Daytona Bike Week – Celebrating 80 Years

It’s the 80th year of Daytona Bike Week, scheduled for March 5-14th.

Daytona Bike Week launches the motorcycle riding season as thousands of motorcycle enthusiasts from all over the world will descend upon Daytona Beach for this 10-day rally – along historic Main Street to Midtown, Scenic A1A Highway and through the best of old Florida, the Ormond Beach Scenic Loop. The celebration continues at Daytona International Speedway, Bruce Rossmeyer’s Destination Daytona, and the U.S. 1 corridors and other locations throughout Volusia County.

Main Street Cruising

Last year during the early days of the pandemic, there were media articles of Daytona Bike Week being a COVID super spreader event.  There were articles of a New York patient that had tested positive after attending Daytona Bike Week. But a year later officials now say that patient never made it to the event.  You might recall that the event was cut short by a day and a half in 2020, when the COVID-19 threat started to spike in Florida.

Who to believe?

At any rate, the City commissioners voted in January to welcome motorcyclists to the 80th Daytona Bike Week event. However, the 2021 event carries new rules and restrictions. Bars, restaurants and shops that offer some outside activities must limit the number of customers at any given time to 60 percent of the normal facility capacity. Businesses that have outdoor activities are also required to submit detailed plans for the location and use of cleaning products, masks, hand sanitizer, temperature checks, signs and social distancing. Businesses without outside activities will be allowed to have their usual percentage of occupancy. Property owners who violate the agreement with the city could be banned from future outdoor activities.

This seems like an “aggressive loosening” of restrictions and my initial reaction is we’ve seen this movie before.  But, I’m living not in Florida and admittedly difficult to gauge.

It’s unclear if the new administration who promised to vanquish the coronavirus and recently signed a stack of executive orders (EO) on COVID-19 will have any additional prohibitions on the Daytona event.  Governors have been making hard decisions about how much of the economy to open for months now and it’s a hard decision every time.

Photos courtesy of Daytona Bike Week and News-Journal/Nigel Cook.

All Rights Reserved © Northwest Harley Blog

Read Full Post »

Red Roses, Red Roses Send NASCAR Right Over

NASCAR.

I’ll admit that I’ve never been a big fan of this traditionally southern sport.  I’ve been more of a casual observer, not a participant and you wouldn’t catch me dressed up in any favorite driver licensed logo attire.

However, I was in Daytona Beach, FL on February 14, 2003 and of all things happen to be working in a press booth at the Daytona 500 race.  Yes, mullets were sported.  There was a lot of domestic beer drinking.  And hard-core fans were dressed up in stereotypical brightly colored racing gear.  I was involved in a series of product launch activities with Sierra Entertainment’s NASCAR Racing simulator game (NR2003).  This wasn’t just an average video game.  Rather it was a comprehensive simulator where many professional drivers used it in the multiplayer mode, including driving superstars Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Martin Truex Jr. who were often found on-line practicing on the various race tracks.  NR2003 was the last version to be released by Papyrus (now iRacing) before Electronic Arts bought the NASCAR license from NASCAR.  But enough about work!

I read an article today on this weekend’s Daytona 500, Danica Patrick’s racing debut and found myself reminiscing about that 2003 trip.  Chatting with drivers, people watching, visiting the pits, tire change competition duels in the convention center, food and the entertainment.  There was a lot to enjoy.

My biggest disappointment?   Being two-weeks too early to participate in Bike Week.  The 69th Daytona Bike Week starts on Feb 26 – March 7th.  While I made a point to visit Charlie Horse, a few pubs, the hard sand and enjoyed some of the warm winter days it wasn’t the same without motorcycles lining the narrow streets… the opportunity to ride that 22 mile long “Loop” and see Florida’s natural beauty just wasn’t in the cards.  I did have a chance to do a drive-by at Bruce Rossmeyer’s old H-D dealer to scavenge for yet another unique black t-shirt.

As the internet buzz “lights up” with rally details I’m thinking that someday I need to participate in Daytona Bike Week.

Photo courtesy of Papyrus

All Rights Reserved © Northwest Harley Blog

Read Full Post »

Harley Target Markets

With an estimated 310 million people residing in the U.S., marketing to each person is the most arduous processes any company can undertake.  As a result, they slice and dice the population into sub-categories with facts, figures, and statistics which include demographics on ethnicity, age, gender, household characteristics, postal code data, purchasing influences along with many other attributes to develop a target market strategy.

Speaking of target markets… African Americans have a lot of influence on today’s culture and taste — and I’m talking beyond the role of hip-hop music and the issues of social responsibility vs. freedom of expression surrounding misogynistic words.  Harley-Davidson has recognized this influence and applied various perspectives on how the company will market to the African-American consumer.   Last April, H-D assigned John Comissiong to oversee the development of strategic marketing opportunities for the African American customer segment as the director of Market Outreach.

Mr. Comissiong is highly qualified and very well educated, holding multiple degrees including a Bachelor of Science in engineering from Cornell University, a Master of Science in engineering from Stony Brook University and a Master of Business Administration from Duke University.  In addition he is a licensed motorcycle rider and can be often seen on his Night Rod Special!!  In essence his job is to determine how H-D can obtain a disproportionate share of the $744 Billion in income which the 38.3 Million African-American consumers spend annually.  More specific, is the approximately $32B spent each year on Cars, Trucks and Motorcycles — how can H-D get more of those $$?!  It’s always about money.

Maurice Slaughter

This isn’t new behavior from corporate America.  For example, recently NBC News launched TheGrio.com, an African American ‘video-centric’ Web site devoted to stories and perspectives that appeal to the African American community.  Even the White House/Obama’s are expanding African American family definitions beyond Bill Cosby’s Huxtables with real-world examples and influence. 

So, what’s in it for H-D?  Today African American’s account for only 1.5% of new motorcycle sales. Even worse is that 7.9% of H-D’s total U.S. sales are to African Americans.  There are more less flattering stats.  Seven out of approximately 700 dealerships are owned by African American’s like Maurice Slaughter.  Few people of color sit on the company’s board or are members of the senior management and less than 10% of the employee base is African American.  H-D purchases approx $190M worth of material from minority-owned suppliers.   Representation of African American motorcycle clubs is fairly robust with: Buffalo Soldiers, Defiant Ones, Rare Breed, Magic Wheels, Soul Brothers and East Bay Dragons to name a few.

H-D has focused on the African American consumer market (AACM) with co-sponsorships at the NAACP Image Awards, the Atlantic or Urban Beach Bike Festival (referred to as Black Bike Week) and celebrating heritage “Bikers on the Boulevard” in Daytona.  They work with celeb’s and community leaders for opportunities to interact or obtain endorsements of H-D products in the African American community which in marketing terms is designed to create the perception that H-D understands African American needs and strengthens its credibility with that market segment.

I’ve been somewhat skeptical of H-D’s minority oriented efforts as sales and marketing issues are complex.  They do require creative actions and placing John Comissiong to maximize exposure and convey that H-D is relevant in the African American lifestyle and culture seems sincere and less of a stunt or a photo op.  Whether trend-setting celebs or average Joes, stimulating a dialogue between company representatives and motorcycle enthusiasts of ALL genre’s means H-D gets product feedback and company’s should never turn down a social opportunity with customers!

Photo courtesy Virginian-Pilot and Maurice Slaughter.

All Rights Reserved © Northwest Harley Blog

Read Full Post »

Women’s Day at Bike Week

Today is Harley-Davidson Women’s Day at the Ocean Center in Daytona. The Women’s Day Ride arrives at the Ocean Center from various points across the U.S.  On arrival, Karen Davidson (great grand daughter of the founder) will introduce the six winners of the Get Down to Daytona contest. 

Interested in what is going on at Daytona?  Here is a cool link to the Rider Ramblings.  Harley is hosting the site and you can post a photo/story or upload a video.  There are stories from a guy in a RV, unaware that it was bike week to people who met over a refreshment and got engaged.  Go figure. Check it out.

Read Full Post »

Daytona Bike Week

I was in Daytona Beach back in ’03 for the NASCAR Daytona 500.  I had a temperature controlled seat view from a press booth, but having arrived from the cold and rainy Northwest I enjoyed the outdoor seats with ocean air while watching Michael Waltrip win the race — it was shortened to 109 laps that year due to rain.

On that trip I visited Bruce Rossmeyer’s Daytona Harley Dealer, but I’ve never attended Bike Week.  The event brings in a half-million bikers around the world and this year looks like Harley is “all-in” at the Ocean Center Arena.  The show is March 1-9^th.  Harley corp. plans a solid online presence this year.  They’ll have daily blogs, photos, and video updates from the adventure all week with Biker Billy (of “Cooks w/ Fire” fame), Beau Pacheco and Jessica Craker doing the YouTube thing.

Hey Harley corp., if you ever want another “motley” crew member to do event correspondence I’m willing to fly there on my own dime, but can’t justify the expense for this “hobby-blog” gig! You listening Willy?  But then again why should you do anything because Harley already gets this free blog press?!

Okay enough whining, but between the Ford Truck displays, traveling museum, Custom Cycle Show and Florida festival music I’d say they are firing on both cylinders.  Not to mention the “Hot Buns” contest, the boozy and floozy bar tour and the famous “Cabbage Patch“.  A guy would really need to work at scheduling time just to ride!

The official Harley activities guide is here in PDF (1.5MB).

Bike Week seems to favor East Coast residents/riders… unless you’re into the fly-n-drive program or have a lot of free time.  If you go to the event I’d like to hear about your adventures.

Read Full Post »