There’s still snow on the ground, but you’d never know it this past weekend at the Cunard Centre in Halifax.
The inaugural year for the Halifax International Motorcycle Show was a smashing success, meeting and exceeding the expectations of show promoter, Tim Leslie, in terms of ticket sales and exhibitors. He was expecting to hit nearly 15,000 visitors by the end of Sunday afternoon.
Exhibitors were happy with the show as well. “They’ve never seen this much quality traffic looking for motorcycles in their careers here in Nova Scotia,” Tim explained.
“The president of Kawasaki International Japan flew in here to see this exhibit. He’d never been to Nova Scotia in his life, and he walked in and said this is one of the most beautiful settings he’d ever seen.”
This is the type of show that Halifax has been waiting for, and Tim understands this well.
“That’s my company out here that has a 5,000 square foot booth. We’re involved from top to bottom,” Tim told me. “[There is] nothing here to negatively affect the Nova Scotia dealer, the Nova Scotia tax base, or Nova Scotia employees.”
Tim is passionate about the residual effects of the show staying in the region.
Key displays at the show included the high-end European machines, such as Ducati, MV Agusta and BMW, brands that we wouldn’t normally see commonly in Halifax. KTM, best known for their off-road racing bikes, had a large display.
An exciting brand that’s fresh to Halifax is Zero Motorcycle’s 100 per cent electric models. They make a bike for virtually all applications, including a sporty street bike, an urban run-around bike, and bikes for street and trail, off-road and motocross. Their flagship Zero S model, with its sleek, sporty body, can get up to 183 km in range on an 8 hour charge (4 hours with the Quick Charger), with a top speed of more than 140 km/h. This makes it perfect for most riding situations. Maintenance costs are very low, and limited to mainly consumable items.
Kawasaki even brought their national tour to Halifax, just for this show.
Other interesting displays for me were the Ural Russian sidecar motorcycles, with their two-wheel drive design (an output shaft actually powers the side car!), as well as Royal Enfield, Norton and Triumph motorcycles.
The broad mix of motorcycles available made sure that everything you’d want to see was truly under one roof.
“The community and motorcyclists in general have never been more enthused to see this type of event,” Tim informed me, explaining that he’s been very impressed with all of the social media buzz.
One thing that many people may not realize is that this show also raised fund for a charity, and Tim plans to continue this in the future. This year, Gord’s Ride for the Cure was the benefactor, with an anticipated donation of approximately $5,000. A new charity will be picked to benefit from each show.
On the heels of this successful show, a two-day festival is being planned for July at the Cunard Centre, with full retail available and the doors open. This show will focus on local businesses having their motorcycle-related products on sale directly to the consumer.
It seems after this weekend, the motorcycle show is alive and well in Halifax, and you can expect it will return, bigger and better, next year.
