Bike Week 2008, Daytona Beach, FL
This is my 25th consecutive year attending this rally and although it has changed over the years, it was still a great time. The time of year has something to do with it of course, I ride year round but warm weather riding after 3 or 4 months of riding in the cold feels great.
For 20 years I rode the bike down no matter what the weather was, some trips beautiful while others sucked. In the last 5 years I made the decision to ride or trailer on whether or not a good friend of mine needed bikes delivered down to Florida or not. This year he did, so I left Virginia the Tuesday before the Daytona rally to deliver the bikes.
We have two bikes, a 2002 Electraglide Classic with about 20,000 miles on it and a 1989 Sport Electraglide with 204,000 miles on it. I bought both bikes new but since the ‘89 is the sweetest riding bike I have ever ridden we usually end up taking that, as we did this year.
We rode the bike from Daytona to Tampa to see my mom and the low beam stopped working.
Since Florida is a headlight mandatory state I went out to buy a bulb.
Seven bike shops later, I found myself at the Harley dealer spending $98.00 for an entire headlight assembly, since no-one stocked the old bulb (“We can order it ...Takes about a week”).
We headed back to Daytona Friday night to catch the 1st weekend of bike week, which is known as the “locals weekend”. It was quite busy, but the rest of the rally was down in both attendance and spending. The local paper headline one day was “Bikers Are Being Frugal This Year”. Well, hmm, when motels are charging what they are down there and gas is $3.50 a gallon, what do they expect?
We attended the DeLand Bike Rally which was well thought out and well put together. Music, plenty of liquid refreshments and bike only parking. The next day we rode to St. Augustine via A1A alongside the ocean. The bike ran beautiful and the view of the ocean was...oh hell...I’m ready to head back now.
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The Razorbacks rocked Main Street which was as crazy as ever. Ross and Rotten and David Allen Coe played at the world famous Iron Horse Saloon daily. Women wrestled in cream corn, pudding and coleslaw at various drinking establishments. Two chopper shows and the 3 day Rat’s Hole Bike Show and two swapmeets filled the week up nicely.
If you ride halfway normal, don’t have apehangers above your shoulders and no wheelstands, the local PD leaves you alone. I have yet to see any DUI checkpoints in all the years I have attended. Some of the nights were cool, but all in all it was good weather for riding. My rear base gasket started leaking a little so I guess it’s time to put that cam I bought in now. Maybe we’ll see you down there for Biketoberfest, let us know! I know where all the places that don’t raise their drink prices are! One of the best is Jan & Libs Hi-Tops in Edgewater in case you find yourself in the area, tell them Still Runnin Magazine sent you!
Keep Rolling, Big John