Since 1971 I have ridden motorcycles, and in those days, Daytona Bike
Week and the races held there each spring captivated me as nothing else
did. I was an avid reader and
subscribed to two monthly magazines: the now defunct Cycle, and Cycle
World. I also raided the newsstands at
the local drug stores for other motorcycle magazines on every possible occasion
to get the latest racing news and any word on the newest model
motorcycles. One of the big highlights
each year was receiving the annual issue with the Daytona race results. The only problem was, those results didn’t
reach my mailbox until June or July!
That was a long time to wait, and I dreamed of being there, hearing the
roar of bikes, seeing the likes of Dick Mann, Yvonne DuHamel, Gary Nixon, and
some new kid named Roberts duke it out on the high banks and infield of
Daytona.
That was then, this is
now. Some of the names have changed,
but there is still a Duhamel and a Roberts out there slugging it out. The motorcycles are different, but somehow
very much the same fire-breathing steeds I imagined as a youth. The crowds for Bike Week have changed a bit
too. I lived in Daytona in the mid
70’s. I rode around the streets back
then on a 250 Suzuki and most of the Bike Week crowd wore gang colors and rode
Harleys. For a young Tennessee boy, it
was rather intimidating. Daytona Bike Week
was indeed a rough place to be in early March.
The racers were there though, and in many ways it was still a wonderful
place to be if you loved motorcycles. I
saw my first single-cylinder BMW there that year. I longed for a BMW, They seemed the ultimate traveling machine to
me. But all BMWs had two opposed cylinders I thought? I had never seen a “Thumper” Beemer, and I have remembered it
ever since.
Today, most of the Bike Week enthusiasts still ride Harleys, but colors
are scarcer. It’s still a raucous and
rowdy crowd, but not nearly so intimidating as the one of my youth. It is still very much about motorcycles though,
and for a motorcyclist, it is an amazing thing to be totally surrounded by
motorcycles and riders no matter what marque they choose to ride. It is an empowering feeling to be among your
own.
So, what is all of this leading to?
It is time again for that annual pilgrimage the rite of spring for
thousands of motorcycling enthusiasts.
It’s time to go to Daytona again!
Phil Daulton, Henry Pflanz, and I have been going to Daytona together
for several years. It is something each
of us looks forward to all winter long.
Phil and Henry started the tradition, and I finally joined in a few
years ago. Henry now lives in Dallas
and flies in to Knoxville, Atlanta, or Orlando, and we pick him up along the
way. Henry doesn’t ride street bikes,
so we acquiesce and drive down in a cage for the week. Now, I know there are cat-calls and hoots
and jeers coming from the reading audience, but it’s what we do. Phil and I do that for Henry, and for us
Bike Week is a group thing shared among old friends. All that doesn’t mean we never ride motorcycles while we are
there, we do, but there will be more about that in the days to come.
So what you may ask has all this to do with ROK? Well, Phil and I talked and this year while
at Daytona, we thought we would send back a daily diary. That way those who have never been or won’t
be going this year can read about the comings and goings of three old friends who
love motorcycles, who wish they had the scent of burned two-stroke oil for
cologne, and who can’t get enough motorcycles in a week to last them a whole
year. We hope we can make it
interesting reading and send back a little of what Bike Week is like. We also hope to send back a few pictures
each day to show you what we are into.
We have promised not to get into too much mischief. This will be a G or PG-13 rated discourse so
that anyone else out there that may want to join in the frivolity in the future
won’t be barred. There are some spouses
and significant others out in sentence before this one so don’t repeat so closely
(male or female) who just might turn a deaf ear to a “trip to Bike Week” if it
sounds like too much fun. We hope you
each enjoy this saga, so sit back and enjoy the ride.
