Progressive Motorcycle Show Dallas Recap – The Spoken Word

Waking up before dawn in Austin, I could hear the rain outside. Nevertheless, I grabbed a quick shower and made the 200-mile dash up I-35 for this year’s Progressive International Motorcycle Show at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center.

While this year’s show was smaller than in years past, there was still a lot in the convention halls to see, and plenty of tires to kick. And as I like to say, if you only learn one thing, it’s worth it. And I probably learned several things.

I saw the Royal Enfield line-up and I liked it, along with Ural’s sidecar offerings. Motorcycle touring, as a business, is apparently doing well. Also of note: at least one community college had a display touting their motorcycle mechanic program. And there was a lot of good stuff on the individual business, after-market tent level. People were really enjoying themselves and the hall was really crowded.

Apparently, the economy is not as good for the manufacturers as you would think it should be, or there would have been more manufacturers there. Suzuki, Honda, Kawasaki, BMW and Harley-Davidson pulled the weight for everyone, and they did a good job. Royal Enfield and Ural showed they want in the game. COTA had a good display and Progressive did what they could with what they had. BMW even had their bicycle there.

Despite holding the show in a different hall from where it was last year – and most people at the convention center were there for something besides the motorcycle show – there was no shortage of motorcycle enthusiasts present.

That’s the crazy part! It wasn’t the consumers that failed to show up…it was the manufacturers, as the show was really crowded with consumers. Anyway, I went, I saw, I photographed. Some of what impressed me is shown in the following pics.