Bike Week back when
Grand HDF Member
Joined: Aug 2020
Posts: 4,798
Likes: 5,889
From: Knoxville
[QUOTE=REW13;20515999]I was there 87 or 88...road into something I knew nothing about just came upon... People were cool...
Unfortunately not sure if it was then? Or a little later I had to ride bitch... Young lady told me that she let me ride her bike if I could kick start it
That sporty threw me!!!![/QUOTE]
ha ha just watched some late 60s biker movie, every bike was a kick. Scene where theyre all leaving, camera pans over everyone kicking 20-30 bikes.
Unfortunately not sure if it was then? Or a little later I had to ride bitch... Young lady told me that she let me ride her bike if I could kick start it
That sporty threw me!!!![/QUOTE]
ha ha just watched some late 60s biker movie, every bike was a kick. Scene where theyre all leaving, camera pans over everyone kicking 20-30 bikes.
Seasoned HDF Member
Joined: Feb 2016
Posts: 8,020
Likes: 6,913
From: NC
A look back at Bike Week almost half a century ago when it was full of bikers not tourists, sightseers and gawkers.
So this is not really true of bike week as I remember it. I grew up in Daytona Beach in the 70s always on a bike and didnt leave the area till the late 80s and have ridden to bike week almost every year since then. So I have a almost 50 year perspective on seeing bike week evolve. Way before my time, bike week was about racing on the beach before Bill France built the International speedway and it was mostly motorcycle enthusiasts that came to Daytona to race or watch the races. Main Street didnt really become established till the late 70s, as a matter of fact, the owner of Boot Hill closed his bar during bike week in his first year because he didnt want to deal with rowdy bikers. The 80s were when the bad element really showed up during bike week, cops starting cracking down, bars started banning colors. It became so bad, the town elders came close to completely shutting bike week down in the late 80s, by then the cabbage patch and the us1 bars were getting going because people didnt want to deal with cops checking loud exhausts and cracking skulls.
To me bike week has always been about motorcycles, races and meeting people. Yes, things have changed, honestly some for the better but you can still experience the tradition that started in the 40s. Those who squawk about commercialism at bike week, I would tell you it was the merchants around Main Street and France that saved bike week when the town supervisors wanted to kill it because they didnt want to loose the business by seeing bikers move somewhere else.
So this is not really true of bike week as I remember it. I grew up in Daytona Beach in the 70s always on a bike and didnt leave the area till the late 80s and have ridden to bike week almost every year since then. So I have a almost 50 year perspective on seeing bike week evolve. Way before my time, bike week was about racing on the beach before Bill France built the International speedway and it was mostly motorcycle enthusiasts that came to Daytona to race or watch the races. Main Street didnt really become established till the late 70s, as a matter of fact, the owner of Boot Hill closed his bar during bike week in his first year because he didnt want to deal with rowdy bikers. The 80s were when the bad element really showed up during bike week, cops starting cracking down, bars started banning colors. It became so bad, the town elders came close to completely shutting bike week down in the late 80s, by then the cabbage patch and the us1 bars were getting going because people didnt want to deal with cops checking loud exhausts and cracking skulls.
To me bike week has always been about motorcycles, races and meeting people. Yes, things have changed, honestly some for the better but you can still experience the tradition that started in the 40s. Those who squawk about commercialism at bike week, I would tell you it was the merchants around Main Street and France that saved bike week when the town supervisors wanted to kill it because they didnt want to loose the business by seeing bikers move somewhere else.
Tent camping was better than the ranger roll I usually used.
"Bikers" were not welcomed everywhere. Smaller towns around Daytona had lots of police presence.
Then came 1985 and the EVO.
I was riding Moto Guzzi's in the 80s.
Last edited by Goose_NC; Oct 11, 2023 at 06:21 PM.
Club Member
Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 66,137
Likes: 51,477
From: Niles Canyon Ca.
Not exactly correct, I actually lived in Daytona Beach in the seventies and early eighties around when this picture was taken.. What we call Bike Week in Daytona has actually gone through several phases since it started in the 1930's as the Daytona 200 race on the beach. After WWII, it was a pretty tame affair, really didnt get crazy till the gangs and drugs started making their presence felt around the same time I lived there. Things got really tense with the cops getting hostile to anyone who looked like a hard core biker (reason events spread to Ormond Beach, Deland, new Smyrna Beach etc). The politicians were inches away from banning the event till Bill France and the local chamber of commerce convinced them to allow the event to continue. So I would say todays version of bike week probably started around 1984 or so when the speedway was functional, Main Street became a vendor paradise and cops and bikers started getting along reasonably well. The rest is history.
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Seasoned HDF Member
Joined: Jun 2014
Posts: 5,475
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From: pacific northwest
Mid late 80's everything was changing, Evo's and a wickedly ingenious marketing campaign on the mocos part was the advent of what it's all evolved today. Before that was another world altogether when it came to the bike culture and events in general. Completely different breed riding those days and not just the classic "dirty biker" stereotype.
Club Member
Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 66,137
Likes: 51,477
From: Niles Canyon Ca.
My first ride on a Harley was back in 84 at a rally in Hannibal, Mo, on a model called the FXRT Sport Glide, was surprisingly impressed although did not buy my first HD until 30 years later. Back in those days the rally's I went to like Ruidoso, N.M. the Gold Wings dominated all other makes and models however HD's were becoming bigger in numbers at a very fast pace.