MNO Blog – Motorcycles, News, Opinions

We hit Sanford early morning for bikefest, not sure why we left so early, but we did. We hit the local McDonalds for breakfast and I am really not sure why we did, but we did. After killing time in town with breakfast and stopping to get some super 8 tape, we rolled back into the event area close to 9:00 am.

With fall here, which we do not experience in Florida, the days are getting shorter so the early morning lighting sucks for taking pictures. The back neighborhood streets are beginning to remind me of Daytona Beach with the ride quiet signs as WESH channel 2 news reports complaints about the noise.

Local news reports an expected growth for the Sanford motorcycle event, but if there was it seemed minimal to me. There did seem to be a larger amount of biker event vendors. There were more tattoo vendors then the previous year and more parts and accessory vendors made the walk down East Seminole a little more interesting.

One truly notable vendor we came across was Redz Custom Airbrush where their motto is “boring paint should be a crime”. The custom airbrush paint work on this bike was anything but boring. The amount of work spent on the detail of this paint shows right down to the rivets.

The Can-Am Spyder demo rides were a big hit. You could see trails of these things buzzing around the area all day.

A pretty unique 3 wheel vehicle called the Spyder Roadster powered by the Rotax V990 engine. I listened as most of the comments of the demo riders were positive.

This year the Bikefest visitor’s were treated to two stunt rider shows. About every hour and a half there was a street bike stunt show followed up by motocross jumpers.

These riders were good, performing 3 at a time doing wheelies, stoppies and burnouts. They had a pretty awesome finish to the show were all 3 bikes would slide in together and the rider would dismount. The kind of stuff you do not do on the open roads.

They moved the bike show out to the main event area this year which was kind of nice, but from a photographer’s view the grass could have been cut deeper before opening day.

I needed to find a nice looking purple motorcycle to submit to the Flickr Lupus Awareness group purple photos and I found this sharp looking custom built by JZ Riders of Sanford. I looked through most of the pictures that had been submitted to help create Lupus awareness and I had not seen any motorcycles, so I think I was able to send in something unique with this motorcycle picture.

I guess these pie eating contests are going to come back into style at motorcycle events. I shot the contest this year at Leesburg and Sanford now too. If Daytona decides to have an eating contest, I am hoping they will do Krystal hamburgers. I can eat a sack load of those little guys.

Daytona Biketoberfest is coming up this weekend!

Technorati Tags: bikefest, sanford, motorcycle events, biketoberfest, daytona beach, bike shows, custom motorcycles

Well its time for the end of the year wrap of of motorcycle events in Florida. With Biketoberfest only a week away, many locals will be heading out to Sanford Bikefest for a warm-up weekend.

Looking back on last year this time, I posted about the upcoming Bikefest, but I failed to post a followup on what happened at the weekend 2006 Florida motorcycle event.

Last year we stayed for all 3 days of the event and as we do for all motorcycle events we took along the tent to enjoy some camping. There is not a whole lot of camping areas around the Sanford area, which is surprising being there are many miles of undeveloped true Florida land.

A little search on Google netted us one of the nicest camping areas around. Lake Mills Park is a great place to pitch a tent and spend the weekend and is fairly close to Fort Mellon Park in Sanford where Bikefest is held.

This year we will only be visiting Sanford Bikefest on Saturday. The event is rather small and most of what there is to do and see can be done in one day.

We caught up with a few unusual motorcycles and modes of transportation last year. Notice anything unusual about this bike? Yep, you got it. This motorcycle has not one, but two kickstands!

This guy was demonstrating how to get to Sanford by water riding on a self propelled surfboard.

East Seminole Blvd. runs adjacent to Lake Monroe and is closed to motorcycle traffic only during Bikefest. You can catch some good motorcycle pictures along this road and a few more at the bike show early morning.

The Sanford Police motorcycle division had a little fun when JZ Riders Customs let them all take a spin around the block on the new line of Saxon motorcycles they had on display in the main Bikefest area.

Orlando radio station personality Shannon Burke rides the 104.1 “Real Bike” along with the parade of custom motorcycles.

One good thing about a smaller venue like the Sanford Bikefest is when its concert time, you can get right up close to the bands. Last year it was a treat to kick back and listen to Deep South. Check out the members of this band :

Artimus Pyle (formerly of Lynyrd Skynyrd), Robert Nix (formerly of Atlanta Rhythm Section), Jimmy Hall (formerly of Wet Willie), Hal McCormack, Dean Daughtry (formerly of Atlanta Rhythm Section), Chris Hicks (formerly of Marshall Tucker Band)

While Deep South was on stage, I got the special treat of chatting with Gene Odom who was Ronnie Van Zant’s personal bodyguard, security for the Lynyrd Skynyrd band. Gene was on hand promoting his books and selling autographed copies.

Sanford Bikefest is small, but big enough to enjoy a day or two checking out some of the local custom motorcycle builder’s new creations, meet up with friends and enjoy the free concerts.

Technorati Tags: motorcycle events, bikefest, sanford, Florida, rides, music, custom motorcycles, events

Got to hurry! The Burke Real Ride is coming up this weekend, Sunday May 20th. You can purchase your Real Ride tickets here. Portions of the proceeds will benefit to Boggy Creek Camp that serves enrich the lives of children who have chronic or life threatening illnesses. So like most every motorcycle ride or run, you get to have a great time among friends and help those out in need.

You can read my post  Coverage of the Burke Real Ride about last year’s ride to see more about how the event went and meet some of the WTKS Real Radio 104.1 personalities like Daniel, Black Bean, Drunky the Bear and Dirty Jim. Yea, I know the Drunky the Bear link goes to his my space profile. Drunky is one of my my space friends, so I had to give him a plug.

This year The Monsters will be performing at Destination Daytona were the ride will end, but lunch will be served and the party begins. If you missed The Monsters in concert during Leesburg Bikefest, here is your chance to see them again. Don’t miss out this time.

Real Riders will get entry into the ride, lunch and a Real Ride T Shirt.

Shannon, Cindi and I should get shirts for all the promotion that I do …. hint hint. We will be there at the 12:00 start off form Ker’s Wing House in Altamonte and taking pictures along the ride and during the party at Bruce Rossmeyer’s. See you there!

Check out WTKS 104.1 Real Radio for The Monsters and The Shannon Burke Show and not to forget SBK

Technorati Tags: motorcycle events, real ride, destination daytona, florida, motorcycles, daytona beach, ormond beach

Wow, I have been busy the past months. I am happy to announce that the long awaited publishing of my 2007 edition of my bike week pictures is taking place as I type this post. There are already over 650 pictures posted at the newly designed Daytona Motorcycle Rally site. So far, I have uploaded some of the most requested bike week pictures of motorcycle ride on the loop, bike week bars and  bike week babes.

Included in the next upload of files will be pictures taken at some of the most popular bike week events such as the world famous cole slaw wrestling held at the Cabbage Patch Bar during bike week and biketoberfest.

I also have some pretty good photos taken at the A A A Welding Bike Week block party held in Deland of a motorcycle stunt show performed by Kyle Woods. Of course I have a Daytona Main Street gallery as well as pictures taken at Destination Daytona.

No bike week photo album would be complete without pictures taken at the famous Rat’s Hole Custom Motorcycle Show where they held the first V8 build-off and there were plenty of custom rides, choppers and babes.

I also wrote a article about the bike week scene for Motorcycle USA online publication and contributed some photo work as well. You can check out the article by clicking here.

Head on over to Daytona Motorcycle Rally Bike Week Edition and check out the 2007 Bike Week Pictures.

Technorati Tags: babes, bike week, coleslaw wrestling, daytona beach, deland, florida, motorcycle news, ormond beach

I guess one of the biggest draws to the famed Daytona Beach’s Main Street during bike week is for the cruising. Whether you choose to walk or ride this strip of bars, shops and restaurants that are packed along Main Street beginning at S. Peninsula Dr. that continues up to Ocean Ave., it is a people watching safari. Two and three wheeled vehicles of all shapes and sizes and covered with everything imaginable will appear on this strip at least once during the ten day Florida Motorcycle Event. Men and women from all over the world will visit Main Street to shop, eat and drink will checking out the masses that migrate to Daytona Beach annually for bike week.

Wet T shirt and bikini contest are almost an hourly event as the bars attempt to draw in thirsty spectators. Beer Tub Babes, half naked, draw the eye of people passing by while every cell phone with a camera is in hand to grab a shot to bring home as a souvenir of the visit to Daytona Beach, Florida.

The motorcycle industries top names also appear in this area. I was lucky enough to catch custom motorcycle builder Russell Mitchell of Exile Cycles working on a build at Automatic Slim’s on Main Street next to Dirty Harry’s saloon. The bike Russell is working on was to be presented to John Mellencamp and will be featured in Motorcycle Mania 4 to be aired in April.

With all the things to see on Main Street, the number 1 attraction? Babes. Biker Babes, Beer-Tub Babes, babes in chaps and bikini babes.

There is always plenty of great looking eye candy on the strip in Daytona.

More Bike Week Babes on my Bike Week Daytona web site.

Technorati Tags: bike week, motorcycle news, daytona beach, florida, motorcycle events

Staying at home in my bed after tent camping for 6 nights made it hard to get out of the sack early Saturday morning to return to Daytona Beach for the Rat’s Hole custom bike show, but I did. The annual Florida motorcycle event was not extremely busy the first few days, in fact up until Wednesday the bike week scene seemed tamed. Putting aside the nightly party that was happening on our end of the campgrounds, but that is another story all together.

As promised, the weather for the first Saturday was cold and wet and the cold did not give way to warmer temperatures until Monday. The good thing was that out of the 10 days of bike week we only seen rain one day. We postponed our Daytona Loop photo shoot until Sunday due to the in climate weather on Saturday.

It is hard to wrap up nine days of bike week into one article, so I am not going to try. I am still in the process, but closed to finished, of sorting out the pictures that we took during our visit. The final Saturday of bike week was wild and crowded. Running late coming from Melbourne and getting caught in the Daytona Speedway traffic did not help. It took nearly an hour to get from the International Speedway Blvd. Exit of I-95 to the Daytona Lagoon were the Rat’s Hole bike show was being held.

For the first time, the Rat’s Hole featured a V8 Chopper build-off! The bikes and the main stage were set up in the Tidal Wave Pool that normally holds 500,000 gallons of water. The water was gone for the event…. wonder where they put 500,000 gallons of water while the bike show was set up? Any way, the show was held under blue skies and there was plenty to keep our cameras busy. I will do more on the Rat’s Hole later.

Heading down SR A1A to Main Street later in the afternoon to check out the happenings, we found that Main Street was wall to wall. Where there were not bikes, there were people and no room left for either. For the final Saturday of bike week 2007, Main Street took on the look of the bike week of days gone by. It was almost a feeling of “let’s see how far we can take this” pushing the red line on what would get by. It was a good thing and a good feeling to see people having fun, real fun. None of this”I am shocked at all this” looks. For Pete’s sake, if you want family atmosphere head over to Orlando. It is probably too late for the city to revive the entire event back to Daytona Beach, but it looks like they may get a day of the old days.

There were just as many people the entire time of Bike Week, with the exceptions of a lot of Floridians riding in for the day, it is just that they are more spread out now. US 1 has become the new Main Street and a lot of the traffic has been pulled to the North with the opening of Destination Daytona along with other anchor industry leaders like Corbin. New biker bars, custom chopper and motorcycle dealers and tattoo shops are popping up all around the Ormond Beach area. I will get to all this later on as well.

So, I am back from Daytona and will try to get as much information about what happened at the event posted in the next day or so. Keep an eye out for them.

Technorati Tags: motorcycle news, bike week, daytona beach, florida, motorcycle events, bike shows

You can see by the recent Bike Week webcam shot that Main Street is starting to see some life.

I made a post the other day on how to watch bike week from the Wise Guys Watering Hole web cams and I just captured this shot from their bike week webcam looking down on Main Street Daytona Beach. The weather is looking better, but the winds are still high.

Look for us! We always take pictures on the road, Cindi will have camera ready as we head up to the Cabbage Patch Bar to set up the tent.

Look for this sign that the Naked Cowboy is holding and your picture may appear on www.daytonamotorcyclerally.com or our 2007.bike-weekdaytona.com web site. Don’t forget that we shoot on the Daytona Loop as well. If you are interested in getting any private work done while you are in town for bike week, give me a call on my cell 321-961-8936 and we will try to work you in.

Bike Week Hotels are still available and with no minimum stay. Click here to check out popular bike week destinations.

This will be my last post for a couple of days until I return home to do updates. I’m out of here, see you on the road. Ride safe and enjoy!

Technorati Tags: bike week, travel, hotels, motorcycle news, daytona beach, florida

As we make our final preparations to leave for Daytona Beach the winds here in Melbourne Florida are kicking up and the sky is threatening. The image above is from my web site Ride Weather and it stays current updating the Daytona Beach weather hourly.

Looks like Bike Week will be getting off to a windy and cloudy start with chances of scattered thunder storms today and tomorrow. As of yet, we have not seen any rain, but be very careful riding in this wind. Wind gusts of up to 35 mph have been recorded as a front moves along the Florida peninsula.

This is a screen capture of the sky cam located in Daytona Beach on the WESH Channel 2 tower. The picture shows the cloud coverage, but no rain.

This picture was captured form the web cam located on the Daytona Beach Pier looking down the Florida coastline, you can see the cloud build up. Here is the extended Daytona Beach weather outlook:

Friday…Mostly cloudy with numerous showers and thunderstorms. Breezy. Highs in the upper 70s. Southwest winds 15 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 60 percent.

Thursday…Partly sunny. Highs in the mid 70s.

Source:

http://www.wesh.com

http://www.daytonavisit.com

http://www.rideweather.com

Technorati Tags: motorcycle news, daytona beach, weather, bike week

Back a few weeks ago I ran an article telling you about the best place for steak during bike week. Today, I want to give you a suggestion for the best breakfast!

Scrambled eggs, Bacon, Home fries, Biscuit and Gravy for only a buck! available at the No Name Saloon in Edgewater, Florida during Bike Week and Biketoberfest 9 – 11 am add to that a $1.00 bloody mary and you are set for a new day. The No Name Saloon has daily events and live music during Bike Week, check out the web site for more information.

Technorati Tags: bike week, blog, entertainment, motorcycle news

If you want to see what is going on downtown Daytona Beach during bike week, you can watch it live!

Wise Guys Watering Hole has had one of the best web cams to catch the Main Street action for years. 3 of the cams are pointed to see what is going on inside the bar, but the top floor cam catches a birds eye view of main street Daytona Beach.

If you are not going to Daytona for bike week, you can check in on what is going on 27/7. You can also wave to your friends at home from these cams and get them to take a screen capture for you like the one above. These web cams are a great way to check the weather and crowd conditions as well.

Check them out, I think you will find them useful and fun.

Technorati Tags: bike week, daytona beach, florida, motorcycle news, web cams