Bike Gear Sale at Melbourne Showgrounds 31/1/2

AMCN had an advert in the latest issue for a huge gear sale at the Melbourne showgrounds 31/1st/2nd November (this weekend for the slower of us). So I thought I would wander over and have a look. A mate picked me up about 12.30 and we went for a squiz. There was MX boots, gloves, Nylons, Lids and Road Boots, Lids, Gloves, textile jackets n pants, Leather Jacket n pants and Leather suits as well as a smattering of other stuff. It was mostly name brand stuff, with no really cheap crappy stuff apart from the KBC and MDS Lids.

The brands represented were Dri-rider, Fox, Alpine Star, Dianese, Shift, Spidi, AGV (Clothing not lids), Shark, KBC, MDS, RST, and one other lid manufacturer who's name escapes me. I wasn't really after anything as such, but stumbled across two bargains worth investing in. One is a Dianese waterproof textile jacket, that was worth every penny. It was a toss up betwenn that and either a spidi jacket or an Apline star jacket, all of which were around the same money. I ended up with the Dianese as it was the best fit. Then, once I had made that decision, I made a b-line for the checkout counter. However, halfway there, I tripped over a set of Spidi textile waterproof pants with a liner and armour for next to nothing! So I ended up with them as well!!

I could have gone mad as there were some really cheap stuff there. But as I havn't worked for 4 weeks, I used some descretion. My mate went mad. Bought a lid, leathers, boots, wet weather gear and some new mx gear. He ended up dropping a couple of grand the bastard!!!!

Some examples were Goretex Alpine star Winter gloves for $40-$50, Alpine star and Dianese sports gloves $60-$90, Shark RS2R Lids for 150! Dianese, alpine star, spidi textile jackets $150-$300 (they had some kawasaki green ones too which I almost bought) So the prices were Ok. The guy said more stock was being unloaded as I was leaving, but I didn;t want to tempt fate so I departed!

If you are after some name brand stuff at reasonable spends, it's on this weekend only, enter from Epson road west of the racecourse main entrance! There is free parking for bikes. But then you have to worry about carting what you have bought home on the bike; or $5 parking for tin tops.

Interested to know what boots they had at what price? I may have to make a stop there tomorow after all.

Interested to know what boots they had at what price? I may have to make a stop there tomorow after all.

TBH Mike, I didn'ttake much notice of the boots. I have two newish pairs, one winter one summer, so never bothered. However, I was keen on a lid, gloves, jacket and pants so hence remembered the prices.

One thing I didn't mention is how they have priced the stuff. It was different. It is in a room about the size of the upstairs PS accessories section in the city. But it is set up like a one way circuit to filter everyone through one way and out the other and to cover all the stock as they walk through. Most of the stuff is either on racks (jackets/suits etc), or on tables (lids) or in boxes on the floor (gloves,nylons,textile stuff). The other thing which was different was each item had a letter on it. Surrounding you on the walls and tables and hanging off the racks were price charts which told you how much each letter was. As an example, a pair of gloves was a H which = $40. A letter Q was something like $249 or similiar. It sounds odd, but worked well for me. One other odd thing which may have been due to it being relatively quiet (30-40 customers), I got really attentive service. The girl didn;t know anything, but she was happy to find out and also source sizes for me etc.,