2011 V-Twin Expo Award Winners

Each year, the V-Twin Expo offers a reception during which awards are given to some leaders of the industry. Below is the list of the 2011 winners.

 2011 Engine of the Year. S&S Cycle KN-Kone Motor. 2011 Wheel Designer of the Year. RC Components Zenith Wheels. 2011 Tech Product of the Year. WISECO Performance Products Fuel Manager Controller. 2011 New Product of the Year. Belt Drives Limited EV-600 2-inch Belt Drive. 2011 Accessory of the Year. J&M Corperation Rocker Motorcycle Sound System. 2011 Value Product of the Year. Enigma Concepts. Continuous Airflow Oil Cooling System. 2011 Motorcycle Design of the Year. The Trike Shop. Roadsmith Trike Conversion. 2011 Performance Product of the Year. Kuryakyn The Perfect Storm. 2011 Teresi Prize For Innovative Product Award. Superchips Vigilante V-Twin Tuning Systems. 2011. Cruiser of the Year. Harley-Davidson Sportster Fourty Eight. Custom Production Bike. Victory Motorcycles Zach Ness Signature Series Victory Vegas. V-Twin Bike of the Year. Harley-Davidson Road Glide Custom. 2011 Industry Leader of the Year. Mark Finnie Performance Machine. 2011 Industry Trend Setter of the Year. Paul Yaffe Bagger Nation. 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award. Allen Alvarez Daytona Twin Tech. 2011 Keeping the Faith Award. Christine and Bob LePera Junior. In Honor and Memory of Bob LePera, LePera Manufacturing

27 Responses to “2011 V-Twin Expo Award Winners”


  1. 1 izadore007@aol.com Feb 8th, 2011 at 8:39 am

    Cyrill, what other New Products do you want to mention that Should be mentioned? Sometimes the new and Small Guys don’t get any recognition from the SUITS !

  2. 2 Darin Maltsberger - Instructor @MTI Feb 8th, 2011 at 8:56 am

    Congrats to all the recipients. It is always interesting to watch the trends in our industry that lead to the development of new products. Innovation, big or small, drives the retail market. Thanks Cyril for bringing us all of the details.
    -darin

  3. 3 fredp Feb 8th, 2011 at 11:13 am

    With the big vacuum left in Cinncy with missing Custom OEM manufacturers, not much choice but to pick H-D bikes. Not much to clap about in technology or design there.

  4. 4 Darin Maltsberger - Instructor @MTI Feb 8th, 2011 at 12:14 pm

    fredp,
    My comment about innovation was directed more toward the aftermarket fuel management systems.

  5. 5 Biker Feb 8th, 2011 at 2:34 pm

    That wheel design from RC Components was a joke! Who the hell is pickin crap like that!

  6. 6 666 Feb 8th, 2011 at 2:45 pm

    biker….you have to remember that this is an easyriders show.The advertisers in the magazine will allways gety the nod.$$$$$$$$$$$$$ makes it the choice

  7. 7 Eric Maurer Feb 8th, 2011 at 4:27 pm

    666…. exactly!

  8. 8 MC Feb 8th, 2011 at 4:58 pm

    Hey Cyril,

    How was the crowd? Was anybody happy with sales? What is the overall opinion of the show?

    Thanks,

    MC

  9. 9 Cyril Huze Feb 8th, 2011 at 6:22 pm

    A shared opinion around me without any statistic value. Smaller number of vendors. Smaller display sizes. Good crowd of visitors 1st day, much slower than last year for following days. Very mixed sentiment about business achieved, but it’s too soon to know for sure. As expected, vendors offering value, improved performance/comfort products, bolt-on parts (from tuning module to windshields) do the best. Others (ultra custom parts requiring modifications/fabrication) are suffering.

  10. 10 Kirk Perry Feb 8th, 2011 at 6:26 pm

    I’ve heard through the oil and gas vapors that, the “show keeps getting smaller and smaller.”
    ••••••••••••••••••••••••••
    The anitquer’s will get a break this year.
    V-Twin® has a new dealer/retail website that will include either a “Parts Blog” or “Parts Forum”, so that when you look up a part, if there’s any documentation or literature on it, fit, form or function, you can read it there.
    If the info isn’t there then the corporation wants the problem part/fix to be mechanically verified and then printed for reader access. This is good.
    My efforts in California will turn to defeating (R) Moldenado’s “500 special construction vehicles per year cap”, on emissions exempt motorcycles and to get us separated from cars and trucks.

    Some of the clean-air hysteria left the state when Arnold scuttled like a RAT at midnight, with his murdering-son of an assemblyman’s son.

  11. 11 A 1 CYCLES Feb 8th, 2011 at 6:37 pm

    BOB AND CHRISTINE DESERVE EVERY AWARD GIVEN TO THEM..GREAT PEOPLE..GREAT PRODUCT..GREAT LINEAGE

  12. 12 fredp Feb 8th, 2011 at 9:10 pm

    Darin, my comments were not directed towards your comments. I was at the show for the 7th time and it really is no more than parts and pcs show for H-D, now. It’s been a LONG time that H-D was even nominated at these shows. I guess when you get TARP money from the government, a bailout loan from Buffet, it’s easy to make your competition (OEM customs) unable to prosper through this financial downturn and have the same chance to survive.
    We are headed back to the day of H-D “no choice to buy a competitve brand” and get ready for the 3-5k over MSRP days once again, of bikes that don’t hold any excitement. Better keep an eye on Ducati. 35% increase in sales in 2010. THEY must KNOW something we don’t from its customers.

  13. 13 Pro Vendor Feb 8th, 2011 at 11:41 pm

    Without a retail day on Sunday to offer traffic to the vendors, this trade show is going to die. No vendor is going to continue to pay these vendor fees for no result.. Easyriders is out of funds to support a losing show. Signed, a disappointed pro of the industry.

  14. 14 Wheelie Feb 8th, 2011 at 11:44 pm

    The awards? Hmmmm. A way to say thank you to advertisers and trying to keep them..

  15. 15 Johny Spark Feb 8th, 2011 at 11:55 pm

    Bikers decide what they want to buy. Not the dealers for them. And anyway,dealers have no money to stock custom parts. They buy only what the client wants . Manufacturers of the industry should target us, the bikers. This trade show makes no sense to me, especially in this economy. A dealer can expect to be trained by a manufacturer to know how a product works. But a manufacturer is a poor businessman if he thinks that the dealer is going to create most sales. The vtwin industry had its marketing incompetence exposed and demonstrated as soon as the economy became difficult. A good lesson to be learned by many vendors of the vtwin expo.

  16. 16 1550tc Feb 9th, 2011 at 12:54 am

    The REAL DEALER ONLY show is the Drag show in August, most new products are shown here before Cincy…..by Cincy most of these products are 5 months old !!! The awards, like mentioned above are kind of a joke.

  17. 17 Arie Feb 9th, 2011 at 6:56 pm

    Pro Vendor… I agree… As do several other vendors we talked to at the show. Many feel that the show should be moved to Friday/Sat/Sun with Sunday open to the general public. Does anyone else agree? Disagree?

  18. 18 666 Feb 9th, 2011 at 7:00 pm

    This show like many others is going the way of the dinisaur….The buying public has become way to educated and internet savy for these shows that support dealers to continue. With the exception of the HD dealerships for now at least , most aftermarket shops are vanishing. The only hope of survival they have left is the service department. As motorcycles get built better and better and the feds finally get to the point where performance upgrades are about finished for everyday street use even the service oriented shops will be going going gone……..

  19. 19 Windy Feb 10th, 2011 at 8:58 am

    I agree something needs to be done or the show will go away in the next couple of years. Several mfgs that I spoke with are not coming back next year, and several more are undecided. Changing the show to Friday – Sunday will help (as Indy is doing this year), and opening it to retail on Sunday would be a plus too, giving us a chance to show the public our latest products.

    Another option would be moving it to Orlando the weekend before Daytona. Most V twin vendors go to Daytona anyway, so only one trip to do both. Lot’s of low cost hotel rooms near the Orlando convention center, excellent access to resturants, and only 60 minutes from Daytona. It would give both mfgs and dealers a break on the high prices for everything in downtown Cinci, plus the weather would be better.

    Opinions?

  20. 20 Gearhead Feb 10th, 2011 at 9:03 am

    Windy. Support your ideas 100%.

  21. 21 El Loco Feb 10th, 2011 at 10:35 am

    Excellent idea Windy…………I heard from several people that attendance was horrible both from vendors and attendees.

    Main issue here is the economy. It’s worked it’s way down to the domino effect.

    If Easyriders does not revamp things, they will tank the show.

    Relocating the show to Daytona would be a serious option, it would bring more people in due to the weather and rally.

  22. 22 1550tc Feb 10th, 2011 at 1:27 pm

    Windy that be a great place for the show, i know for me to fly to cincy or Floridahhh is about the same if not less to FL.

    The other factor might be this shows proximity to the HD dealer meetings

    Shows are down evrywhere, look at the Orlando PRI show numbers. This show was part of the whole 2003-2007 tv driven lets build a bike in 30 minutes hyped industry craze

    Like i said if i was on the Drag Band wagon, id do their show and walk the cincy. Ive seen a few guys do it and no drop in sales at all from not ebing in cincy.

    CINCY is a real i hate to be there and i hate not to be there type show.

  23. 23 Biker Feb 10th, 2011 at 3:23 pm

    666 your exactly right! It is just sux that the best dont get picked just the one with the largest advertising budget.

  24. 24 666 Feb 10th, 2011 at 3:38 pm

    Biker remember …this industry has now become the same as all other business’ It is all about $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ ……….Not that we all do not want to make money but now dollars over ride integrity!!!

  25. 25 1550tc Feb 10th, 2011 at 4:15 pm

    Sunday open to the general public. Does anyone else agree? Disagree?

    You cant to that to an industry trade show, this isnt sema and or the porn show (should be on evryone’s bucket list)….where u just buy some card stock paper and print up some business cards and walk in.

    Good trade shows are a combination of location, time of year, exhibitors, show organizers and attendees

    Here is an example of what it costs to GET INTO the broadcast show, which is one of the big ones in Vegas

    by April 8 onsite starting April 9
    NAB Member $1144 $1244
    Non-member $1344 $1444
    Government/Military $1244 $1344

  26. 26 mike Feb 14th, 2011 at 10:44 am

    The products awarded are nice and i am happy to see people coming up with new products, but i dont think they thrill cyrils crave for creativity. Sign of the times i guess. Its tough, to offer new products in this super low volume market.
    I have been asking for friday, sat, sunday for ever at the show. monday is a joke and a huge waste of time and money that wasnt affordable even years ago.

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