By Jorn Madslien BBC News Online business reporter in Birmingham

Triumph's new bike has a 2.3 litre engine

The world's largest production bike will be on show for the first time when the Birmingham Motorcycle & Scooter Show opens for the public on Friday.

And the motorcycle is British to boot.

The Triumph Rocket III is a beast of a bike, fitted with a 2.3 litre engine that is more powerful than those fitted to most executive cars sold in the UK.

The revived UK bike manufacturer, which is privately owned by house builder John Bloor, is convinced the Rocket will bring in far more than the �6-7m it cost to develop it.

In the US, cruising bikes such as this one make up 60% of the market, 40% worldwide.

"We wanted to build a power Cruiser as we didn't have a bike to cater for this market," said product manager Ross Clifford.

The motorcycle will take on the likes of Harley Davidson's many successful models, and the large cruisers made by the Japanese bike makers.

In the US it is expected to sell 2,000 per year, while in the UK up to 400 will be sold, Mr Clifford predicted.

Already, Triumph dealers have taken orders for 200 of the bike, before anyone had seen it on the ground, he said.

Fast and furious

Also on show is a slew of new generation super bikes from Kawasaki, Honda and Yamaha, all priced at around �8,500, all sporting 163bhp-172bhp engines, all aiming to be the fastest, meanest, horniest machines on display.

The Birmingham Beauties were surrounded by drooling journalists

But they are not, off course, given that they are up against machines like Ducati's black or red 749-models which will go on sale for about �14,000, or Laverda's shiny red, somewhat cross-eyed �20,000 SFC1000.

Then there is the Aprilia's magnesium wheeled, titanium exhausted, carbon-fibred, black and white RSV Nera - a snip at �24,665.

BMW is at the show too, with its R1100S Boxer Cup Replica, a race-style bike that is legal on the roads, coming in at around �8,500 and giving wicked performance in return.

Back to the future

There are off-roaders too, most notably KTM's Duke 990 which seems to have been cobbled together, very elegantly, from flat sheets of steel that have been sprayed orange.

And for the more nostalgic rider, a new, modern but old fashioned Bonneville from the quintessentially British bike builder Triumph might be tempting.

Or for dreamers on a budget, there is the India built Royal Enfield, priced from �2,500.

"It's the cheapest and most reliable way to buy a generic 1955 classic bike," insisted importer Peter Rivers-Fletcher.

"The engine is exactly the same as it was in 1955, and so is the chassis."

Press day babes

Elsewhere at Thursday's press day, a much younger breed of model was lighting up the eyes of many a motorcycle hack.

The show's superbikes will warm keen riders' blood

Swerving among next year's shiny bikes, there were clusters of scantily clad women - described as Birmingham Beauties - surrounded by drooling blokes.

So has the somewhat infantile and perhaps virile members of the two-wheeled world kept their earplugs firmly in place in the face of calls for political correctness?

Is it true what they say? That there are just two kinds of people who visit motorcycle shows: Young men, and those who wish they were?

Not at all, several executives insisted.

"They [the models] are only here on press day," muttered Suzuki's general manager of sales, Rod Monteiro, while a group of mini-bikini clad beauties wriggled all over his bikes.

The motorcycle industry's gratuitous and not entirely successful attempt at being glamorous echoes the rebellious youth of car makers.

These days, there is little naked flesh on show at car shows. The industry has been reshaped by the wind tunnel and grown up through the acquisition of airbags and ABS brakes.

"Cars have become to clinical," bemoaned Ducati's UK president Piero Guidi.

"In Italy, we say Donna Motore - girls and engines," he added, before pulling himself together, insisting that Ducati's stand was devoid of such displays "because we try to respect women a bit more".

Budget bikes

Mass market bike maker Honda's stand was also intensely respectable.

"Honda is quite a respectable, serious organisation," smarted head of commercial operations, Matthew Stone.

"We let the product do the talking."

Indeed, Honda is expected to score high with its �3,500 CBF500, or its slightly more expensive CBF600 which will go on sale for around �4,000.

The bikes are closely related to Honda's older Hornet model which is the best seller in Europe and should do much to maintain the motorcycle maker's role as the world's number one.