I braved the snow to go to the motorcycle show on Saturday. It was great! This year I was smart. I usually invite friends and family to go with me - a group activity. This year I was smart and went by myself. Most people get bored with me after the first hour or so. I am the kind of guy who will spend hours and hours at the show looking at everything there. No trivia is too trivial for me. The smaller vendor booths are especially interesting. Graham County, with the Tail of the Dragon, had a booth, as did the Iron Horse Motorcycle Resort. The people who sell Mad Maps were there, so I picked up some of their tours in Georgia. And, of course, you could see motorcycles from almost every manufacturer.

The first thing that impressed me was that motorcycling is alive and well in spite of the bad economic news. Even though it was snowing, the show was still packed. If an event can draw in the snow in Atlanta, you know that the subject matter is popular. The other thing is that motorcycles seem to be getting better and better. There were at least 30 different bikes there that I wanted badly. But to me, the Holy Grail was the BMW HP-2. It was just teasing me - daring me to get on. Okay, I need to get ahold of myself here. I was also impressed the BMW’s new F800GS. I think that it will be a big seller in this area.

Harley-Davidson always does a great job at these shows. I have never owned a Harley, but as a company, they clearly know who they are and someone there has a good sense of style. Speaking of style, the new Victory definitely makes its mark. It would be interesting to ride one. I also really loved the new Hayabusa.

It was very apparent that most of the people at the show were over 40 years old. As an investment and retirement counselor (I help people lose their jobs), I am always happy to see people dreaming of something interesting to do outside of work. Evidently, this has not escaped the manufacturers as each of them seemed to have some new touring model available.

I just love it when the motorcycle show is in town. When I am around all of those motorcycles, it is like being in a completely different world. If you made it there, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. If you missed, then put it on your calendar next year. Now, let’s get out there and ride!