Harley Owners Group #0243 / Antelope Valley CA Chapter / Ridgecrest Activity Group

 Daytona Bike Week 2002

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Dennis Linck and George Fields in Daytona...

The morning of February 24th finally arrived. George and I felt we were ready to go. We had the bikes loaded, the luggage and golf clubs shoved into the back of the truck, and the trailer lights and blinkers checked. We pulled out and headed east at about 0800. I was driving the Dodge and pulling the trailer while George was driving the Dakota he was giving his nephew. George and I had planned on making it to Albuquerque that first day but didn't quite get there. About sundown, George notified me that the trailer had no running lights. We stopped along Interstate 40 in Holbrook, Arizona, about 240 miles from Albuquerque, and started doing some roadside troubleshooting on the wiring of the trailer. We found nothing obvious and decided to stay in Holbrook for the night and only proceed during daylight hours until we could get to St. Louis to have the trailer and truck looked at.
Packed and ready to roll
Our goal for the second day was to get to Oklahoma City and we almost made it. We ended up about 100 miles west of Oklahoma City and spent the night in Elk City. The weather during this second day of the trip turned cold and windy on us. We had headed directly into a winter storm that was attacking the Midwest and would have to deal with it for the next couple of days. The next morning when we headed out of Elk Citythe air temp was 10 degrees with a windchill of 17 below zero. We made it to St. Louis just after dark on Tuesday 26 February. We backed the Dodge and trailer into my nephew's driveway in Hazelwood, Missouri and settled in for the night. We had an appointment at Apache Village RV sales and service the next morning. We dropped the truck and trailer off and headed to breakfast. We had just sat down and ordered when we got a call from the RV shop. The problem with the trailer lights was simply due to a blown 40 Amp fuse in the towing package of the Dodge and the mechanic had replaced it and the fix was only going to cost three bucks. The RV shop had made some special arrangements to squeeze us in that morning and now were only going to charge us for the fuze. If you are ever in the St. Louis area and need some RV repairs, I strongly recommend the folks at Apache Village.
Cold morning in St. Louis
The rest of our visit was uneventful - spent the day catching up with relatives and sharing meals with them. We took my mother-in-law out to lunch and went to dinner with my brother and his family. We headed out of St. Louis on the morning of 28 Feb at approximately 0700. The weather was cold but the skies were mostly clear and we were hoping to avoid snow. The trip to George's hometown of Gate City, Virginia took most of Thursday. We pulled into his Mom's place at about 1930 that evening. We had a good visit with all of George's family, got the ten dollar tour of Gate City and had a great family dinner at a neat little restaurant in Nickelsville, VA called Gages.
Gate City, Virginia
Bev Field's Place
We finally headed to Daytona on the morning of 2 March. The drive south from Virginia to Florida was highlighted with some of the heaviest rains that I have seen in years. The trip slowed to a crawl three times due to accidents on Interstate 95. The rain finally stopped and the skies cleared as we got within about 50 miles of Daytona. George and I made it to our Hotel, the Tropic Shores, at around 1930 and proceeded to offload our luggage and bikes. The next issue we had to deal with was parking the trailer. The hotel had a lot, but it was already packed and we ended up putting our trailer in the front yard of a local for a nominal charge (50 bucks for the week). After settling into the room we headed across the street, picked up a 12 pack, some OJ for breakfast, and shut down for the night. We spent an hour or so reviewing all of the Bike Week fliers trying to work out a plan for the week.
The beach
Our bikes parked in the lot
Sunday morning started off party cloudy and warm. We decided to take a ride north on A1A with no definite destination planned. We road almost to St. Augustine, finally stopping at a roadside seafood house for lunch. The number of bikes heading south to Daytona on A1A was simply amazing. I guess I didn't have a good feel for how large an event Bike Week actually was. After some great gator tail and crab cakes, we headed back south to Daytona, ran into some light rains and decided to stay in for the night. Sunday night the heavy rains came, and it poured for a good part of the night. On Monday we decided to head down to Main Street and check out all of the events there. Again I was amazed at the number of bikes - the street was lined solid with bikes on both sides of the street from A1A to the river. We spent the day checking out the bikes and vendors, the different bars on Main Street - the Boot Hill Saloon, Dirty Harry's, and Froggy's. The weather was terrible - cold, windy and cloudy. Full leathers, face masks, and stocking caps was the dress for the day. The folks at Dirty Harry's had to work really hard to convince six women to enter the afternoon wet t-shirt contest.
West Coast Choppers  
 

Tuesday was a pretty uneventful day. George and I decided to head south to Miami to visit the US's southernmost HD shop. We opted to take the pickup vice the bikes. The weather was still too unpredictable and we didn't want to get caught in any storms. We each picked up a shirt in Miami. We had planned on cruising the beaches at South Beach but the weather again was our enemy- it was mostly cloudy, cool, and windy.

Wednesday morning finally brought out the sun and the warm weather that I thought Daytona was famous for. We headed out north looking to spend the day at the Daytona HD and the Beach Street events but missed the turn off of US-1 and instead ended up at Iron Horse/Jackson Hole/HawdDawg area. We again had headed out early enough to get great parking spots at Wild Bill's saloon, next door to the Iron Horse. We spent the day checking out all of the vendors, sipping a couple of cold ones, and for the most part watching the biker world go by. After leaving the Iron Horse area we headed south to a bar south of our hotel called Chases for their bikini contest. The contest was highlighted by some beautiful women and one little old grandma in one of those t-shirts with a bikini drawn on it. Grandma actually finished third and picked up 100 bucks for her efforts.

Sunrise over the Atlantic
Iron Horse Saloon
Iron Horse Saloon
WINNER!
Bikini Contest 2nd Place
The five finalists
Bikini Car Wash
Thursday we again headed north bound and determined to make it to the Daytona HD shop and the Beach Street events. We got to Beach Street around 0930 or so, got great parking spots on the side of the road and started checking out all of the vendors. The Beach Street setup included the normal t-shirt and other clothing booths, but it also had the various bike manufacturers including Indian, Boss Hoss, Victory, and a slew of parts vendors. We ventured into Daytona HD, picked up some t-shirts, and spent the rest of the morning checking out the various bike manufacturer's displays. The weather on Thursday was again mostly cloudy and cool.
Friday being our last day to check out the events of Bike Week, George and I decided to start the day with a round of golf. We played 18 holes on the north course at the Daytona Golf Club. We were paired up with some locals and had a blast. The golf was not actually highlight film material, but the beer was good and cold, and the weather was spectacular. The day was mostly clear, warm, around 80 or so, and the winds were calm. After our round of golf and seeing all of the bikes out on this beautiful day, we headed back to the hotel, changed from weekend golfers into bikers and decided to head west out to the New Smyrna HD and Gilley's Pub 44. The crowd at Gilley's was enjoying a southern rock band when we arrived. The highlight of the day at Pub 44 was the women's arm wrestling contest that was won by a body builder from Detroit. After Gilley's we headed further west out to the Bikers Paradise at the New Smyrna race track. The Biker's Paradise was again filled with vendors selling the standard wares, and there was a southern rock band on the stage and some drags going on at the ¼ mile strip.
Sunset over the river
Parking at Gilley's Pub 44
Bikers Paradise Angels
 
Arm wrestling champ

We packed up Saturday morning and headed west. We spent the better part of the next three days on the Road, finally pulling into Ridgecrest on Monday evening. For the most part the trip was an interesting experience, but I don't think I will plan on heading back to Daytona in the near future. I was not really ready for the crowds of people or the tens of thousands of motorcycles that we came across in Daytona. We did pick up some good lessons learned that we would like to pass on to the group.

1) Check ALL of the lights on your trailer, brake, blinker, and RUNNING lights before departing on your trip.

2) If you run through rain for any length of time, be sure to stop and check the tie downs on the bikes. We found that when we arrived in Daytona after running through rain most of the day that the straps on the bikes had stretched. Our bikes were in a covered trailer but there was enough moisture in the air to get the straps wet enough to stretch.

3) Bring covers for the bikes. We had planned on using the trailer as a garage each night but……..

4) Plan on parking your trailer away from your hotel and paying a fee to park it.

5) Get a mid morning start each day - makes parking easier. The majority of the crowds didn't show up until around 1100 or so.

6) BE EXTRA CAREFUL and AWARE - there were 9 motorcycle related deaths during bike week.

7) Be ready for CROWDS - USA Today estimated that 500 thousand people were in town for Bike Week.

8) If you have multiple vehicles, radios for communication are a MUST.

-- Dennis Linck
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