Said to be the largest motorcycle expo in central and Eastern Europe, MOTOSALON will be staged by BVV Trade Fairs on behalf of Czech trade association AIA (Automotive Industry Association) at Brno, Czech Republic, March 6 to 9, 2014.
Described by the organisers as an "international fair for motorcycles, ATVs, accessories and clothing", the event is said to have attracted some 40,000 visitors and feature 95 exhibitors and 15,000 sqm of exhibition space when it was staged in Prague in 2013.
The show alternates each year between Prague and Brno, which is the second largest city in the Czech Republic. Well known as home to the Czech MotoGP since the 1930s, Brno, in Moravia, East of Prague, is near the Austrian and Slovakian borders - 130 km from Vienna and Bratislava, 320 km from Budapest and 550km from Warsaw.
The same weekend sees a second motorcycle show being staged in the Czech Republic, one that is held in Prague every year, and that, according to the organisers (INCHEBA PRAHA spol. s r.o.) regularly attracts around 50,000 visitors.
Motocykl 2014, at the Incheba Expo facility in Prague, is an independently operated annual event - that is to say that it is independent of the Czech motorcycle industry trade association. This year sees its 18th annual show, and among other attractions it features what will be the 10th annual Bohemia Custom Bike Show.
According to data released by Brussels based motorcycle industry association ACEM, the Czech Republic saw sales of some (9,317 PTWs in 2012, nearly 7,000 of which were classed as motorcycles.
The market there has suffered the same effects of the downturn seen elsewhere in Europe, declining from a 2007 peak of 16,106 PTW registrations, after several years of steady growth.
ACEM data puts the total 'Bike Park' in the Czech Republic at 976,911 units, split pretty much equally between motorcycles and smaller cc units - a figure that has continued to grow steadily throughout the downturn from the 793,934 reported for 2007.
The total population of the country is some 10.5 m people, some 8m of which are believed to be of riding age - meaning that an estimated 12 percent of those who can ride legally own or have access to a PTW of some kind.
This is said to reflect a long standing passion for two wheels that goes back many decades - indeed at its peak in the late 1920s there are believed to have been some 40 plus different motorcycle manufacturers and brands being produced in what was then Czechoslovakia; today only Jawa, CZ and Blata remain.
www.bvv.cz/en/motosalon
www.autosap.cz
www.motocykl-praha.cz
www.incheba.cz
