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View Full Version : A quick summary of our weekend at Bike Week


FL-VTX-Rider
03-09-2009, 12:46 PM
Since nobody has posted much of this past weekends Bike Week, I thought I would give everyone a quick summary of our weekend. ( The wife and myself ).

Left Melbourne Sat morning at 8:AM, arrived in New Smyrna after breakfast at 11:30am at the Sunshine Mall. Vendors were about 1/2 filled, and about 100-200 bikes in the parking lot. Bought a new Nolan Helmet for $115.00 on discount.

Left their and headed to Beech St, to the HD dealer. Bikes were parked 3 blocks plus up and down Beech St, it was packed, but not as packed as in the past, but plenty of vendors, bought a few T-shirts, and lots of people. The Strip Club bike wash was fun to see also ! really packed here, loud bikes going by all day, and lots to look at.

From their we headed to Caribbean Jacks, which is about a block north of the Helmet Shop, and had a terrific lunch on the water. Food was great, and sat right down with no wait, all though they were packed., They have rocking booths along the water, with million dollar yachts docked just outside in the marina, live band, and a nice crowd.

Next we headed over to Iron Horse on US-1. Packed with people, line was about 15 min to get into the parking spots, allot of people, bands, vendors etc. There were a few bands, some contest going on, and lots to look at.

Then we left Iron Horse and head over to Destination Daytona. What a mess trying to get in, took over a hour in line, coming from Iron Horse, backed up for miles with bikes trying to get in , now the time is around 4pm Saturday.


Once in there, J&P Cycles, HD, and other were packed, people everywhere, had to park the bike all the way in the back, and take the tram in, like last year,. Bruce Roosmeyers defiantly had a crowd there, thousands of bikes in the parking lot.

Watched a couple of Sport bikes on the 1/4 mile race, when you pull into the parking lot, and a few HD's race, etc. That was pretty cool. It was interesting to see their 1/4 mile times, and how much HP was getting to the rear wheel.
I really wanted to get my bike up there, but the thought of walking back and fighting the crowd getting in, to get the bike up front, I decided to just watch everyone else.


We left there, and headed down to Port Orange, where we go all the time while visiting Daytona, to the
Port Orange Steak House. Its about a 1/2 hour ride, but they have the best steaks in town. I highly recommend this place if you like steaks, well worth the 1/2 hour ride south, its approx about 20 miles south of destination Daytona.

From there we had a great dinner, stopped at the 7-11, picked up a bunch of beers and wine coolers, and headed back to the room, getting ready for main street. ( The Alcohol was kept in the trunk ).

Partied at the room till about 9:30pm, called a cab, and by 10pm we were on Main St. ( felt like the Ol Spring break days, but only 20 years later )

We stayed on Main st till 3am partying. It was so packed, people were moving 1 foot at a time walking, stopping, move, stop, just busy. For a while we watched all the bikes go down Main st, saw burn outs, people with costumes on, some with nothing on, thumbs up to the women who can fit their cheeks on the little back pad on back of those choppers, they looked great! It was fun to watch. Then we headed back into bars, and because this is a " G " rated forms, can't say everything we saw here, but lets just say, it was REALLY WILD ! I can say, lot's of spanking going on, lot's of black leather chaps with buns hanging out, tight tank tops just bursting out, and the women were dressed to kill, and looked great ! They have a saying " What happens on Main St stays on Main St " , So I'll just leave it there :)

3am called a cab, everyone was still partying, and by now, most people were stumbling, holding onto each other to walk around, but for the most part, only saw 1 small fight, which was broken up quietly. We also needed Little help, as after about the 15th beer, and 5th shot, I was loosing track quickly how much we had to drink.

Sunday morning woke up at 10am, moved real slow, had breakfast, and started our ride home.

On the ride home, we took US-1 to the wild life refugee, and took that down to Tittusville. From there, we took US-1 to 405, rode that East past the Kennedy Space Center. We must have saw 20 alligators on the sides of that rode, one was easy over 10'. The ride was gorgeous, beautiful day, and this was one of the days where you really appreciated owning a motorcycle, and enjoying the scenery.

We then headed south to A1A, over to 520, and stopped at Apple-Bee's, and had their 2 for $20.00, which we both had 7oz Sirloin steaks, with the Spanish appetizer, all for $20 bucks, can't beat that !

Got home around 7;30pm, and had a great weekend, lots to see and do, and had a ton of fun.

It was a blast!

Next plan is Bike Night next month in Plant City, in May we have a ride to the Smokies, and looking forward to planning some more trips here soon. We may possibly also be doing Sturgis this year, just trying to work out the last details with some friends

Sorry we didn't get to meet up with the meet & greet crowd, I'm waiting for someone to post how that was, I wish I could have been there, but you can't be in two places at the same time

I also had lunch planned with friends, but never hooked up, friends at the race track, never hooked up, supposed to meet people on Main St Saturday night, never hooked up, and had a ride with our club, which we were going to ride back with on Sunday , as they were just out for the day, and we missed them also.


Have fun

Pocket Aces
03-09-2009, 01:06 PM
Sounded like a great time. Weather was beautiful over the weekend. Any pics?

FL-VTX-Rider
03-09-2009, 02:30 PM
To tell you the truth, I kept leaving the camera in my trunk, and every time said, " I should have bought the camera"

It was one of those weekends, were your so busy running around,and doing stuff, that I never took any pics.

I don't know which was more fun Saturday night, watching all the bikes going down Main St with costumes on etc, or watching all the wild women all night

it was quit amusing, and allot of fun, I can't wait for
Oktoberfest now!

One thing is, the crowds definitely shifted more towards Iron Horse, and Bruce Rossmeyers ( Destination Daytona )
That whole area was really busy. Main St was ( ok ) around mid afternoon, which normally it's like that till after dark, then all hell breaks loose

Next month I plan on doing Plant City bike night, that will be the first for me over there

Robster
03-09-2009, 05:53 PM
FL-VTX-Rider is more positive than me, LOL.

The Meet n Greet was nice, though I expected more people.

Weather was awesome.
The Loop's beautiful Oasis-ness was unfortunately a bit dried and discolored due to drought and cold.
Riding by the coast still thrilling.

The traffic to and from Destination Daytona dealership ... horrendous,
I feel sorry for the vendors across the dealership.
They must miss out on alot of business, because many don't want the traffic hassle.

Main Street:
Froggy's always a hoot, and Full Moon had decent bands.
That said, ... Dirty Harry's band ....aaaaaa, not that good, IMHO.

In Ormond, Iron Horse always does a great job ... great band this year.

Usually, (across Iron Horse), Hog Pen, Boot Hill, etc ... there are decent bands ... nope, not this year.
In fact, Boot Hill in Ormond was .... NOT THERE ! :yikes:
Deadwood or something like that replaced it, ... it was dead alright,
... boring, few people, fewer vendors, no band ... it was weird how desolate it was.

Great bands, shows (entertainment) ... make for fun times, ... BW 09 lacked this.

I found there were MUCH fewer people/bikers than usual.
Hotels on A1A are usually packed, parking lots full of bikes ... not this year.
It seems the economy has really affected this bike event. No Umph !

Good thing is ... you didnt have to wait much to be seated at a restaurant.

Since it's more locals and smaller venue, I expect Leesburg to be lots better,
looking forward to that.

Sorry for ranting ... just being sincere.

FL-VTX-Rider
03-09-2009, 06:56 PM
Thanks for the reply, and I welcome others views and opinions on Bike Week 2009, as everyone has different views.

For one, my wife and I like the bigger crowds, tend to ride with the louder pipe guys rolling down the road, and still like to party every once in a while, and this past weekend, we had a blast

I agree, I was at last years Bike Week, and Oktoberfest, and Oktoberfest 2008 seemed to have more bikers then Bike Week 2009.

On the other hand, I had a friend coming down from Brunswick ( GA ), and Sunday afternoon counted 673 motorcycles within the 2 hour drive south between the border of GA and Daytona. That wasn't including all the big trucks pulling big trailers, who knows how many bikes they had in those.

I thought that was pretty cool

One thing I missed Saturday at noon was the Cabbage patch Cole slaw womens wrestling.

I'm looking forward to Leesburgh and Plant City as well, and hopefully will get to meet some of the VTXers again :thumbup:

BTW, even though Bike Week 2009 wasn't as busy as it has been in the past, and it probably won't be like that again for another 10+ years until the economy rebounds again, there were still over 100,000 bikes that attended, we walked all up and down the parking lots, looking at tags, and a ton of people crossed the FL boarder to come to this,and if anything it helps the economy for the state that we all live in.

So my summary is, I agree it wasn't as the past, but for todays economy , I think it was a great turn out :thumbup:

Hopefully it really doesn't 10 years though , and the bikers :doorag:
and the vendors show up again like it was in the past

flcowboyiniraq
03-10-2009, 07:37 AM
Glad ya'll had fun. I checked in our room on the 26th checked out early on sunday. I was supposed to check out Monday. The Tuesday before I left I purchased a new 18 footer inclosed trailer to haul the bikes up. I decided to clean my truck all day Wensday and polish every inch. I pulled a back muscle so the first two days I was laid up in bed pretty much.

I did get out and about Friday night for a little while. My buddy had to leave to go back to Lakeland on Friday morning. so it left me there alone until the girls came up from Lakeland. I had a shirt made with arrows pointing to the left and right saying these are my bitches lol

My green machine looked really good. It had a lot of pics taken of it. I had it all repainted lime pearl green. I decided I am building a chopper and painting it pearl lime green too.

I liked staying close to main street this year. Easier to get back to the hotel when I got drunk lol

My one girl was rding on the back on main street and showed some upper body parts had the crowd going crazy and she got busted for it. LOL

The little dinner across from our hotel was very good and cheap too. We partied at iron hoarse and boot hill lots of fun. I was surprised the beer was so cheap this year.

The reason I left early was it was raining in the morning then it got cold and I had enough anyway. I wish I knew how to post pics on the new site here or I would post some.

Is it me since they changed this whole site posting pics is a pain in the but?


John

FL-VTX-Rider
03-10-2009, 03:22 PM
John, I sent ya a PM how to post the pics, very easy to do :thumbup:

If you have any troubles , just PM me, and I'll walk you through it

thanks for posting, sounds like a blast!

FL-VTX-Rider
03-10-2009, 03:23 PM
Ok, Who saw the BOSS HOG with two 502 CI motors in front !

That machine was an animal, imagine two
502ci motors on a 900lb bike !!