Um, where are all the bikers??

So we drove around this morning -- to Beach Street to visit a friend who restores Alfa Romeos, and, um, there was no one there. No one except Vinnie and Cody from OCC, in their giant RV with their picture on it, and a few bikes parked across the street.

Here's a noise comparison -- we stood right on Ballough Road and had a conversation, and the number of bikes rolling by was not enough to drown us out.

OK, so let's hit Main Street and see if we can find any bikes cooler than ours, so we can steal their ideas.

There was NO. ONE. THERE.

As in, we drove the length of Main without even STOPPING. And Full Moon Saloon? Deader than the graveyard up the block. Unbelievable. The upside? We didn't see a single bike cooler than ours.

You could say it's the economy, but a friend had a better theory -- most of the hotels have 3- or 4-night minimum stays, so either people were here this weekend (and it did seem like there were more people there on Friday) or they're coming Wednesday night. "Monday's the transition," he said. Um, oh well, ok, if you say so. But the fact is, there were more people here on Biketoberfest.

Since Main Street's dead, and we're hungry, we head back over to the Denny's on ISB for lunch -- crowded, but not much more than usual, and not that many bikes in the lot. We go to the Speedway, park without a problem, and sign up for the free Harley test rides. If you have a motorcycle endorsement, this is the easiest way to just hang out and ride bikes ALL DAY.

Well, we didn't have all day, so we only rode one. We had forgotten Will's helmet so I ended up with a full-face helmet, the first time I had ever used one. It was actually kinda cool to block the wind out, but I wasn't used to it and kept bonking Will in the back of his helmet -- he wasn't too happy about that one.

We rode a Harley Softail Springer -- I don't exactly know what that means other than there are springs on the front end which makes it. . .er, springier? It looked like this one:

Anyways, I spent most of the ride trying not to bonk Will in the head, or fall off the back -- I don't know if it's because he's a big guy or my butt's too huge, but I BARELY stayed on that seat. Or maybe it was the fact he was doing 70 mph up Midway Avenue behind the Speedway. A sheriff's deputy was parked in his cruiser facing us but didn't care; I guess he was just watching out for jerks popping wheelies. The bike did go pretty fast, and was pretty cool. "Hey, this retails for $20,000," Will said. "Heck, better to get a car!" I said. "Well, no," he replied. "It's a lifestyle choice." True.




BIKE WEEK DEATH TOLL: 5
COMING UP: Where the bikers REALLY area. Also, Cochise on the radio!