Bike Week
I’d not planned to go to Bike Week. Jeff & Keri just said it would be an experience (and it has been!) and that it would be crazy not to go, since I was in the Florida area…
500,000 visitors flock to Daytona for Bike Week, held between the last weekend in February and the first weekend in March each year.
If you are picturing hoards of bikes being ridden down highways from all over the USA, think again. It seems the most common method of travel is to load your Harley onto a trailer, then tow it down to Daytona.
The sadder cases amongst the visitors actually stop a the last Service Area on Interstate 95, unload their bikes and ride into Daytona – just so they can say they rode their bikes to bike week…
The week itself is a festival of two wheeled excess. Looking for anything? – you’ll find it here – probably chrome plated. There are a few sports bikes, and even fewer BMWs, but Harley Davidson owns Daytona for this week. Every possible model, modification, paint scheme can be seen blatting up and down the roads.
None of the pipes are street legal, but the local law enforcers are overwhelmed (although they do prosecute – mostly due to local pressure). The noise never stops, day & night, as doctors & lawyers, dressed to look like outlaws, ride their outrageously equipped Harleys up and down the strip. Some of these guys literally only ride for 2 weeks in the year – Bike Week and Biketoberfest (at the end of the season).
You can get your bike washed
– go and watch Coleslaw Wrestling (no, I didn’t go ), but mostly people just go to the bars and get pissed – then ride back to their motel, hoping not to crash.
There’s no requirement to wear a helmet in Florida, and no-one does (except me, Jeff & Keri
) – standard riding apparel is a pair of jeans and a bandanna (during the day) – in the evening, a T shirt may be added… This year, thus far, there have been few fatal accidents, although this morning’s paper reported a V8 engined bike, whose rider fell off when the throttle stuck open, which kept going for 4 blocks, until it hit a Pepsi delivery truck, bounced off and hit 2 pedestrians, seriously injuring both…
Here are some of the bikes on display. The V8 Boss Hoss, developing 385 bhp in stock form…
…can always have Nitrous Oxide added to boost it to over 500 bhp. Clearly what this bike needs – more power.
You can buy choppers in any state of assembly, from a rolling chassis…
…to fully prepared for your trailer.
If you want, you can get one with a particular purpose in mind. This one is for slaying dragons…
…it has a sword for a gearlever…
…battleaxe forks…
…and, of course, a dragon hide seat.
You can meet all sorts of, ahem, ‘colourful’ characters…
…see some amusing licence plates…
…buy a gun…
…have your picture taken with a dog wearing leathers…
…look around an understated little pick-up truck…
…see the cowgirls learning to lasso…
…get something to eat…
…tip the staff…
…and later that evening, go out and eat some more…
…followed by some dessert.
You occasionally meet some fellow GSers – on questionably coloured bikes…
…you see 3 wheelers…
…complete with Givi luggage
…and others, with rather too much everything…
Bikes are everywhere. All types, from Suzuki GT750 ‘kettles’…
…to rather battered Norton Commandos…
…but mostly the sea of chrome that is Harley Davidson.
Is it worth coming? Of course it is - the weather’s good, the accommodation here’s great and I’ve seen some outlandish sights and had a great time.
I’m just not sure what it has to do with motorcycling, that’s all…
I’d not planned to go to Bike Week. Jeff & Keri just said it would be an experience (and it has been!) and that it would be crazy not to go, since I was in the Florida area…
500,000 visitors flock to Daytona for Bike Week, held between the last weekend in February and the first weekend in March each year.
If you are picturing hoards of bikes being ridden down highways from all over the USA, think again. It seems the most common method of travel is to load your Harley onto a trailer, then tow it down to Daytona.
The sadder cases amongst the visitors actually stop a the last Service Area on Interstate 95, unload their bikes and ride into Daytona – just so they can say they rode their bikes to bike week…
The week itself is a festival of two wheeled excess. Looking for anything? – you’ll find it here – probably chrome plated. There are a few sports bikes, and even fewer BMWs, but Harley Davidson owns Daytona for this week. Every possible model, modification, paint scheme can be seen blatting up and down the roads.
None of the pipes are street legal, but the local law enforcers are overwhelmed (although they do prosecute – mostly due to local pressure). The noise never stops, day & night, as doctors & lawyers, dressed to look like outlaws, ride their outrageously equipped Harleys up and down the strip. Some of these guys literally only ride for 2 weeks in the year – Bike Week and Biketoberfest (at the end of the season).
You can get your bike washed
– go and watch Coleslaw Wrestling (no, I didn’t go ), but mostly people just go to the bars and get pissed – then ride back to their motel, hoping not to crash. There’s no requirement to wear a helmet in Florida, and no-one does (except me, Jeff & Keri
) – standard riding apparel is a pair of jeans and a bandanna (during the day) – in the evening, a T shirt may be added… This year, thus far, there have been few fatal accidents, although this morning’s paper reported a V8 engined bike, whose rider fell off when the throttle stuck open, which kept going for 4 blocks, until it hit a Pepsi delivery truck, bounced off and hit 2 pedestrians, seriously injuring both…
Here are some of the bikes on display. The V8 Boss Hoss, developing 385 bhp in stock form…
…can always have Nitrous Oxide added to boost it to over 500 bhp. Clearly what this bike needs – more power.
You can buy choppers in any state of assembly, from a rolling chassis…
…to fully prepared for your trailer.
If you want, you can get one with a particular purpose in mind. This one is for slaying dragons…
…it has a sword for a gearlever…
…battleaxe forks…
…and, of course, a dragon hide seat.
You can meet all sorts of, ahem, ‘colourful’ characters…
…see some amusing licence plates…
…buy a gun…
…have your picture taken with a dog wearing leathers…
…look around an understated little pick-up truck…
…see the cowgirls learning to lasso…
…get something to eat…
…tip the staff…
…and later that evening, go out and eat some more…
…followed by some dessert.
You occasionally meet some fellow GSers – on questionably coloured bikes…
…you see 3 wheelers…
…complete with Givi luggage
…and others, with rather too much everything…
Bikes are everywhere. All types, from Suzuki GT750 ‘kettles’…
…to rather battered Norton Commandos…
…but mostly the sea of chrome that is Harley Davidson.
Is it worth coming? Of course it is - the weather’s good, the accommodation here’s great
and I’ve seen some outlandish sights and had a great time.I’m just not sure what it has to do with motorcycling, that’s all…
).
