If you think Taddy Blazusiak is good at extreme riding, you should see him in a staring contest. I was locked eye to eye with him for three hours, but he never blinked. I gave up because I knew I had to walk the show to dig up the coolest of the new products, and that’s what I did! I got so many cool items I may go back tomorrow for a re-match. That guy is bound to break sooner or later.
Like to ride in the dunes, or just be extra cautious at hilly riding areas? Strap this Helmet Flag to your noggin to keep what’s inside that helmet safe from collisions with other riders.
TM Designworks has found that the new KXF250 wears its swingarm guard very fast, so they’ve made one that wears longer, has a damping device to limit the ping of chain slap, and packages it together with their chain block, now with replaceable wear block, their rear caliper guard, and their rear disc guard. And obviously they come color coordinated for Kawi, and the other bike brands.
Okay, here’s a small little product that could someday really save the day. The stuff is called Rescue Tape. It’s not sticky, but when you wind it tight it bonds with itself and forms a water proof seal. Great for trail fixes, and also cool for wrapping electrical connections to keep you crossing creeks without worry. This is not good for guys that like to have a few built in DNF excuses.
Moto Tassinari has a new boot for some of the 85cc models. Okay, maybe that’s not major, breaking news, but their reed blocks are so cool and I wanted to give a little attention to a company that’s still out there making items for your two-stroke. Wait, my two-stroke, too!
Fat Man and Littleboy. That’s what I’m calling the new Thor protectors. The big and little news is sizing. The Sentinel now comes in a smaller size, “you know, for kids!” and the Force now comes in XL, for big crashers. And I mean big guys that crash, not skinny guys that crash a lot.
HJC has a new helmet design that’s pretty tempting. Okay, snake joke, had to go with fangs or temptation. Went with temptation. Mistake? I’m sticking with it. Cheesy blog comments aside, the graphic is pretty striking. Oh! Zing!
Fox has a new shock!... Pretty cool, huh?! And not just for nostalgia’s sake, it has a control to dial in bottoming resistance, so you don’t have to stiffen your shock’s full travel just to handle that one g-out that jars your teeth.
Dragon has a cool graphic with Benjamin Franklin wearing, Dragon goggles. But wait, how did they take the photo for the goggle before they made the goggle? Guess it’s just another chicken and egg kind of conundrum.
MotOZ has a new tire, the Terrapactor S/T, designed with light weight in mind. The bad news is, you probably haven’t worn out your last set of MotOZ tires yet. Hey, another excuse to get out and ride!
Baja Designs has their Diablo headlight with it’s own battery pack, so you don’t have to mess with your bike’s electrical system if you’re one of those ‘sometimes’ night riders. If you’ve never ridden at night, you now officially have one less excuse. Riding at night is an amazing sensation so get out and try it. Baja Designs also has this cool flashlight. I stuck it in the free candy jar to sweeten the deal.
QTM has this innovative shock collar device that is really interesting and can really make life simple. It has four settings, though the final version may have five, and each setting is equal to one compete rotation of a standard shock collar. So you can change your sag as easily as you adjust a clicker. I think this is the perfect product for the dad who buys a 125 for sonny, because you know you’re going to be riding that bike, and this can have the sag switched from pops to junior incredibly fast and easy. The total adjustment is 6mm on the shock, with is more than 6mm of change in sag. QTM also has these very light aluminum foot pegs by Talon that look awesome and feel unbelievably light.
ZipTy has oil filter covers with small magnets in them to collect metal bits circulating through the oil. Nah, you don’t need this product. You like having metal shavings shot onto your four-stroke’s engine parts instead of lubricant. Hey, and if you’re that type of guy, I’ve got some stocks I want to sell you.
TCX was there with their cool boot. This is the Pro 2. It’s not an all new model, but it’s had a few minor refinements, including the buckles. Well, I tried one of these babies on, and the buckles are simple and easy to use. The boots feel so comfortable, TCX only brought left boots because they were worried people would want to walk the convention center in them once they tried them on. That or they brought just the boots they’d need to go dancing that night.
Utopia has this bones-themed goggle that looks totally cool and is the perfect thing to wear when you’re going to go pillage the trophies at the next race. Hey, even pirates have to learn to accessorize well.
Okay, this product is really wild. It looks heavy but it either isn’t, or I’m getting stronger. Check out this rim. See anything missing? No, not the tire, smart alec, I mean there are no spoke ends poking through. Nice, huh? The rims are claimed to have much tighter tolerances in how true they are, the spokes have a direct pull, can be replaced without removing the tire, and, let’s see, what else… Hmmm, looks like a nice platform to run tubeless tires. Though Bikeen wasn’t running that as their selling point. Oh, and I don’t have to mention how great these things look. The wheels are from Italy, and will be available very soon in the US. But the downside to them, like with many exotic Italian products, is that they aren’t cheap. A set will sell for approximately two thousand… Euros.
Acerbis has this unique boot that opens wide then ratchets closed. How sweet is that? I’m not gonna say who, but a friend from another company directed me to this because he thought it was so cool. That’s one of the great things about the Indy show, everyone there is a motorcycle nut and loves this stuff as much as you do.
ProGrip has a great new helmet coming to the US very soon. The thing looked great, and felt light. If you want to go all Pro Grip, they make pants, jersey, gloves, helmets, and goggles all in the same style so you can look perfectly coordinated from head to toe… Until you put on your boots. ProGrip also makes this neck protector, here’s the child’s size. There are more neck brace designs on the market now and here’s ProGrip’s version that you should take a look at.
I was nearly done with the show for the day and my nerves were pretty frazzled from fighting the crowds, so I went to Ariete to get a grip and a new outlook on things. They had exactly what I needed with this triple density grip (with a kind of built in grip donut) and these new colorways for their goggle. It was a great way to end another day of doing the legwork for you, lucky website visitor. I’ll have more from the final day of the show, then later in the week we put together a top ten and you get to vote, and I’m pulling some industry favors to try to make voting worth your while, so be sure to look for that official voting thread coming soon (maybe by Wednesday if I fly home on a jet. Last time I went to the Indy show they flew me home in a hot air balloon. It took forever, but I got double miles on my credit card!)