’09 Cincinnati V-Twin Expo

Story by Mark Barnett
Photos by Jack Cofano

Most people expected this year’s V-Twin Industry show at Cincinnati to be like the evening news, down on business and full of doom and gloom. But everyone who purchased vendor space or walked the aisles looking to buy products seemed to be positive. The show was down on vendors, but those who set up shop there had lots of innovative products. Gone were the billet tidbits and show-only, TV-style parts. Instead, it seemed that there were lots of well thought out, useful products for riders as the sport begins to point back to them after a fling with bling.

One vendor, Dick Briggs, came up with a very unique shifter and rear brake set up. He had fallen on his bike a few years ago and had trouble lifting his right foot off the floorboard to hit the rear brake. He removed his rear brake pedal and mounted his floorboard on the brake pivot shaft (more or less). All he had to do then to activate his rear brake was pivot the floorboard downward with the toe of his right foot. After a few weeks, he enjoyed it so much, that he did the same modification to his shifter, pivoting the left floorboard down with his heel to upshift and downward with his toe to downshift. Quite a few people stopped at that booth, and we are set up to test a pair soon. To me, this product exemplified the spirit of the meeting: clever, from a rider for riders. The only other observation was that there were supercharged dressers everywhere for when you absolutely, positively have to be at your destination on time.