Asian International Motorcycle Expo 2007

Asian International Motorcycle Expo 2007 (AIME '07) is held in conjunction with the "Visit Malaysia 2007". It is going to be an annual affair taking place around the dates of Malaysian MotoGP at Sepang. This year's AIME is held from Oct 18-21 at Hall 1 of KL Convention Centre (KLCC).

The entrance fee is RM10.00 for adults, and if you bring along a camera, you'll be charged an extra RM5.00. But was I disappointed! RM15.00 is a total rip off! It takes less than 30mins to view all the motorcycles in the hall. There weren't many, I don't think there were 50 bikes being displayed!

The catchy adverts say you could meet personalities like Matt Hotch (USA Custom Bike Champion), Kenji Nagai (2006 AMD All Japan Custom Bike Champion), Takeshi Shigematsu (AHDRA Top Fuel Champion), Brett SMith (S&S President), Chicara Nagata (2006 World AMD Custom Bike Champion), Chica (USA Custom Bike Champion), Russell Mitchell (President of Exile Cycles), and Keiji Kawakita (2007 AMD World Custom Bike Finalist) in person. But I didn't see any of them on the first day of expo!

I could have gone to Naza's showroom or Welly for better bike ogling experience for FREE and best of all, there are no barricades around the bike and you could straddle as many bikes as you want! So in retaliation, I went to Naza and MSC after AIME and felt much better.

AIME '07 is essentially all about custom-built choppers. And stepping into the exhibition hall felt like visiting Orange County Chopper's garage (watch American Choppers on Discovery Channel if you don't dig me).

The choppers are built by people from Japan, Indonesia, US, Thailand etc etc. I didn't really find out the country of origin of every choppers shown. The nearest one can get to the exhibits were 1 metre away from the front tyres. There were repeated announcements in Malay that claims the choppers are freaking darn expensive and one should not cross the barricades and get too near the machines.

This green beast is from Japan, I think. Look at the HUGE FAT rear tyre!

This mean yellow beast is named Hot Docks, and he is from the US.

There was also a Malaysian entry, called the "Angkasawan". This silver chopper with a red-topped V-twin engine is built by a local businessman, costing him RM250,000. The owner, Datuk Wan Adlil said he chose the name to signify Malaysia's success in launching our first "space tourist" at cost of RM1bil of tax-payer's money into space (both the money and tourist)! He should have named his creation "Pelawat Angkasa".
The name "Angkasawan", or Astronaut, is more apt for the rocket-like bike in the following two photos:

Here are the rest of the choppers on display. They are all here, save your RM10.00 and scroll on!See, belt-driven! No chain! Wuaaahhh...This, in my opinion, this is the purist's chopper - the way a proper chopper should be. Spool front hub sans front brake, unencumbered by such eyesores as a big ol' effective drum and its attendant cables mucking up the aesthetics. Riding it would cause sores elsewhere though - ballsore and arsesore. Notice the champion's cup next to the front tyre?

What the heck is this bike doing in the area dominated by mean chopper beasts?!! So out of place!

This looks like the new Suzuki Boulevard

Besides the ultra-expensive custom-built choppers, other companies like Naza, and a few other bike distributors also took part in AIME '07.

Naza, being the Ducati distributor, showcased the new 1098S (voted the sexiest bike on Earth in 2007) and the Hypermotard (next to 1098S in the pict above).

1098S (there are currently about 30-40 units of the base model 1098 being displayed at Naza)

Ducati Monster S4R Testastretta

Ducati Paul Smart 1000

KTM Prestige

KTM Super Duke 990

KTM Super Duke 990R - costing RM10K+ more than the base non-R model!

The gigantic tyres for choppers on display:

A gang of morons hired by AIME to do some moronic sequences of breakdance on stage! They were screaming and yapping and warming up in the photo below:

And there goes my RM15.00...