Reports are pouring in from Daytona Beach Biketoberfest. The attendance numbers from the event are still depressed. Traffic has been down since 2004.
The majority of the rolling traffic hits the hub of the action, including the traditional biker areas on Main Street, Beach Street, Daytona 500 racetrack, Mid-Town in Daytona Beach and Bruce Rossmeyer’s Destination Daytona in Ormond Beach.
The Custom Bike Show Kickoff in Daytona
Willie’s Tropical Tattoo Old School Chopper Show kicks off the week of custom bike shows and serves as a showcase for good ol’ American ingenuity. Bikes with open belt primaries, rattle can paint jobs, jockey shifters, foot clutches, chopped fenders, and pinstriping are the standard instead of the exception.
Sleds that show up at Willie’s Chopper Show are known for innovation with builders often reworking old hot rod parts, auto parts, or junkyard finds into functional motorcycle components. The type of guys at Willie’s show don’t often buy billet parts from catalogs, they make their own.
Why Willie’s Tropical Tattoo for the largest anti-establishment bike show during Biketoberfest? It has to do with The HORSE Backstreet Chopper Magazine, as it has become the home base for the rag. Willie’s been slingin’ ink for over two decades in Florida and the HORSE is a consistent show sponsor.
Hunting for Gear
For the thousands of blue-jeaned and leather-clad bikers who had a few shekels in their pocket and needed to bolster their gear inventory, Bruce Rossmeyer’s Destination Daytona had it all. Vendors showcased motorcycle parts ranging from tires to tachometers, saddlebags to straight pipes, and wheels to windscreens.
Bikers enjoyed strolling the grassy grounds with adult beverages at Destination instead of having to sit at the bar. Plus free entertainment… southern rock band Molly Hatchett took the stage for a free concert on Saturday night.
AIMExpo Report
AIMExpo (American International Motorcycle Expo) kicked off a new dealer/consumer show in Orlando during Biketoberfest. Motorcycle dealers could roll 60 miles south for Daytona to check out the latest releases from manufacturers and aftermarket vendors, who were not set up at the fest. AIMExpo includes OEMs, distributors, and parts & accessories manufacturers.
The expo positioned itself like European shows, as it opened to consumers Friday afternoon through Sunday. The remaining schedule was directed at the press and dealers.
Larry Little, Vice President & General Manager, Motorcycle Group, commented:
“The American International Motorcycle Expo’s purpose is to serve as the catalyst to bring together industry, press, dealers, and consumers in a single arena that creates a grand stage for motorcycling in the U.S. and North America, and delivers an efficient and energetic market-timed expo platform for B2B (business to business) and B2C in the motorcycle industry. AIMExpo is the single most important show of its type in the North American market and will have international impact within the motorcycling community.”
For the guys and gals who are not industry workers, you may not know about the enormous battle for the hearts and minds of manufacturers and dealers through B2B shows. AIMExpo is a new upstart. For the first year is contained a small number of vendors and was lightly attended. It may have a chance for success, if they retain and build the manufacturer base for next year, and the crew is able to encourage dealers to commit to 2014. It’s a very tough formula with most of the action committed to Biketoberfest 60 miles away. Where would you buy a booth, in Orlando, or in Daytona where 100,000 or more enthusiasts party, where all the action, dealers, and most of the industry is enjoying the sun?
More on Biketoberfest Attendance
Tourism officials who put on the yearly motorcycle rally say that an unstable economy, new competition, and changing demographics have chiseled away at the event’s attendance.
“We’ve seen the drop-off for years,” said Jeffrey Hentz, executive director of the Halifax Area Advertising Authority, which owns the Biketoberfest trademark.
Though event organizers say several factors are putting pressure on attendance, the most frequently mentioned is competition from new, smaller motorcycle rallies siphoning attendees from the larger legacy events.
Charlie St. Clair, executive director of the Laconia Motorcycle Week Association, said that when he got into the motorcycle event business in 1992, there were only about 50 such rallies in the country. Today, there are close to 550.
Bottomline… more fun and more places to go on two wheels than ever before.
Source: The Daytona Beach News-Journal
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