Last Friday, all of the ATV Rider Magazine crew packed our bags and made a mad dash for one of our most anticipated and prestigious events of the year. Each year, Indianapolis, Indiana hosts the largest motorcycle and ATV trade show in North America. Not only is this anticipated trip great for getting the first look at all of the trick new parts and accessories hitting the market, but it's also a great time for hooking up with industry friends to do a little celebrating over the season that has recently passed and blow off a little steam before the next begins.
Being that the economy, well, sucks, we were very curious as to how much new product would actually be displayed and how many vendors would even bother to show up. I even thought beforehand that this event would be the perfect way to gauge just how strong our industry really is making out through these rough times. While attendance was for sure lighter than normal and maybe even a few less new innovations exploding onto the market for 09, I've got to say, we are very much still here and cooking strong.
Rather than bore you with all of the fun packed details of the time we had at the 2009 Dealer Expo, we thought we'd polish off this story by filling you in on our top 10 new and innovative products list for 2009. And if your itching for a little more, be sure to check out our video coverage from the event where we visited quite a few ATV aftermarket companies to find out what's hot in 09. Stay tuned for the video.
Top 10 Products from the Indy Trade Show.
I can't say that these are in any particular order because I don't think one deserved any more praise than the other. What I do feel is that these products will be a huge success in the marketplace for many reasons, but especially because they're functional and many also have been designed to ease the strain on your wallets contents. It's this show where we editors are given a chance to see everyone's latest and greatest and put it head to head before we take it out and test it. This is where we decide if it's worth your time to read or save you the endless filler of mass junk that is also out on the market.
We hope you like what you see and give these products a chance to make it in your garage and on your quad. Look for further in depth testing on these, as we are quite anxious to see how they perform on our test units.
Precision Racing
Pro Series Dampener
www.precision-rp.com
If there is one product I feel is worth putting on any machine whether it is stock or modified, a good quality steering dampener is it. The pro series unit features a larger reservoir and great valving which offers smooth action while turning, even under extreme temperatures. To test this, Precision mounted one of their units to a set of bars and while you held one side like you were riding, someone smacked the other side with a sledgehammer. I know this product worked before, but to see it absorb 99% of the force from the hammer so the bar wasn't ripped out of my hand greatly impressed me. I can only imagine what it's like out on the trails.
Pro Armor
Revolution Nerf Bars
www.proarmor.com
If you do any kind of racing, you more than likely need to run a set of nerf bars. Pro Armor has released their Revolution Fat Peg Nerf Bars that offer superior traction for your feet with its aggressive peg design and increased safety with the integrated heel guard. The bonus to this system is that you have a choice between the setup on the heel guard. If you ride in the drier hard pack areas where mud being caked up isn't an issue, you can run the aluminum backing plate. For those of you who ride in muddy conditions where it cakes up on everything, you can opt to run a net system and let the sticky stuff fall through.