- April 18, 2024
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Business people cite various reasons for the early start.
Biketoberfest doesn’t officially start until Oct. 16, but for several days before, there was definitely a roar in town, especially along U.S. Highway 1. Bikes were finding parking spots at the watering holes and bike wash girls were waving signs and other things as motorists drove past.
Jay Patel, who owns J Discount 2, 1401 N. U.S. 1, says it makes economic since for the bike washes to be busy the weekend before the event. The vendors pay a flat fee for a permit to the county, and a flat fee to him to rent his lot, whether they are there for a few days or a week.
“If you’re smart you’ll be here more days,” Patel said.
Also, he said, Biketoberfest is not a long weekend along U.S. 1. It’s 9 or 10 days.
“You have all the bars, here,” he said.
He said he’s expecting to “get slammed,” Biketoberfest weekend, as the crowd builds through the week.
Alexi Bairstow, general manager of the Royal Floridian, at the corner of State Road A1A and Granada Boulevard, said another reason bikers are in town is because of the way timeshares are structured.
He said the owners buy time share weeks, so if they want to enjoy Biketoberfest, they come down for an entire week, instead of just a long weekend.
He said there are 115 units in the main building, and 53 in the newer tower, and at least half of them are occupied by people in town for Biketoberfest.
He said special event weeks float, so that if the actual days of the event change, the timeshare week changes along with it.
He said the numbers can add up.
“There are 48 timeshares in Volusia County,” he said. “So you can imagine, that’s a lot of people.”
Steve Fritze, manager of the Iron Horse, is also expecting a busy weekend.
“So far it looks good,” he said. “The crowds look big.”
He said he has been open for Biketoberfest business since Oct. 11. He had three different bands playing music 1-10 p.m. over the weekend prior to the official event.
“There are a lot of people in town,” he said. “It’s like Bike Week. They come down for a whole week.”
It’s hard to compare this year with last year, he said, because last year had a rainy prior weekend.
Mandy Rossmeyer Campbell, of Bruce Rossmeyer’s Harley Davidson at Destination Daytona, said their vendors don’t set up shop until the day before the official opening, but the Harley Davidson store was busy the weekend before.
“We have 500 bikes in the showroom,” she said. “The sales department is in rally mode.”
She said the Howard Johnson hotel on the Destination Daytona property is sold out for the weekend.
A new event at Destination Daytona this Biketoberfest will be “demo rides,” which are normally only available at Daytona International Speedway.
“We’re paying to have the truck here,” she said. “There will be free demo rides of the 2015 Harley-Davidson models.”
She said many visitors to Destination Daytona during bike events are people who arrive in cars.
“People can park their cars and walk around during bike events,” she said.
