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Not your traditional "ride" but I did ride to the show so that counts. I got there at around 8:00 am yesterday (Friday) for press day. They offer coffee/bagels and then take the press on a tour of each major exhibitor: Vanderhall Moto Works (they make a slingshot-like three wheeled car), Indian Motorcycles, Polaris Slingshot, KTM North America, BMW Motorrad USA, Harley Davidson, Honda, Suzuki, Piaggio (Aprilia, Moto Guzzi), Royal Enfield, Kawasaki, Ducati. KTM was the one I was most excited about. Sadly they did not have the 790 there but they did have the 1090R, 1290R and the 1290 Super Adventure S. I also spoke with their marketing guy again and he says he'd like to talk more in a month about some of their plans we talked about initially last spring that I think a lot of riders are going to get excited about. BMW was a bit of a yawn. They did NOT have their new 850 or 750 GS but they did have the 310 GS. Honda was very exciting and actually HAD their new CRF1000L Africa Twin "Adventure Sports" version with all the new goodies we talked about recently. It does look noticeably taller and has better protection. Royal Enfield stood out as well for their Himalayan adventure motorcycle they hope to have here in the US in the spring/summer for $4,499. Ducati was also quite exciting. I got to meet their CEO, Jason Chinnock, who impressed the hell out of me. He did the whole press thing soup to nuts with absolutely no notes but was talking about each bike as if he'd made it himself! Never seen anyone so knowledgeable and well spoken about motorcycles. My interest was in the MS Enduro they had there of course. We talked about some of their plans for the US that sound quite exciting as well. More to come on that. I was honored to get to be a part of a special presentation Klim had for the press to showcase their new Badlands suit as well as an all-new ladies line of jacket/pant combos called the "Artemis." The details on each are quite substantial and I'd like to do an entire separate post on that. The brief summary on the Badlands is that it's an entirely new generation of protection and is lighter than ever. I will try to get back there today or tomorrow and see more of the gear manufacturers.