It’s no secret that the Easyriders V-Twin Expo has been in decline the last few years. What was once a huge gathering of everyone who had anything to do with Harley Davidson motorcycles is now a small show, with very dedicated vendors who have a lot more time to interact with each dealer in attendance. The show is old school, it is dealer only, not open to the public. Some say things need to change on that front. However, I was able to be on hand, walking the show with my new employer, Legend Suspensions.

I’ve been to this show several times over the years and while I never got to see it in it’s glory years, there were always a few parts that were debuted at the show each year that I thought were really cool or innovative. With my new job, my main focus is going dealer to dealer and letting people sample our product, so I feel like I have a good pulse from the front lines of the industry. I’m hearing from dealers that people’s pocket books are starting to open up, though from this show, it looked like motorcycle accessories manufacturers were playing an extremely conservative hand on investing in new things.

A few products did stand out however, so let’s give you a quick run down of things that caught my camera’s eye…

Big Tires:

Now, this is not a NEW trend. Russell Mitchell from Exile Cycles sort of pioneered the look almost 20 years ago. However, it looks like the folks from Klock Werks are attempting to put a new spin on it. Personally, I’ve always been a fan of the look, however, I don’t see it going mainstream.

Wild Bars:

This bar is being offered by Paughco, a staple in the V-Twin industry for decades. While the looks make me throw up in my mouth a little bit, there is an entire subculture in the industry right now building “diggers” which are 60s-70s period bikes. Think Captain America, the “Billy” Bike, things of that nature. Some of my friends inside the industry labeled these “the first part number to be discontinued”. We will wait and see.

Seat Options:

These seats were all part of the LaPera booth, a seat company that may well have been the first major motorcycle seat company. While these styles represent a lot of their custom builds, they sure had a good taste for putting new ideas out there.

Other Bits and Pieces:

The picture above is of a pretty radical big wheeler, some people consider these “diggers” but I think they are a genre all their own. This one featured a leaf spring front end, a single shock in the rear and a lot of craftsmanship throughout.

The photo doesn’t do this intake justice. Would I run it on my bike? No. Was it wild and cool? Yes.

Another trend I saw was from the exhaust companies. I’m kicking myself right now for not getting pictures of them but I saw a lot of companies going after the “club bike” style exhaust that you see on “that” TV Show about bikers a lot. These are typically two-into-one exhausts that are very short. X-Games gold medalist Lance Coury’s line of exhausts for Harley’s is being sold under the name Thrashin’ Supply. These pipes are built by industry leader Bassani.

Arlen Ness had their own version on display called the F-Bomb

Possibly my favorite was the same style exhaust from Two Brothers Racing that featured a race inspired carbon fiber end cap.

Vance and Hines even came to the table with a set up they called the “Grenade” which was a VERY original design.

All in all, it wasn’t a bad show. Attendance was up over last year, and that could have been due to the fact that the weather was much better, making the show easier to get to. Use the comments below to let us know what you thought about the products above or if you were at the show, tell me what I missed!