There were leather pants, piercings and new high-speed machines that sounded more like dinosaurs than motorcycles.
And, oh yeah, there was the bikini contest.
Bikers in Baltimore had plenty of excuses to get their motors running Sunday, the last day of the 24th annual Baltimore International Motorcycle Show at the Baltimore Convention Center.
“This is about the wildest ride you?ll ever get,” said Alan Shoup of D.C. Cruisers, who was showing off a T-Rex motorcycle, which resembles a small Formula One racecar. “You?re very close to the ground and they?re just too much fun.”
Shoup was putting on display his wide assortment of motorcycles during the three-day show, which featured dozens of new, custom and vintage motorcycles.
“No one has ever seen anything like it,” he said of the T-Rex. “People just freak out when they see it.”
Models from Biker Beauties Magazine handed out thousands of free magazines in an effort to promote their publication.
Model Livia Crisan, 20, of Roanoke, Va., said she enjoyed posing with motorcycles better than traditional modeling. “We?re completely in the bike world,” she said. “Which means we don?t have to starve ourselves.”
Customer Stanley Lee, 46, of Clinton, came to the convention center with a group of nine bikers who call themselves Independent CEE Riders of the D.C. Metro Area.
Lee said he made the trip to Baltimore from Prince George?s County to see if he could find a better model bike to ride.
“My family worried about me at first,” said Lee, who has been riding motorcycles for nearly two years. “But they don?t anymore.”
