Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Welcome to the 2009 Motorcycling Season

Well, the motorcycle season has officially started for me. The Cycle World International Motorcycle show rolled through Chicago this past weekend. Although it appeared there were slightly fewer vendors this year, it was well attended and many vendors said that they did better than the year before. Luckily, VaVaVroom sales were brisk at the DGY Motorsports booth. That is encouraging given our country’s economic troubles.

Of course, I had to check out the BMWs and see the latest. The new BMW S 1000 RR race bike will compete in the World Superbike Championship in 2009. There will be a limited number of production bikes hitting the dealerships in Germany this summer. Expect to see this model in the US in 2010.

I also checked out the Vespa scooters. I like this Portofino Green color on the GTV 250 that Sandra is sporting.

I spent my Friday night at the Women and Motorcycling booth promoting the 2009 AMA Women and Motorcycling Conference to be held August 19-22 in scenic Keystone, Colorado. I attended the last conference that was held in 2006 in Athens, Georgia and had a blast. Demo rides, seminars, shopping, guided rides, parties. Although it is a women’s conference, men are welcome to attend with their significant other.

I spent my Saturday night at the Chicago Region BMW Owner’s Association booth, which was celebrating its 40th anniversary. I was a little ticked off that I missed the birthday cake that day, but I got over it - but only because I had dinner that night at Giannotti Italian Steakhouse in Schiller Park. Not only did I meet my new boyfriend there (pictured to the right), but we had a wonderful meal in a charming environment. Early on, one of the owners Larry came by our table to see how we were doing. When I told him that this was our first time at the restaurant, he insisted that we try the vodka sauce over mostaccioli (for free). We then ordered the house pinot grigio. The waiter informed us that they were out and that we would receive the Santa Margarita pinot grigio for the house price. Then, the waiter misunderstood our order and brought orders of two chicken parmigiana and one zuppa di pesce when we thought we ordered two orders of zuppa di pesce and one chicken parmigiana. We decided we had plenty of food and did not have him correct the order. He insisted on taking one of the entrees off the bill. He did what great restaurants do. He turned a potentially negative experience into a positive one. We will definitely be going back. You can see how happy we look here in front of the lovely Valentine’s Day display. I am now realizing that although this is a motorcycle blog, I got carried away with food. Signing off now…