Not twist your throttle fighting a hundred degree head winds as you squint to keep the sand out of your eyes!
All in all Laughlin for the most part is a giant job well done by Dal-Con the logistics and prep must be over whelming. Their seasoned team works like a fine tuned V- twin.
I think the major pluses to Laughlin are, #1 miles of vendors, beer everywhere and you’re never far away from the air-conditioned casinos!
This year the biggest plus, by far, were the air-conditioned casinos with the temps reportedly topping out at 110.
On the other side it amazes me that so many bikers make that unpleasant ride from Cali to the river to pay $450-$650 for room packages that are normally $200.00
Even so, business seemed to be good for most vendors. As always the vendors that were trying to sell the same shirts that they do at 20 rallies a year and have not changed their product for four or more years seemed to suffer again. Leather vendors found it hard to get people to try on leather in the 100 plus heat.
The bikers seemed to be there but I think the masses stayed inside during the day. I kept thinking that there would be a rush after the sun went down but that did not happen.
The consensuses not just my opinion was, vendors were down, especially good vendors, bike show was down again this year, and there were more rooms available. And the normally packed campground on Casino drive had room for more.
The old bike builder area of the Golden Nugget seemed to be bare. Gard, Russel, Chica, Trev, and Steve Jones were there but about 10 of the norm were not! The fact that Matt, Todd and El were way up at the Palms made it hard to enjoy the energy that these guys project.
Suggestions: Put more focus on the bikes and less on just filling vending space with swap meet and flee market booths. Energize the bike show there use to be almost 100 bikes in the show, this year barely 50. Ten were outstanding. Advertising the custom bike show and get pro judges! If people don’t think the judges are good they won’t put their bikes in competition.
It did not surprise me that sick baggers were everywhere, and up and out choppers were as hard to find as fine single women.
The crowd seemed to be in control the whole week except around the “Go Fast”Energy drink experience that featured cage dancers and bikini bull riding till well after midnight. The only control issues there was controlling yourself.
Just chew on this for awhile. What if the rooms were normally priced and you and your gal didn’t spend $1000.00 on a room and food for four days. How much more would the vendor’s see of that money. Or how many more concerts could you afford to go to. You would just have more memories and more in your bag going home.
