March | 2022 | rlauferblog

The North American International Motorcycle Supershow, aka “the Big One” claims to cover 500,000 square feet, feature 500+ vendors and 1000+ bikes. While these numbers may have been true for their pre-covid shows, this one definitely felt smaller. In fact, it seemed to me that there was more gear than bikes. It definitely felt more like a dealer show than a manufacturer show.

Case in point, the “Harley-Davidson” booth was run by a local dealer, not the manufacturer. It had TONS of clothing and maybe 10-15 bikes, some of which were already sold so you could not sit on them. Such was the case with my favourite, the Fat Boy

The Terminator may have been here

I love this bike.

This CVO Road Glide was also sold

Vs. the standard Road Glide

Another beautiful CVO, this time a Street Glide

The Heritage Classic lives up to its name…it certainly felt nostalgic with that windshield and reminded me of the old CHIPS tv show…I liked it a lot better in real life than in pics, in fact it was one of the biggest surprises of the show.

The new Sportster S looks great

A couple of Pan America

Livewire electric bike

Fat Bob

There were lots of crazy customs competing for a $50,000 prize

I have seen this John Deer bike at a previous show

But he has added a matching Challenger lol

Crazy paint jobs

Another one of my show favourites, a great winter bike

There were also lots of vintage bikes on display

Switching gears to sportbikes, the BMW S1000RR

And M1000RR

Ducati Panigale

899

This modified Edition 1 was my favourite

Actually there were quite a few modified sportbikes on scene

And some modified adventure bikes

Minimalist helmets seemed to be a thing…they were all over the place

Lots of bike art

So all in all it was an ok show but there is still some work to do to get it back to pre-covid glory days. I did feel that there weren’t enough bikes or at least a shortage of the ones I wanted to see. Just to recap my favourites (almost all Harleys)

Harley Fat Boy
Harley CVO Road Glide
Harley CVO Street Glide
Harley Heritage Classic
Harley track bike
Ducati Edition One

It’s great to be back covering a major show like the Toronto Sportsmen’s Show 2022! I have really missed such events over the past 2 years.

TSS is under new management and the show had a slightly different feel, in part due to the mix of exhibitors. I saw lots of familiar exhibitors but a lot of new ones as well…and very welcome ones at that as they turned out to be my favourites!

Normally I start my reviews of TSS by covering all things firearms related but not this year! Knives and gear stole this show.

In the world of hunting and outdoors, PUMA knives out of Germany are legendary!

Not surprisingly, their booth was swarmed all day (I snuck in an early shot)

PUMA’s product line is incredibly expansive and is divided into three categories: First, Hand Made in Germany, which is pretty obvious. Next, PUMA IP, which stands for International Production. The majority of IP knives are hand-made in Spain but the design, finished production and quality control is performed by PUMA in Solingen, Germany. Finally, PUMA TEC, which are more modern in design and are also produced in carefully selected Asian partner manufacturing facilities.

As a serious collector I was most interested in the Hand Made line so I will start with those, specifically one of the coolest knives I have seen in a long time, the Fishing knife!

This classic design features a fish scale pattern integral frame culminating in a big “ball” at the end.

While the ball can be used to deliver a final blow to your catch, that is not its primary purpose

Rather it serves as a counter weight and, working in conjunction with the notches and markings on the blade, allows you to weigh your fish!!!! Here is a demo of how it works.

The Fishing knife next to the General, my second favourite of the Hand Made lineup. This is about as close to “tactical” as you can expect from PUMA lol.

There is also a shorter version of this knife known as the Sergeant (not shown here) as well as green handle versions such as the Master and Packer

Of course, you cannot talk about Hand Made PUMAs without mentioning the White Hunter. The origin of this knife dates back to 1956 when it was designed as an all-purpose knife for the East African Hunting Association. The knife was designed for both heavy and fine chopping and slicing as well as hammering tent pegs. Since that time, there have been several variations including the functioning mini (with real stag scales!) and a much larger “Waidblatt” version.

Speaking of minis, check out this working folder and flipper!

Ok on to the IP line. My favourite there was definitely the Lanza Saufeder, which can be combined with an oak shaft to form a boar spear!

Beautiful leather sheath

It was great to meet the reps from pumaknives.ca Super friendly people!

Next up, Svord, all the way from New Zealand.

Fortunately they brought two of the Von Tempsky knives to the show, the Forest Ranger Bowie and the Ranger. As their namesakes suggest, both knives were designed by Major Von Tempsky in the mid 1800s and issued to New Zealand Forest Rangers under his command.

The Bowie has an 11” blade

While the Ranger’s is 6.5”

I also really liked the Hunter 7…it felt so great in the hand!

Having international knives at the show is great but keep in mind Canada has some great knifemakers too, such as Skip’s Customs who has been making custom knives for 30 years. I really liked the deer jawbone knife.

There was a blade for everyone at the show

Including visiting Klingons!

Good to start them on blades early

Ok NOW we get to the guns lol.

First stop, my good friends at Stoeger.

Nice setup on this Tikka T3x tactical

Beautiful over-unders we have come to expect from Beretta

As usual, a highlight of the Stoeger booth is the Steiner display, this time featuring a new camo coating.

Sorry I didn’t get the details on that Burris

Next up, Hunt Group with a staggering array of shotguns, mostly box mag fed

Although my favourite was the semi-auto with Shockwave style grip

Lots of guns for sale at Shooter’s Choice booth

Moving on to gear, it was great to meet the crew at Army Issue Surplus, newcomers and a very welcome addition to TSS (I have always said the show needs more “tactical”).

Lots of great surplus gear

Check out these awesome GI mittens

Or if you prefer the arctic version

British police surplus PR24

Classic freedom munitions

vs “Canadian freedom” water jugs

Another newcomer I was very excited about, True North Tradecraft, experts in disaster preparedness and personal security

a quick demo of some of their escape tools

I picked up a GTFO bracelet

And I really want to take one of their courses

Speaking of courses, great to see my friends from CHIMERA, who just moved to a new location. I took one of their mini-courses on low-light shooting and it was FANTASTIC! (in fact I had a Surefire G2Z Maxvision that I came to love on that course in my bag)

Education seemed to be a theme here, with a few more options. I wish that I could have stayed to watch WSC’s presentation on the stage.

I should say education and advocacy, particularly for our gun rights, such as the CSSA

And CCFR…

…who were raffling off this beautiful custom made table

made by this gentleman

They were also raffling off this Canuck shotgun

Nice to catch up with some CCFR Gunnie Girls

Amanda Lynn Mayhew and the Just Hunt Crew promoting the sport to women

As were Canadian Sportswomen Society

The Canadian Wild Turkey Federation promotes Wild Turkey’s in Canada. The have Chapters Canada wide and are doing a Membership drive at the show with a raffle to win one of five shotguns and a rifle.

There have always been offroad vehicles at TSS but I didn’t really pay much attention to them until this year. The new offerings from Argo and Segway look very interesting.

6 and 8 wheelers from Argo

but their tracked model was the most popular

Meanwhile the Segway Villain has 185 HP in its highest trim!

But the biggest surprise vehicle-wise was the SHERP..i was NOT expecting to see that at the show!

I have also ignored fishing boats at previous TSS shows but I couldn’t ignore these boats!

It wouldn’t be a TSS without some taxidermy and animal skins

Finally, outdoor clothing.

Including high end hunting gear from Harkila

Polar Piece

Military themed tshirts

Widowmaker supply

Stix and Stones

Yeti coolers showcasing their new Offshore Blue and Bimini Pink

Oh no, bouncy castles! Please don’t invoke the Emergencies Act!

So what was my overall assessment? Well, as someone who goes to A LOT of tradeshows, I often walk away happy and satisfied if I find ONE cool thing…and from that perspective, this show delivered as I found SEVERAL cool things! Just a quick recap of some of them: