Okay, I know I shouldn’t be blowing the lid off this too-good-to-be-true deal, but since I might get back there before you pack your bike and bags and head to the Sunshine State, I’ll take a chance. This is a story about bikes and Florida. No, not Daytona Bike Week or Octoberfest. First off, it’s not in Daytona, not in Miami, notin Disney World Orlando, nor in poshy Palm Beach…but you’re getting warm. The location is Lake Worth which is adjacent to Palm Beach but with a different zip code and a more laid back, bike friendly attitude…and prices.
I had escaped the frenzy of L.A. to visit my brother, my twin brother that is, to celebrate our mutual birthdays. It was getting up there, number wise, and since time and gravity was catching up, I felt it was time to spend time with relativesand to get some much needed R&R in SoFL away from SoCAL. I had grown up in the area before migrating to L.A. to become rich and famous, a plan that still needssome work. In any case I found myself in Lake Worth where my brother lives. Heand his wife ride all over the country and head up a local bike chapter.
So one night I ended up in Lake Worth, population 36,000, which I had remembered as a sleepy little town with not much happening except a fishing pier that had been splintered by a hurricane a while back. Well, the pier had been rebuilt this time out of wave resistant concrete, the public pool and 1920s Casino was being restored, great restaurants had sprung up, and motorcycles had multiplied like rabbits.
I was truly amazed. There were bikes, bikes, bikes, every day of the week and not just on Sundays like you’ll see in wannabee L.A. Also Florida has no helmet law if you're 18 or older. There are no smog checks either, so you can drive that blown big block Chevy hotrod. I think you can also own machine guns. I think George W.’s brother Jeb Bush helped those freedoms along while governator of the state.
Okay, so I head down to Lake Ave., the main drag in Lake Worth and meet up with a Harley rider named Adam who’s also a local Century 21 real estate agent. In December ’08 he got the weekly Lake Worth Bike Night shindig going, with the blessings of local businesses and police as well. It was an instant success, each Thursday night drawing from 500-1200 bikes of all makes, models, years anddispositions from customs, to touring bikes, to sport bikes, to bizarre bikes, all were welcome. Live music, restaurant discounts, cheap brew, and lots of bike ogling.
About three minutes away, after crossing a bridge, you find yourself at a beautiful beach and the Lake Worth pier. The water is very warm since the Gulf Stream comes closest to the U.S. at this point. It's great for swimming, surfing, fishing, boating, para-gliding, and of course riding… you name it.
Now the kicker is that with the recent dip in the economy, house prices are at a lower ebb than the tide at the Lake Worth Lagoon. If you live in SoCal you know that even with the current dilemma, buying a house is not within the grasp of most of us. So when I saw what about 10% of what a house would cost in L.A. could get you in Lake Worth, and we’re talking walking distance to Bike Night and a two minute putt to the beach, I thought why am I not here? If I sold …even just rented…one kidney on eBay, I could own a great little Key West style bungalow…with a/c of course because it does get toasty during the smoldering FL summer.
Talking with the people rolling up for Lake Worth Bike Night only confirmed my first impression… It was paradise at a bargain price. Around 6:00 the bikes start congregating, filling up both sides of the palm tree lined Lake Ave. andspilling over onto adjacent side streets. The arrival of one bike literally stopped traffic, the long bike seen in my pix. Measuring 13 ft. 5 inches, it was piloted by its builder/owner Steve Martino, originally from New York.
Says Steve, “It started out as dream. I guess I was really thinking big. I hand-fabricated it at home in 2004, starting with a custom frame from Killer Choppers in New Hampshire.” Steve stuffed a100 inch RevTech in the frame, stretched the Fatbob tanks to seven gallons and added two shifters and two clutch controls, one up on the custom made bars, the other attached to a suicide shifter on the left side. And yes, the seat and mile high sissy bar can haul three people, although the police tend to frown on it, butcan’t seem to find a law against it.
Another guy that got the local constables’ attention was a rider wearing a t-shirt that said “Demented.” His name was Craig, originally from CT and now a resident of Lake Worth, his bike a root beer colored ’95 Softail with a special accessory not found in the Custom Chrome or Drag catalogs. Strapped to the frontend of his bike was a machete, which he says he plans to turn into a front fender.
“I travel a lot and brought the machete and leather sheath back from Columbia,” Craig said. When he unsheathed the blade, one of the Sheriff’s on duty, apparently there to enforce the $135 fine for walking around with a beer, got on his case, even though Craig assured the officer, who for some reason was wearing a full flak vest, that the blade was dull and simply a gardening implement. That logic fell on deaf ears so the machine went back into the sheath. But I did notice people walking around withdrinks in their hands, if not beer cans, and the police weren’t bugging them. In any case, everyone got along fine.
In a slight case of bi-polar biking, we met up with a guy named Rick who was wearing a Ducati t-shirt but riding a Buell, a pristine one at that. Turns out Rick who’s an IT guy has a passel of bikes of various makes including several Ducatis.
We did find a Florida Cowboy in the form of mustachioed Bob Milleege (originally from Washington state) who told me about a house for sale just across the street from his home and only two blocks away from Bike Night. Just renovated as new. The price…I won’t repeat. As the sun was making a beautiful Florida sunset, I rode over and checked it out. It even had a garage.
Let’s just say the whole house, and a nifty one at that, cost less than a small garage in L.A. That’s the report for now. I gotta call the FHA in Florida and see if they’ll lend me any money.
