Can do Daytona
Maverick - Mar 13, 2007

From our offices in Colorado, it took three days to get to Daytona, four days there and three days to return to the Front Range. A full ten days wrapped around Daytona Bike Week.  Unfortunately, travel to and from Daytona was in a cage and not on our bike. 

 

Why do Daytona? For some, Daytona Bike Week signals the transition from dreary seasonal “lows” to the “highs” that come from lots of sunshine, wind in your hair and the fun of your favorite ride! For others, Daytona becomes a meeting place for old friends. For the remainder, Daytona is mental health week where un-throttled expressions flow as freely as the Colorado River during a spring thaw!

 

“Bike Week” is the kind of motorcycle rally where you find diversity. Lots of metrics, customs, and OEM bikes of all kinds. As for operators and passengers, all demographics seem well represented. 

 

Bike Week is spread out with no single core or gathering point as with some rallies. Sure, there is a “special kind of beat” on Main Street in Daytona and when we were there the “juices were flowing!”

 

There also was much going on at the Speedway, Beach Street, and about 12 miles north of Daytona in the Boot Hill area, and even farther north at Bruce Rossmeyer’s new Harley-Davidson store. 

 

The reality is that Bike Week seems like multiple rallies within a rally!  Each with its own cache of vendors and personality. However, each venue seemed to share common themes of scrutinizing the latest collection of metal and invention on two or three wheels, music, socializing, people watching and booze.

 

Showstoppers were bikes, booze, butts and boobs! We leave to your imagination the reasons why!

 

There were ample apparel and souvenir choices; however, if you visited more than two stores for t-shirts, you most likely were looking at a repeat of the same offerings. 

 

Vendors are always a highlight at motorcycle rallies and Bike Week was no exception. There were pockets of vendors everywhere, each with substantial variety.  

 

On a negative note, it was very challenging to find comprehensive information about Daytona Bike Week. Most information was put out in fragments or subprograms. This left it up to rally participants to put the pieces together to determine where to go and what time to get there to have the full experience. Perhaps this explains why so many bikers ended up in the nearest saloon or bar. Perhaps it was just too much trouble to find their way to any of the other entertaining destinations. 

 

As far as a survival guide: get lost in the moment while making your way to the following venues:

 

 

For between event entertainment and into the morning hours, it seems the best thing to do is rev your engines and pop your clutch along any of the many densely populated streets along the central coast of The Sunshine State to solicit stares and glares.