up the
wheel and fork colors. |
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The twin underseat
mufflers. Altogether, this was a very attractive motorcycle. |
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A colorful Dakar variant of
the F650 BMW single cylinder dual sport motorcycle. |
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A crowd checking out the new
K1200GT BMW. This is a variant of their K1200RS sport-touring bike,
with a bit more emphasis on touring. |
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Looks like these guys are
starting young.... |
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A navy blue and white K1200RS
BMW. This was another beautiful BMW. |
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An ultra-exotic and very new
Benelli. |
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Here's another view of the new
Benelli Tornado. |
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The Benelli's tail. |
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And the Benelli's instrument
cluster. The speedometer is digital. |
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Check out the headlights on
this Honda dirt bike. |
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Wow, what a pair. |
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One of the models at the
show... |
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And more headlights, this time
on a Triumph Speed Triple. |
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And still more, on the new
Triumph Daytona 600. |
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A mannequin in a leather jacket
vendor's booth. |
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This Polaris Victory V-Twin,
done up in turquoise and white, was a real eye-catcher. |
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Checking out the new SV1000S
Suzuki V-twin. The SV1000S is basically a reincarnation of the
TL1000S Suzuki. |
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The new Yamaha Venture.
Look at the dashboard. It looks like the offspring of an
old-fashioned radio and a '55 Chevy. |
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A new color combination on
Yamaha's FZ-1. |
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Helping a young lady evaluate
a 600 sport bike. |
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Very cool. The new Triumph
Speed Four, based on their 600 Daytona. Triumph knows how to use
color. Their bikes are beautiful. |
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This is Triumph's dual-sport
Tiger model, with colors and graphics to match the name. |
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The Tiger is a
visually-arresting
motorcycle. Someday I'll own of these machines. |
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A logo close-up on the 600
Daytona. |
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Here's a guy trying on one of
Triumph's Bonneville-based cruisers. |
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Indian's new engine.
This is Indian's first significant departure from Harley clone engines. |
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The front end on a 2003 Harley
Heritage Springer. |
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This is one of Harley's 2003
custom bikes. Major dollars (probably close to $30K out the door). |
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The Harley-Davidson Dyna Glide
Sport. |
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Harley's Tour Glide, in their
new-for-2003 Gun Metal Pearl color. |
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Another pretty young lady at the
show. |
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A bright red Moto Guzzi Le
Mans. This is an Italian motorcycle. |
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Another Moto Guzzi. |
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And yet another, this time a
Moto Guzzi cruiser. |
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The new Aprilia Tuono naked
street bike. The carbon fiber accents highlighted this motorcycle's
decor. Overall, this is a strikingly beautiful motorcycle. |
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An early Harley-Davidson
Knucklehead. This is considered the grand-daddy of the modern Harley
V-twin engine. |
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A close-up of that gorgeous
Knucklehead engine. |
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The Knucklehead's dashboard. |
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And the headlight and
horn. Harley has used many of these styling cues on their modern
motorcycles. |
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This is exotic: A
Suzuki four-cylinder sport bike with all-carbon-fiber bodywork. |
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Hey, who wouldn't smile on the
new Ducati 999? |
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After leaving the show, the
attendee's bikes in the parking lot were also fun to examine. Here's
a colorful 600 Triumph TT. |
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A couple of exotic Ducatis. |
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Why is this man
smiling? Could it be the 174-horsepower Hayabusa he's riding? |
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Wow, a 1974 Kawasaki 750cc
two-stroke triple. In its day, these things were the fastest street
motorcycles available. |
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Kick-start only. Things
have sure changed. |
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My friend Marty with his BMW
(and my CBX in the background). |
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