Bike-week rain
 

I left the lake to go home, yesterday (Saturday) afternoon, in a car. I can only assume most of the bikers left before me as there were only a few heading west on 104 or south on 93.The bikers who like coming to Laconia bike week should join together and have a bike week in an area that badly needs rain. If that works once or twice, they might be able to get such communities to bid for their presence.
I have friends who are "bikers" and I kind of feel badly for them. It seems unusually rainy weather has often dampened their fun in the past few years.
Then again, the beer tents are weather resistant.

Bike week Ain't what it used to be!
 

I was up at the lake all week, light bike traffic as compared to past years and I am on a major Bike route! Tues and Sat even took a trip through the Weirs (by boat) and it was slower than I ever remember seeing it. Tuesday there were only a half dozen or so boats at the town docks (plenty of docking) and Saturday there were only 3 or 4 waiting! Went over to Meredith on Saturday and there was plenty of docking and had a late lunch at The Town Docks.

A friend did get stuck in bike traffic as she headed to the Weirs but it was much closer to the Weirs than in the past and she was able to bail out and travel down Paugus Bay without delay.

I would say rain, the economy and the changing demographics of bike week have taken a toll. Also the races themselves were at the beginning of bike week aren't they usually the final weekend?

I drove up 495 & 95 mid-to-late Friday afternoon and never saw 1 bike! This is unheard of on the Friday of Bike Week.

Drove home this evening in intermittent rain and only saw the occasional bike heading out.

I feel badly for the restaurants and other businesses in the lakes region. This was truely a washout.

I can only blame the Bike Week Commision. This rally should never, ever, never been scheduled for June. It is new England. June is just another word for rain.
Move it to August or September and you'd do much better. It is also to close to when most folks are just opening up the summer homes and all the confusion around the traffic is simply idiotic to have it when they do.

Wake up people!:D

Lakesrider,

They are awake. A great mentor of mine always said, "Remember, no matter what they are talking about, they are talking about money."

The local businesses don't need more crowds in August and September. They are already here. Bike Week is scheduled in June, note before most schools are out, in order to draw a crowd to hotels and resturants at a time when they normally would not be full.

Ok, so with that in mind...

Have you noticed the age of the people coming to bike week. Most are of the age with children. We are getting a much older crowd now. So they aren't about to leave their kids at home for a week alone.
And if you have ever noticed that historically June has not been a sun month, since the 1990's. I remember two years ago my sump pump was working overtime in June. Same this year.
The Bike week commission has noticed this problem and moved it two years ago to this week. Due mostly to lower numbers. Lower numbers because everyone knows the not-so-joking saying that it always rains on bike week. They are trying to get it out of June slowly. They need to get it out quicker.
This week most likely killed it for many. Many will not show next year because of this years rain. Vendors hate coming here now. But they have no choice really. You certainly don't see Sturgis being held in June. If you need people in off season have it in September after Labor day Still plenty of good riding...

Then again you can almost bet if they did move it to September, it would rain.;)

I can't help but wonder what the new owners of the Laconia HD are thinking right about now..:(

Read this WMUR article and lets see if it helped any of the local business much. Maybe a few hotels, but people either came late or left early.
We all know, weather is not really an exact science....in NH. :D

Better luck next year.:coolsm:

it hasn't always rained...
 

rrr is right.The event has not changed weeks.Bike week has always ended on Fathers day.Somebody should tell Al Gore that bike week in the 90's used to always have hot weather.:laugh:

happy with the turnout
 

bike week was actually pretty successful this year. the first weekend alone their was an estimated 300,000 bikes. it wasnt totally a wash out. the rain did hold off on a lot of key days.(weekends, and wed. was 80 and sunny) It's definately not what it was in the 80's and 90's, but a lot of that is because of the economy. rally attendance is off at every rally across the country. I am happy to report that our numbers were way up from last year, and I hope other businesses also did well. either way, bike week still generates roughly 300,000 million dollars to the states economy, thats pretty damn good. oh, 1 last thing, bike week has been going on for 86 years, the oldest rally in the country, and for those 86 years it has been held at the beginning of june.(dates due fluctuate due to leap year) motorcycle enthusiests across the world know this and plan accordingly. the people who visit laconia plan around literally hundreds of other bike rallys across the country that take place throughout the year. at this point because of the history, and the conflicting rallies, changing the dates of bike week is not really an option.

Great view from the Deck
 

Mike,

We had a great meal on your deck during bike week- everything was great and the service fast. Kudos to you and yours during a tough week.

Net? Or Gross?
 

300,000 million dollars is really good money: The end to the recession can't be far behind. :D

Errr...was that a "net" or gross" three hundred thousand million dollars. :confused:

And remember, Motorcycle week doesn't always get rained on, better days are coming! Rain or shine, I've always enjoyed it, since 19and 00s. :)
T

hopefully the rain will end soon as this should be a big week for tourist. I have been up since end of May and I think we have had about three good days

Originally posted by Mike Ray
Mike, I gotta tell ya, I don't know where you're getting the numbers from but I would guestimate about half that at best!

I've been going to Bike Week for decades and as I posted I am on a major route that bikes take. With the exception of Wednesday there were no more bikes going past me than on any other given summer day!

As for the races...I drove past the speedway the weekend of the races and there was nothing...nothing in the way of bikes or anything else.

Went through the Weirs by boat twice during the week and no crowds, and on the final weekend headed up to Meredith and ate at the Town Docks and got in and out without any waiting.

300,000 is a major stretch...of course I watched some of the same bikers drive past my place a dozen or so times during the week. I counted the ones I recognized as ONE.

the numbers
 

you can guestimate if you want, but those numbers came from the new hampshire state police and charlie st. claire at the race and rally headquarters. keep in mind the rally has spread out to all different parts of the state. there may not have been 300,000 bikers in the weirs area at any one time, but the state of new hampshire saw an influx of 300,000 bikers.

Spread out
 

I agree with Mike- I think there are a lot of bikes coming for the week, but it should be called NH bikeweek instead of Laconia BW. The Weirs is no longer the epicenter of the event.

Quiet...Even Dull...
 

Even this forum was not really very "busy" with biker commentary. I'd hoped to see some interesting bikes on the road, but saw hardly any bikes at all!

One Bike Week biker breezed by who had a helmet with antlers mounted on it. In the same "group", another had antelope horns on his helmet. :rolleye2:

Nothing to see like these bikes of note:

1) V-8 power :rolleye1:

2) Reptile-themed bike...:yawn:

3) Big-Radial engine...:eek:

4) I have no idea what this one is! :confused:

5) Always have antlers on the handlebars of your bike, 'cuz you'll never know what you'll meet on the road. :rolleye2:

Neither of which have a vested interest in keeping those numbers high!

I can attest, as others have already done so, that bikes between the Mass border and Laconia on the major routes into Laconia, 93 and 106, were virtually empty of bikes. So if they were not in Laconia and they weren't between Laconia and the Mass border where were they and how could they possibly get anything close to an accurate count of bikes "statewide"?

They cooked the numbers. Nothing unusual about that. I'm just saying don't buy into the "official" numbers blindly when your own eyes and experience tell you something very different!

Let me start by saying that I worked from the first Friday till Sat. before Fathers Day, a.m to a.m (been doing that for 8 years, not all at the same place) right on Rt 3 (got Fathers Day off cause I'm old :eek:) and there were many times traffic was backed up to Rollercoaster Rd.


The first Mon. and Tues. are always the slowest day's. If you had gone to Meredith by bike that day you would have had a much later lunch as traffic was backed up in both directions by noon.It's called BIKE WEEK not Boat week for a reason...almost all my boat owning friends tend to stay away by boat that week I have no idea why.........


Not all businesses did badly, I think all the rain made people hungry and thirsty ;) the local bar and grille I worked was at capacity almost all week long and had a waiting line many times...

Next year we'll make sure they all go by your house..cept for the one's coming in from Canada, which by the way account for a big chunk of that "estimate" as they say not all roads go by your house, but they all lead to Laconia...:laugh: just kidding

Couldn't agree with you more Mike....in any case 1,000 or 300,000 more people spending money in OUR state is always a good thing and that older more mellow crowd made my job alot easier :look:

I gotta go with Mike & Tim on this one...

I live at ground zero for Bike Week.... I have to take the last thurs & fri off from work because they close the bridge. There was a backup of traffic almost everyday, and just about every establishement I frequented was at or close to capacity, Lob Pound (great time as always Mike), Looney Bin, Paradise, Crazy Gringo, Spoke etc... There were alot of people having fun and spending $$$ and thats a good thing. Its def not the bike week of yore, but its still a rockin good time!

Woodsy

Then Gentlemen we're going to have to just agree to disagree.

The comments I have read seem to indicate that Bikers only travel by someone's place, or make a trip to the Weirs once during bike week. Otherwise they would be counted multiple times even though that biker is only one person.

The estimates of 300,000 are in the same ballpark as the estimates given when Bike Week was much healthier and the roads and highways into Laconia were congested all the way from the Mass border.