Story and Photography by Don Emde
 sk what year it is and, of course, most people will answer 2006. Except perhaps those who attended the Drag Specialties and Parts Unlimited Dealer Showcase and National Vendor Presentations in late August. For them, it’s 2007. The products are, in most cases, designed and in production and representatives of the leading suppliers came to Wisconsin to give the sales forces a first look.
Over the course of six days, the sales reps sat in on small group presentations of the many new products on their way for the next riding season. It was also an opportunity for your reps to get questions answered and problems solved.
For attending dealers, the LeMans warehouse in nearby Janesville was opened up for the annual “Meet & Greet” the night before the annual Dealer Showcase, a trade-only exhibition with all the top names in the business on hand.
So let me be the first to say “Happy New Year!” and here’s a quick look at some of the highlights of the event…
The combined sales teams of Drag Specialties and Parts Unlimited at this year's NVP.
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Ted Sands of Performance Machine always has the best props.
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Drag Specialties National Sales Manager Jim Matchette kicked off the program of product presentations with some words of praise for the great job the sales reps have done thus far in 2006.
Lots of people ask questions about tuning Fuel Injection systems nowadays and Cobra’s Rick Bottins, their Fi2000 Technical Director (left) was on hand with some answers for the Drag Specialties reps.
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Danny Gray explains the features and benefits of one of his new seat applications.
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Many of Drag Specialties’ former cover bikes were displayed at the event. This the “Bobber” built by Nick Genender of NYC Choppers. It was featured in the November/December 2005 issue of Drag Specialties Magazine.
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Elsewhere in this issue you’ll see the FatBook Dresser that Tim Pfisterer created. At the NVP he and his wife Shelly (a Parts Unlimited sales rep) brought another of their creations, daughter Sara.
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Drag Specialties sales rep Steve Zagorski wowed everyone when he showed up with his latest project bike. Watch for a story with photos in our next issue.
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The crew from Klock Werks: Brian Klock (left), Laura Ellison and Todd Snedeker, show off Brian’s latest project. It’s a super cool Dresser that won the Bike Build-Off competition at Sturgis. Watch for this bike in our next issue also, as well as the lowdown on Brian.
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Icon is becoming more and more popular all the time with dealers in the American V-Twin market.
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Russ Wernimont of RWD showed some of his latest works of art in sheet metal forming.
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Ben Kudon of the Rivera Engineering unveiled some new products for the Drag reps as well as announcing a new name for the company: Rivera Primo Inc.
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A one-day Dealer Showcase was held at the Monona Terrace Convention Center in Madison. The place was packed with dealers anxious to see an early preview of lots of new products for 2007.
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