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RAIN AND NEW RULES DAMPEN DAYTONA BEACH
Daytona Bike Week started Friday February 28th and so did the rain. So far it has dampened more than spirits and the crowds are not evident on Main Street.
Bars and restaurants are doing fine though.
Although officials want the Bikers to spend money, they are fining those that have too much fun. Showing too much skin will cost ya $106.00 and too much to drink in public $53.00 (Don’t Even Think About DUI). Failure to turn headlight on or no eye protection is $44.00, handlebar height, loud exhaust etc. It just goes on and on.
Bikers bring about $260 Million into town annually to the local economy. Town’s people as well as the visiting bikers feel that they are being taken advantage of.
Many popular activities, like spaghetti wrestling at Bikers Paradise and coleslaw wrestling at the Cabbage Patch, are outside the city limits on state road 415 and not subject to the stricter laws. Both places will hold the events on Wednesday March 5th and the weatherman has said the rain will move on.
I hope for once he is right. The Paradise will also host a Best Buns/Wet T-shirt contest,Thursday. Look for fun action at these and other places in the county. If you are not sure what is happening, where or when, just pick up one of the handy event guides that are on counters in shops, restaurants and bars. If you don’t have a good time, it’s because you’re not paying attention.
And of course check in with Bikernet on a regular basis to keep up with WAS HAPPENIN’. If you see me have me take your picture.
–ROGUE
WELCOME TO ORLANDO BIKE WEEK
By MARK HARPER
Staff Writer
Last updated: Mar 1, 10:40 PM
ORLANDO — Rich Mosher downed another Budweiser as he was showing aninquirer how he put $22,000 worth of customization into an $18,000 “hog.”Nearby, a police motorcyclist inched between two rows of orange cones,competing to see if he could deliver the slowest time without placing hisfeet on the ground.
No lines formed at the Swamp Rat Bar, despite the presence of Jack DanielsGirls to pour shots; inside the Harley-Davidson dealership, there were justas many people drinking at the coffee bar.
Welcome to Orlando Bike Week.
The Orlando counterpart to the traditional Daytona Beach Bike Week may onlybe 3 years old, but it’s making strides. Some 100,000 visitors are expectedat the nine-day event that started a bit slowly Saturday. Though little rainfell, people were discussing radar maps perhaps more than that afternoon’sappearance of the 1970s rock band Foghat.
Organizers find Orlando Bike Week an event with promise, a natural, with thepotential to showcase more of Central Florida’s attractions to visitors withgood demographics.
But it is a bane to some Volusia and Flagler county retailers, hoteliers andvendors, who rely heavily on Bike Week as a time to make the money thatmakes their year profitable. There are fears that spreading the action willresult in spreading the wealth.
Some — including Daytona Beach Harley-Davidson owner Bruce Rossmeyer — goso far as to say the Orlando organizers are “taking advantage” of Daytona’scampaign to tame Bike Week. If bikers are turned off by high room rates,efforts to control noise, nudity and inebriation and the city’s concernsabout the cost of playing host to big events, some fear they will move theparty southwest.
“My concern as a Harley dealer is they are going after business that’s outthere, and God love ’em,” Rossmeyer said. “Competition is good for businessand consumers.”
For their part, Orlando Harley-Davidson co-owners Steve and Anne Deli saythey are merely trying to widen Bike Week’s scope by giving riders moreoptions. Making it a Central Florida event can only attract more bikers andtheir disposable income, said Anne Deli.
“We’re hoping the emergence of Orlando will help grow Bike Week beyond whatit is today in Daytona,” she said. “There should be millions of peoplecoming to Bike Week.”
OFFICERS IN FULL FORCE DURING BIKE WEEK
By MARK I. JOHNSON
STAFF WRITER
Last updated: Mar 5, 02:14 AM
EDGEWATER — George Surls was philosophical about the yellow ticket in hishand as he walked back toward his motorcycle along U.S. 1 Tuesday morning.”I broke the law and got caught,” the Lawrence, Kan., resident said.
Surls, who was in town for his first Bike Week, will spend the rest of the10-day festival walking after receiving a criminal citation for ridingwithout the proper endorsement on his driver’s license.
He and his wife, Stacy, were netted in local law enforcement’s effort tocrack down on illegal motorcycle operations. But unlike many of those cited,what could have been a $44 ticket for noisy pipes turned into a visit with ajudge.
Area lawmen said the strict enforcement is needed to address the concerns ofSoutheast Volusians, whose primary complaint is the noise. While the roar ofa set of straight pipes might be music to the ears of some, others wouldlike to muffle things a bit.
“We are trying to satisfy the year-around residents as well as the tourismaspects of Bike Week,” Sgt. Tom Hoover said. “Some motorcycles are extremelyloud.”
Edgewater Police Chief Mike Ignasiak was more direct.”The people are fed up with riders cranking up their pipes at 1 or 2 a.m. intheir neighborhoods,” he said.
“It has been going very well,” he said Tuesday. “During the first three daysof Bike Week, the traffic section wrote 87 citations. If you count the roadpatrol, I believe there are another 70 out there. That is more than triplewhat is issued during a normal week. But then our traffic is about 10 timeswhat it normally is.”
The infractions range from illegal equipment — such as the noisy motorcyclemufflers — to speeding, running stops signs and other safety violations.
“We had one guy clocked going 97 mph in a 55 mph zone in the pouring rain,”Ignasiak said, “and when we pulled him over, he wanted a break because hepulled over.”
FINANCIAL REWARDS OF BIKE WEEK DOWNThe 23-year-old from Orlando said her tips from Bike Week visitors are a bit lower than she expected.
“We’re still making money,” she said, “just not as much as it should be.”
Rain during four of the first five days of the motorcycle festival has dampened sales, threatening to cut into the $260 million the event annually pumps into the economy, according to some nervous entrepreneurs.
“This is the slowest Bike Week I’ve ever had,” said Deyton Peyton, who has run a hot-dog stand outside the Full Moon Saloon on Main Street the past 15 years.
Peyton said so far he’s struggling to make the $500 daily cost for rent and various city and health department licenses.
“That’s a lot of $2 hot dogs,” he said.
He’s also got more competition this year: 26 food vendors on Main Street, double last year’s number, vie for business from the crowd, which usually reaches about 500,000 bikers.
Nancy Silcox, owner of the Caribbean Trading Co. clothing store on Main Street, said about a third of her annual revenues come from Bike Week; this year, business might be down 35 percent.
Farther down the street, Jerry Berkowitz — whose Good Sports company owns a half-dozen stores and equal number of vending operations on Main Street — remained cautiously optimistic.
“The rain might be keeping some people inside their hotel rooms,” he said.
Bikers were staying in their rooms at the 17-unit Famous Shores Motel on South Atlantic Avenue in Daytona Beach Shores where owner Mark Zdunek kept a nervous eye on the cloudy sky Tuesday morning. He hasn’t had any cancellations yet because of the bad weather.
Mark Soskin, an economist at the University of Central Florida’s campus in Daytona Beach, said a depressed national economy, the threat of war, and even the record high gas prices also might be keeping crowds down.
“We get a ton of people from the North and Midwest,” he said. “Maybe bikes get great gas mileage, but a lot them are towing their bikes behind a trailer.”
Doug Chandler, 51, an electrician from Hermann, Mo., brought his Harley-Davidson to Bike Week on a trailer.
“I’ll take a warm rain over a cold dry spell any day,” he said while holding onto a cold beer can on the deck of a Main Street cafe. “I just got my Harley and I wanted to see what this was all about.”
Chandler said going to Bike Week is like visiting Las Vegas. “You want to do it once in your life,” he said. “Now that I’ve seen it, I plan to make it an annual thing.”
— Staff writer Aaron London contributed to this story.
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