Bike-urious reader Glenn S has sold several cool bikes here and on Iconic Motorbikes over the years, and he was kind enough to visit the Tokyo Motorcycle Show this year to share his experience!
Event Recap – Tokyo Motorcycle Show 2025
Story by Glenn S
After what seemed like an abnormally long and cold winter here in Japan, spring has finally arrived and with it came the Tokyo Motorcycle Show. Having seen photos in old magazines and on social media sites for years I had decided it was a must to attend; as for one I was actually now living in Japan full time and it was a nice excuse to get me out of the wilds of Chiba for the day and into the big city.
Just over an hour on a couple different train lines and I arrived at Tokyo Big Sight, an enormous venue near Tokyo Bay. In addition to the Tokyo Motorcycle Show at least two other large conventions were taking place at this facility and it looked like it had room for even more!
I decided to go on the opening day, a Friday, as I assumed it would be less crowded and easier to move around. I guess everyone else had the same idea as not only did the crowd exceed my expectations, as the afternoon went on it started getting quite warm in the exhibition hall with the large number of people taking up nearly every bit of available space!
To be honest I did not really have high expectations for the new models, likely jaded by my bias that the current Japanese strategy seems to be putting a parallel twin into the same chassis with a few changes and calling it a new model, but Abhi’s recent review of the Yamaha R9 piqued my interest, this was the first new bike I had seen in some time that warranted a closer look. I also figured there would be some good retro, race and custom and concept bikes along with parts to look at and I was pleasantly surprised to find that to be true.
My first destination was the Yamaha display, but I was stopped short by the Chinese builder QJ Motor. Never heard of these guys before but they had a large showing and the V-Twin retro styled SRV250 caught my eye, hmm, I have seen something like this before, not a direct copy of the Yamaha but still a bit cheeky!
They have quite the line up, and credit is due in trying to break into one of the toughest markets on the planet but a closer inspection of the bikes found a lot lacking in the fit and finish department with many things like ignition switches and levers still looking very cheap and not up to the task.
The Yamaha stand was packed and I headed straight for the R9. I was about to throw a leg over when I looked to my left and saw a queue about 15 people deep waiting for a turn, so I think Yamaha has a hit on their hands with this bike. Visually it looks great in person and the specs on it are very impressive!
Yamaha had both a MotoGP bike on display as well as a SBK spec R1 in addition to various other models, also worth noting was a cool display showcasing their e-clutch automated transmission.
Nearby was Harley-Davidson who also had drawn many onlookers, I did not spend much time here but made sure to have a quick glance, the new CVO is impressive but the prices are eye watering, especially in Japanese Yen! While checking off the Harley box I started to try and find where Ducati might be and was surprised to discover they did not have an exhibit. Outside of the Big 4 manufacturers, Ducati is quite likely very close to H-D in terms of being the largest foreign seller in the Japanese market. KTM was also absent, but given its current condition that is not a surprise, another disappointment for me was no sign of Aprilia.
Honda was also very crowded so I spent most of my time looking at its latest RC213V and its cutaway engine revealing the inner workings of it’s “e-clutch”, both equally impressive and any time spent observing a MotoGP bike up close is always time well spent. A concept bike, the V-3 with electric supercharger really grabbed my attention, it instantly reminded me of my Honda Hawk project that sits in a similar state and this is one bike I hope Honda moves forward with!
After a few minutes at the Suzuki stand and not seeing anything that stopped me from putting off lunch any longer I went upstairs to the food court for a quick Katsudon set meal. The view from the seating area was great and I was able to scope out my next stops for the afternoon.
First stop after lunch was the Moriwaki display and they did an excellent job showcasing a bit of the past as well as the present, I am big fan of everything they do, especially their exhausts and was pleased to see how many cool bikes they had on display, they were also handing out cool swag bags complete with mini Moriwaki flags.
Ohlins was next and they probably had one of the largest layouts on the floor with lot of eye candy, Nitron also had a small booth but Ohlins really dominates in the Japanese market!
I had to stop by Baby Face (Sato Racing) and while they sadly no longer produce exhausts they are now turning Titanium into tumblers for your next party. The CNC machined products they make are still world class, especially the rearsets.
Yoshimura had a very nice display and it was super crowded so I did not stay long and instead went over to the RK chain booth as I thought had spied a factory NSR500 earlier. This was a real treat to get to see the 1994 Doohan championship winning 500 up close again. On loan from the Honda Collection Hall at Motegi, this thing is still one of the best looking GP bikes ever produced. I love how casually they have it displayed here, worth millions yet not roped off and you could get up close and get really great photos!
Not far from RK was the Kawasaki square and again a huge crowd made it a bit of work to get up close to everything but lots of good stuff to see, especially a small carve out in the back section that was dedicated to the new Bimotas that are Kawasaki powered. I have always admired these bikes, and with the KHI involvement now you can see even greater levels of refinement. They come with a lofty price tag, but the components and quality is top notch! The Tera H2 Tesi was especially interesting.
Decided to finish up with BMW and here I was especially drawn to a couple of the concept bikes they had on display. First was the R20 which is a bare bones street brawler type of bike, just a giant engine with the basics wrapped around it, judging by the crowd reaction this bike would be a success. The F450GS also looks really interesting and a departure from the current ADV bikes that just seem to get bigger and heavier every year, it also looked really good in its red, white and blue paintwork.
Had to make one more quick loop around the hall to make sure I didn’t miss anything important and then decided to call it a day and head to Ueno park before sunset to try and catch a glimpse of Sakura and maybe a beer or two.
All in all a great day and nice to see the enthusiastic crowds and really well done displays from both manufacturers and the aftermarket, well worth a visit if you find yourself in Japan next year when the show is on!
