Daytona's Business (Motor)Cycle

Chris Sherman | 2/1/2010

The buzz grows to a rumble and finally an unmuffled roar as Sportsters, Street Glides and Softails rev up and even Yamahas, Nortons and BMWs turn their wheels toward Daytona Beach for Bike Week.

A thundering half-million will fill every parking slot on Main Street, the Iron Horse, Froggy’s, Dirty Harry’s bars and endless tents of vendors selling handmade jackets and custom seats. It’s a sea of leather and denim, fringe and helmets, but rarely gang colors, for today’s bikers include career women as well as men, doctors, lawyers and contractors, on bikes of all flags, stripes and bores.

Bike Week fixture Bruce Rossmeyer died last summer.

“People are just happy to be outdoors and on two wheels,” after winter’s cabin fever, says Greg Sacino, whose family business sells tuxedoes not leathers.

From Feb. 26-March 7, riders will book up campgrounds, genteel B&Bs, beach motels, grand hotels and luxury condos to Ormond Beach and throughout Volusia County. Harleys bring regulars back to upscale restaurants like Frappes North. “Bikers are like everyone else. They like a good meal,” says Meryl Frappier. “We welcome them,” adds Tina Delzotti at La Crepe en Haut. Good palates and big wallets trump dress codes.

Bikers and race fans now and at Biketoberfest in the fall are often preferred to tight-budget spring breakers. “When you’re looking for a customer profile, successful adults who can afford $30,000 for a toy, that’s ideal’’ says Kevin Kilian of the chamber of commerce.

One big reason for the success of modern Bike Week, burly and bearded Bruce Rossmeyer, will be absent. Rossmeyer died in a motorcycle crash last summer riding with pals near Sturgis, S.D., the other pole of Motorcycle Nation. At 13 dealerships from Colorado to Boston’s Faneuil Hall, as well as Florida, Rossmeyer was synonymous with Harley-Davidson and Bike Week. “He’d clear his desk and get on his golf cart and say, ‘I’m going to shake hands and kiss babies,’ ’’ his daughter Mandy recalls.

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Tags: Dining & Travel