The 2010 CES & AEE Birdman Report

It has been a week since I have returned from the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and the Adult Entertainment Expo (AEE) in Las Vegas and I’ve recovered from the trip, digested what I saw and dug through the various marketing information I obtained while in the show’s halls. I am not going to regurgitate the marketing hype and “exciting” new product offerings you’ve undoubtedly seen on TV, in papers and most likely websites. Instead I’ll give you a riders perspective of the show and what it really means to those of us on 2 wheels, because after all, that’s what it’s all about!

To start it might help to understand why I am covering both shows together, as their focus may seem to be different. For consumers they are in a sense different, but at the base level they are both shows that provide entertainment and judging by the amount of people with bags from CES at AEE the interest (whether trivial or active) seems to be there. As I said above I look at things from a different perspective as technology and the overall health of the economy can be judged when looking at these shows.

Attendance and Presence

I’ve been attending the CES shows since 1989 and have been around the AEE show since 1999 and regardless of the marketing spin, both shows are down in size drastically! When I talk about the size of the show I am talking about the number of companies displaying and the size of the booths and outside displays. The attendance numbers are a bit different as AEE allows fans to pay to enter the shows and CES is industry only. AEE’s fan attendance was marked at 22,000 so they are doing well in that regard, but a walk around the hall showed that the Adult Industry, much like many others, has been affected by the economy and most specifically by the Internet.

What I find very interesting is that both shows occupied considerably less space than they did just two years ago, both dropped about half the hall space in that time. It was a lot easier to see the drop at the AEE shows but the CES show dropped venues and wasn’t even using all of the Las Vegas Convention Center floor. Now, I don’t see the shrinking as a sinking of the ship so to speak, but more of a thinning of the herd and a change of mindset. We used to need shows like this before the connected age, but today we don’t. Thus proven by the fact that most everyone reading this has already seen most everything cool shown at the shows.


The Big Stuff

Leading the list was 3D TV, but a guy I overheard on a shuttle talking to his friend summed it up best. He said “I guess I need to now replaced my new BlueRay discs, played and HD TV with new 3D discs, a $5000 3D TV and a Player…..NOT!” The market can evolve, but I am not so sure people are willing to sit in their living rooms with funky glasses…. Now, when Oakley introduces a prescription custom 3D offering, the tide may be turning. The cool thing about the 3D offerings are that HD and other related TV products are getting cheaper and more readily accessible. The thing to remember about all of this is regards to motorcycling is that for people who like to sit inside, there will be more to do.

Along the sitting inside front, I found a very interesting product at the AEE shows which I am certain will lead to lower work performance and college test scores in the future. The product is called the Real Touch and folks, let me tell you, it is at a technological and business perspective, it is very cool. Basically it is a interactive toy for guys that connect to your computer via a USB connection and interacts with specially coded videos. If you want more details look it up using Google or drop me a line and I’ll give you a link. The bottom line is that as a first Gen product it does what it says and judging by the attention at the show, they’ll get sold. Keep that thought and I’ll wrap up why it is important later.

The Rest of The Stuff

CES is a Gadget show and AEE is, well….a Sex show and guess what? They both delivered.

Two themes seemed prevalent at CES, the first was smart phones, both cases and charging and cameras, still and video. The smart phone cases were easy to see and understand, each company offering coolest graphics and best protection, someone somewhere could start a test and by the time they collected all the options to test the amount would be double. Solar seems to be coming on strong for a lot of products, starting at smart phones, so the true green initiative should yield a lot of options for riders in the coming years.

At AEE it was very obvious that the Internet has cut into that show and they are looking for new ways to sell conventional offline video and print productions. The show even drew national attention with the introduction of a Sex Robot. I’m pretty open to new things and as a guy that rides a motorcycle certainly a perv or sorts, but the sex robot….a bit much for me.

My Picks

First of all the best bike of the shows wasn’t actually on either’s shows floor, but if I had to pick one on the floor it would be the bike in Kicker’s booth, a nice bagger that I don’t have a picture of for one reason or another.

The coolest being shown in Vegas was this bobbed Sportster in the Rockford Fosgate ballroom. Yes, the company my wife works for but no, not my bike.


The gadget section of CES showed a bunch of different solar panels that when used on the road would be a good way to keep a phone charged. But the best emergency device was the Yogen emergency charger. It is basically a charger that works by pulling a cord to create energy to charge with. When I found the Yogen booth I was actually showing red (20%) on my phone, I used it for just a couple minutes and was able to get 3 hours more use out of my phone until I retrieved my Zagg Sparq backup battery pack. The company makes several models and I’ll be carrying one on my bike from now on.



For some reason I stumbled upon this very cool flashlight that not only is convenient size wise, but also has various accessories that would be great for riding. I’ll be doing a full review on this product later, but for now this is the Spotlight.



I spotted about 5 different “sports” type cams, some bullet type like the one Midland was showing, I wish I could tell you more but the guy at the booth was such an idiot I had to walk away.

The coolest cam I saw was this one that is integrated into goggles, they report they will have a Dirt Bike model soon. It does stills and video and the controls are built to be used with the goggles on and with gloves. The coolest part? A light that shows operation at the bottom of the lens, so you know what is happening.




For the adventure rider Spot made a introduction of a new product that will work with a GPS to be able to send text messages through their system, it is more of a system for hikers, but could be used and quite possibly will be adapted for motorcycle use.




The Bottom Line

At the end of the day both shows are cool and fun, but what does it mean to us, motorcycle riders, right?

Well, as far as I saw there are at least a few certainties coming down the road.

1 – The ability to communicate and to be able to charge devices on the road will be getting better as things evolve. Bluetooth technology is getting smaller and more reliable, but until the makers of such products take the time to understand how we as riders use them we will not be as connected as some might want. Personally I don’t want to get calls while riding and I am perfectly happy with hand signals for communication. But as things evolve, distracted cages will not be the only worry.

2 – There are going to be more and more things for people to do while sitting on their butt at home. For us riders it is a double-edged sword. It means at times less folks on the road, but when they are on the road their skills will be diminished and I see no end to distracted driving. Watching people take off 3D glasses and then walk into each other as they re-orientate themselves was interesting and I for one will be cognizant of theatres showing those movies and will plan accordingly. However, if it moves mainstream we’ll have a lot more to consider.

3 – The flip side is revolt from the norm. This year I only saw 3 motorcycles used to display, which tells me that it is becoming less common and more as an individualist based activity. That means that in the next 6 months we most likely will be seeing a surge in people wanting to get out of the house and out to do something and motorcycling being what it is, we most likely will be seeing them on the road or in the dirt.

With anything the allure of a thing can always be different than the experience. Much like the girl below found out after she got what she thought she wanted…




But, for those of us who know and love what motorcycles bring to the table, the risk is well worth the reward.

You can find all the photos I took at both shows, there isn’t really any nudity (I think) but some of the shots would be considered Not Work Safe, so browse at your own risk!

Flickr Shots!

Till next time, Ride Safe!

Arizona Bike Week - 2009

Today brings to a close a week of rides, festivities and events that are marketed as Arizona Bike Week by FX Promotions Inc. all centered around the valley and with their main focus being at WestWorld in the form of an Expo called Cyclefest.

Now as far as Bike Week on the whole, we as a valley don't really need it as year round we have great weather, great rides and even great events, so the real focus is the Cyclefest and what it does exactly for us as riders.

Above is a photo taken at 2:30 pm on Friday in the midway of the Cyclefest event...notice anything? I mean beside that fact that there are no people!?!

Forget the thing about people for a second and let's focus on just two items. One is the absence of motorcycles and the other is the primary sponsor of Cyclefest......yes, Jagermeister.

The first is actually the most surprising to me, the fact that an event called Cyclefest would not have a way for people to display and show off their motorcycles?!? I mean heck, I am pretty sure they could even make a little more if they sold passes to include riding your bike in the area. Now before I get some excited comments from the promoters of this event I am sure that WestWorld has limitations, but I do remember just a few months ago the place being full of cars moving around, yes?

Hold on, I actually know the real problem.

OK OK forget that as well, because once we focus on the real issue everything begins to become clear.

The real issue is a large bus sitting there on the right of the photo. It belongs to the primary sponsor of Cyclefest. Yes, Jagermeister is the key sponsor of Arizona's Bike Week and the Cyclefest specifically, good choice right? I mean since alcohol is the #1 killer of riders I guess they should pay for the show....(Um, yeah I didn't think so either.) of course since they need to sell alcohol at the event, you can't exactly have people riding their vehicles around, can you? Thus, no bikes in the Cyclefest.

I would think that if the show was centered on motorcycles and riding in Arizona the sponsors would be be either motorcycle related or heck even hydration centered, not something that leads to the deaths of motorcyclists directly.

So, let's back up and consider what this event is really about. Specifically for motorcyclist there were demo rides and I even got reports that sport bikes were available. That's a good thing. As far as vendors there were a lot of t-shirt, chaps and head accessories, but beyond non-DOT half helmets I didn't see a single helmet vendor. Also there were a good amount of other companies represented, even some in the sportbike realm, not a lot but look folks the vendor availability wasn't low.

So, what's wrong with this show?

Nothing, if you understand what the show really is all about.

Arizona Bike Week and Cyclefest is a 5-day concert series with a motorcycle cruiser theme!

Yup that's it folks, it isn't Daytona Bike Week, it isn't Sturgis, heck it isn't even a real rally. It is simply a decently put together Country Thunder for the cruiser crowd.

If you're a vendor and you were standing around wondering where all the riders or people were, they didn't show until later for the concert, so figure out a way to integrate into that or do something off-site during the days of ABW to drive traffic to your location specifically.

So, the next time you get upset about what ABW does or doesn't have just understand that $20 gets you into one concert and $38 gets you into 5 days of concerts and it should all make sense. Everything else that happens at WestWorld and is advertised around the Arizona Bike Week moniker is just additional marketing and money for the promoters.

Make sense now?

I'm not going to worry about it, or even try to change it...I'm just gonna ride!