Bike Week is not all that bad if you know places to go and ride along with places to stay away from like Rossmeyer's new shop. When Rossmeyer figures how to keep traffic flowing it will be a OK place, but not until that happens. The Cops are not real bad on bikes if you ride normal.

 

There is no other place in the country during February that you can ride in 80 degree sunny weather! It is not a bad deal.

 

My wife and I go to both events each year, stay right on the beach and have a blast. If it's not for you, plan your vacations for those times and go somewhere you want to be.

 

125 days til Sturgis!!

 

Dispatch,

You have to recognize someone who has drunk the camber of commerce koolaid. Some of these folks, it doesn't matter how long they have been residents, will support ANYTHING the city sponsors. It could be a bike week, a sand festival or even a shark poo eating contest if the city stands to make a buck off of it and they can spin it to be politically correct.

I see your point and see the exact same thing happening in Myrtle Beach. Sure, first timers (from overseas and elsewhere) will have a blast because they have never seen the stale old stuff before.

If a city was really interested in the future of an event (instead of the instant profit) they would be sure to try and mix things up a bit - and I don't mean adding new laws and regulations every year. That gets extremely tedious!

 

I've been going for years and Daytona rarely gets old for me. I always find some mischief to get into that's different from the time before.

I do remember when beer was cheaper, as were the hotel rooms. Hopefully, the sour economy will swing it back in that direction.

 

I fired up my laptop when I got to the Savanna tourist rest stop and placed an add on Craig's list. I had several calls for places to stay before I pulled into Daytona.
I stayed at Ponce Inlet(8 miles south of Daytona), with a great couple, in their house. $500 for ten days. That's hard to top, especially with the 12% hotel tax, Fla. puts on lodging. I hit a home run here, because they had a garage for the bike and use of the washer and dryer.
After bike week, I stayed in another young couple's house in Marathon, for $50 a night, while I was in the Keys.
Another cost savings was both couples, told me of all the local places to eat and drink, at reasonable prices.
I don't have a photo handy of the Ponce Inlet house, but here's one of the Marathon house, both were super clean.

 

I figured that there were people out their with common sense. It's good to see, you are one of them. Your absolutely right. The posters like the one from London, England, are typical(first timers). He has no idea what he's talking about, with no clue about what's going on here. People like this come here maybe a week or 2 out of the year. Eating out everyday, staying in a hotels on A1A thinking this town would be a great place to live, it's is not. What you said is exactly what I heard a city member say about 5 months ago. "If people who live/come here don't like the way we do things, screw'em! There's millions of nieve one timers to take their place". One timer's also applies to residents. It's like their proud of the constant abuse year after year and they could care less about the consequences. Your right, I can't figure out why these mindless, spineless sheep don't all standing up to the city and the corrupt way they "do business" year after year. Believe me, I know what I'm talking about. There is even a serious hatred between the city and and the Volusia county officals. They "never" see eye to eye. It's a fact. Daytona cops and sheriffs deputies are even at each others throats, regularly. The city of Daytona Beach wants nothing more than to make this a condominium 'only' town. They admit it. Their trying to drive out what's left of the boardwalk area and main street. They want it gone for good. They are succeeding as time goes on. As I've stated, the bottom line is this town ain't s--- anymore, if it ever was. As soon as I can find a buyer for my home, I'm out of here and Florida altogether.

 

Grew up in Orlando have been to bike week many times since the early 70's.Still lots of fun but I miss the free beach access and the big bike shows were free or a minimal charge.The town has changed alot.To many condo'ers don't want bikeweek. I still enjoy the I-95 swap meet.Orlando HD has some good happenings.As for the town of Daytona , the neighboorhood the Outlaws clubhouse is in are mostly glad because they keep down the street crime in that area the people feel safer,that was in the paper about a year ago.

 

I've heard alot of good things about Orlando Harley Davidson. They have become serious competition for Bruce Rossmeyer's dealerships at these bike events. Each year the biker magazine articles track the amount of people who go out their rather than come here. They hold concerts and events that are just as good if not better than any they hold here during Bikeweek/Biketoberfest. As far as the Outlaws, the FBI raided that clubhouse many months ago. They are gone, laying low in an undisclosed "clubhouse", these days.