Terry’s Top 10: Good Things About Smaller Bike Rallies
By Terry Massey
There used to be so many bike weeks in Myrtle Beach in May that locals took to calling it Bike Month. Now we don't see enough hogs to have a Bike Day.
The Myrtle Beach City Council, in no position to cancel the festivals, did the next logical thing by making the events terribly inconvenient for the attendees.
It passed several ordinances to deter the Harley-Davidson Spring Rally and Atlantic Beach Black Bike Week participants from crossing into the city limits, such as a helmet law, and stepped up its police presence to set up check points. Some call it harassment, some call it smart and some call it stupid.
The Harley riders were so upset they successfully called for a boycott (“Not a Dime in '09” was their rally cry), refusing to spend money inside the city limits. Many residents and tourists were happy to see them go, while those who depend on the dollars generated by the rallies were upset. All those dimes add up.
While it remains to be seen what this year's rallies will hold (“Not a Penny in '10-y”?), it's safe to say the numbers will be way down compared to previous years. And while you can debate the pros and cons of the action to get rid of the rallies, it's good news for families looking to get away in the month of May.
Here are the top 10 good things about the decline of the bike rallies:
10) I heard the oddest thing while sitting on my back porch last May, sort of a chirping sound that was strange yet familiar. Then I had a flashback to the years before I moved to Myrtle Beach. They were crickets. I'm sure they've been here all along but they were no match for the unmuffled motorcycles.
9) Nothing used to be more frustrating than pulling into a parking lot and finding it full because a bunch of bikers had decided to take up a full space by parking one motorcycle in the middle. There was just enough room left for your vehicle not to fit next to it, forcing you to find a vacant spot miles away.
8) Finding a hotel used to be a nightmare in the month of May. You might end up the lone family in the middle of an “Easy Rider” re-creation, which would have been cool when you were 20. But when you're 40 and have a wife and three kids to look after, vacationing with 100 guys named Snake just isn't as fun.
7) Restaurants also have become a lot less crowded since the bikes rolled out of town and the crowds and menus have changed. Instead of discounted draft beer and chicken wings, you're more likely to find juice boxes and chicken fingers being served to ankle-biters who ride bikes that still have training wheels.
6) Now you can sit on your hotel balcony or your home's screened-in porch and actually hear the ocean – you know, that large body of water just to the east of town that attracts all the tourists in the first place. It's a lot more relaxing to listen to the waves than Bubba impressing his biker buddies in the burnout pit.
5) The crowds used to be so large on Ocean Boulevard that police put together a crazy one-way traffic plan that made it impossible to get around downtown. Not only is the street back to normal, but there's also an alternative walking route on the new oceanfront boardwalk that opens this month. Ah, room to roam.
4) Replacing the motorcycles with minivans may not be much of a relief on traffic, but at least the view is better. Now you can kill time counting out-of-state license plates instead of being grossed out by the sight of bikers' beer bellies and their old ladies on the back sporting Daisy Duke's way-too-short shorts.
3) Traffic used to be a nightmare during the month of May, with hordes of Harleys cruising in safety-in-number packs and the occasional wise guy weaving in and out of cars. Now the traffic is back to normal, slowed only by lost tourists doing 25 mph in the fast lane while unknowingly flashing their turn signals.
2) Gone are the belly-flop and burnout contests, replaced by more family-friendly activities like Mayfest and the Beach Music Festival in the downtown area. As much as Junior might want to see a wet T-shirt contest, tell him to wait until he's old enough for college spring break and let him ride the mechanical bull.
1) The bars and tattoo parlors may be emptier now but the tourist attractions and beachwear stores are fuller, so the argument about the local economy taking a loss without the rallies might actually be a redirection of dollars, at least when families finally find out they can come to Myrtle Beach without being up to their eyeballs and eardrums in motorcycles.
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