It got so bad in that regard, that Harley themselves pulled out of the show a number of years ago and chose to introduce their bikes to their public through a series of dealer-based Roadshows. The Roadshows continue, but Harley have also returned to the NEC bike show - the International Motorcycle and Scooter Show to give it its full Sunday name - and this year have chosen the event to launch the most important model to have come out of the Motor Company for a generation.

It was hardly a classic launch: we've all seen pictures of the Revolution-powered VRSCA V-Rod, and have been assailed from all directions by mainstream bike press roadtests of Harley's new favourite son, but this was the first time many of us will have had to see one in the metal - or indeed three - not to mention the cutaway engine close-by. The launch was scheduled to take place at 10am on press day, but the V-Rods were already out on the floor: one spinning on a turntable, a second securely bolted to the floor, and a third on the stage decked out with a number of accessories - most notably a screen and a touring seat. Having arrived early I filled in the time by making myself comfortable on the remarkably diminutive, bolted-down example.

The first experience of the bike was very positive. It was small. In fact, it felt very small indeed: smaller and lower to the ground than anything else in the range, but it is an illusion. The Night Train and the Dyna Low Rider are lower, but they have a different presence. This felt less … substantial, although that's a hard thing to judge when you can't take the weight. I took to pleading with PR Manager, Jeremy Pick, to give us one to play with as soon as was humanly possible, before eventually taking solace in the consolation press-pack that was offered. More pics, more facts and figures. That's the start of the 2002 Buyers' Guide then.

Over on the other side of the stand was a slightly better kept secret. Better kept in that no roadtest has been written yet (that I've seen) that goes beyond speculation born of the statistics. Better kept, too, by the cloth draped over the bike. What wasn't a secret, though, was the identity of the bike beneath the sheet: the XB9R Firebolt. If the Harley owners had come to check out the V-Rod, the mainstream sports bike riders would be turning up to pay homage to this reinterpretation of the street-going sportster … before peering, out of interest, at the much praised V-Rod.

The hour struck 10am, the Harley brass in the form of President, Jim McCaslin and European MD, John Russell were wheeled out to say their pieces and thank everyone for coming, and generally point at the V-Rod and smile, warmly. You could sense their immense pride at having a product that had been so well received around Europe and at home, both within their traditional market and beyond, but we heard nothing that we didn't already know, really. Then, right at the end of the main stage appearances, as the crowd grew restless, the action moved stage left to the bike beneath the bag.

Just as the bike beneath would offer little more than a cursory glance before disappearing, so too would its erstwhile protector. There was no tease involved, just a straight strip and the simple covering was gone, leaving behind a bike that was most definitely a Buell, but a Buell in its most radical guise yet.

I have an interest in Buells because I've got one, and I love it, but I'd seen the XB9R as a step too far towards the established sports bikes … or I had until I saw the real thing. The awkwardness of some angles as seen in the photos was gone. The oh-so-delicate rim-mounted disc rotor was pure engineering in the metal, and everything really did look so much more together than I'd envisaged it, that I swallowed my previous words and rejoined Jeremy to add the Firebolt to the wish list. All I gotta do now is wait … and wait …

A lot of words were spoken by people whose names I should've caught, but I was taking in the off-beat beauty of the beast - even in white!

I picked up on the soundbites relating to weight, wheelbase and torque, but there was nothing that we weren't already appraised of, and to go too deep here would remove the need for a proper in-depth look at the XB9R Firebolt, now that we have enough supporting pictures to make it worthwhile. It'll kill time until the bike is properly available.

Major news aside, the Harley-Davidson stand was the usual high quality display of bikes and bits, with the peace shattered intermittently by the now-familiar MotorClothes fashion show. Things to watch out for - apart from the V-Rod and its cutaway engine to the right-hand side of the stage, are the XL883R if you've not already had sight of one now that they're in the dealers, and the three "accessorised" Harleys courtesy of the boys in Windsor, notably a Low Rider, a Fat Boy and the aforementioned third V-Rod, all of which demonstrate what can be achieved quickly and easily through quick browse of the P&A catalogue.

The Buell side of the stand is dominated by the Firebolt, as well it should be, with a small counter and display of accessories to help you make your Buell your own: a small selection by comparison to the H-D offerings, but the smaller range, and more specialist application of the Buell doesn't lend itself to heavy accessorising. The White Lightning must have been there too but, to be brutally honest, I didn't spot it or its blue exhausts which is as much to do with the Firebolt as anything.

Buell are still the poor relation compared to their Harley-Davidson parent, and I can't help feel that this, if anywhere, was the place to push the Buell brand hard. That doesn't really account, however, for Harley's push towards a broader customer base with the V-Rod and it is almost certainly the V-Rod that will contribute more substantially to the corporate coffers over the next decade. Whichever way it goes, this show will give a firm idea of where the buying public's aspirations lie and it will be interesting to see which attracts more attention over the course of the event.

As a mainstream show, you won't find the specialist custom accessories crews around, leaving the other main area of interest as the only other full-on motorcycle manufacturer from the US, and that is Victory.

Don't try looking for them under "V" in the stand guides because they are residing, as ever, on the EP Barrus stand - filed under "E" in the MCN guide.

Barrus are the agents for Polaris in the UK for both watercraft and motorcycles, and with Polaris being the parent of Victory, (this is to be taken on by a Polaris-owned subsidiary company in the UK from Autumn 2002) it stands to reason that they stick with the people that they know. They too had a launch early on in the day, but the 9:40 presentation there was for the Moto-Roma range of scooters that share the Victories Bicester base. There was still enough of a breakfast spread to get in the way of conducting a civilised conversation with Karen Williams of Barrus's PR department, but I did manage to find the essential details out between mouthfuls of cooling bacon butties.

Having reported that the Sport Cruiser was significant by its absence for the 2002 range we were rather surprised to find it sitting on the stand, calm as you like, alongside its Cruiser and Cruiser DeLuxe siblings and the significant omission was the V92TC that was launched in October of this year. Taking the matter up with Barrus, the story is that the SportCruiser will be available while stocks last and its future is uncertain. As for the TC? Watch this space. Polaris don't seem to have decided whether it would be a good model to distribute over here, but as soon as they've decided, we'll let you know.

I would say that the TC would be a welcome addition to the UK range if only because the engine and its gearing is well-suited to the role of medium range tourer - more so than the sportster. That isn't to say that the SC is a busted flush, just needs a little more development in the gear ratios. We are in the process of lining up a couple of tests on the current model Victories, which will have modified gearboxes compared to the 2000 model we tested at the end of last year, so perhaps the problem is already resolved: if so, the SportCruiser will be sadly missed for all of its strengths.

On the good news front, Barrus have been pulling out the stops in signing up new Victory dealers, so you'll have a better chance of swigning your leg over one next year, and any orders placed by the end of this year will get £500 quid's worth of accessories thrown in ... while stocks last. We'll be updating the dealer map accordingly, very shortly.

In terms of ironmongery, that's about your lot unless you wander down to the BSH stand at the other end of the hall, and round the corner from the Harley stand. Sharing with Streetfighters, it has a stunning Buell trike parked right next to the counter: not a common sight in itself, it must be unique for the detailed engineering that's gone into it: ultra short wheelbase, and fully capable of being switched back to two-wheeled mode in about four hours. I'll say no more about that, because that'll ruin the feature we'll be running on it as soon as it gets wheeled back out of the show.

There are the odd Harleys and accessories around the show, as they always are, but nothing really that you could point your finger at. To be contentious, there is always the VTX1800 Honda which is no longer parked up in the air as it was last year, but no sign of the recently announced smaller siblings. All American-built V-Twins, and we still intend to roadtest on as soon as we get opportunity because it needs to be done. More contentious that that is the suggestion that you should take time out to see what the metric cruisers are offering, if only because there are some nice styling cues that are wasted on the cheap alternative to a real Harley: the one that stuck out in my mind was the tricked out, sharper looking VN1500: the Mean Streak. There's no prizes for guessing where the inspiration for that came from, but inspiration is a two-way street.

It seems an unlikely proposition too, but it seems that BMW are getting adventurous with a little 650 that bears a startling resemblance to the Firebolt … it's even got belt drive. Weird, and not altogether unattractive in an odd way …

There is no trace of the Scottish-based Indian Dakota-4 this year - which is a Scandinavian-built, rebadged Wiking trading on the American brand of old. Nor was there any sign of the relaunched American Indian concern's S&S Harley-cloned machines. Last honourable mention has got to go to the bike on the classic bike exhibition in the middle of the Classic Village, and while it may not be an American-V, a NorVin gets my vote as being one of the nicest-looking V-Twins anywhere, anytime.

A dishonourable mention has got to go to the Bonneville America which is a travesty in steel. I've heard mention of this and dismissed the furore that it has generated as being the usual diatribes of a sportbike riding nation, but I was wrong. What I was anticipating - or should that be hoping for - was a return to the export model Bonnies of the seventies that put a small tank and extra chrome onto an otherwise plain-ish bike to make a styling statement that would be well received on the other side of the water. What I got was a Harley-style two-piece seat, behind a classic Bonneville-shaped tank that lost about a third of its top to an excessively gaudy console that served very little purpose except to be a tank-top console. It combines that with optional floorboards, odd engine covers, flat, wide handlebars, an upright-ish, white - and large - faced speedo and laid-down shocks. If it represents an answer, it must have been a bloody silly question. Err … next?

But the bikes are only a part of it all.

Anyone who's every ventured into a modern bike shop in search of jackets, boots, helmets or trousers will be all-too aware of the restricted ranges on offer, but not at the NEC. If you don't want to embrace the full Harley - or Victory - lifestyle statement and wish to dress yourself, there is a wide range of riding gear that goes beyond track days and paddocks and all in surprisingly close proximity to each other - and as always there are deals to be done, and show offers aplenty which become increasingly attractive as the proposition of reloading them back into vans looms ever closer.

And beyond that, there's always a scare to be had checking out your premiums for next year at one of the many insurance companies desperately after your trade: try a little bartering, before contemplating joining HOG for the insurance deals on offer there. There are also more motorcycle services than ever before, whether you want to tour Europe, sue the dickhead that had you off, or just band together with your peers, there are plenty of opportunities to do so, although they tend to be aimed more at the mainstream riders.

Lastly, there is the question I intended to ask of Leo at Avon tyres relating to their Whitewalls … 'cept I forgot. Still, I hope to go back down before it all closes down for a last look at the show with real people about, so I'll make a mental note to catch him then. If whitewalls are your thing, you can always go down there and ask.