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Motorcyclists thunderin for Bike WeekDAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (UPI) — Despite the apprehension of some onlookers, 100,000 mostly well-behaved motorcyclists from across the country thundered into Daytona Beach this weekend celebrating Bike Week.Bike Week, the 60th annual influx of cycle gangs and organized crime detectives, follows the Daytona 500 and precedes Spring Break.“You hear the thunder?” asked ponytailed tattoo artist Munchkin” Lyons, celebrating his 10th visit to Bike Week. “That’s sweet music.”Bike Week has been expanding each year since motorcycle races were first held on the beach in 1937. The races have moved to Daytona International Speedway, but the parade down Daytona’s avenue of sand continues.The iron horsemen come in packs and alone from all across the country on their bikes.“Motorcycle riding means freedom,” Terry Deford, an auto worker from Pontiac, Mich., said Sunday.Like most of the bikers. Deford rides an Americanmade HarleyDavidson.Like most of the onlookers, Julie Resager was a bit apprehensive by the bikers’ presence.I was petrified that we’d be knifed if we even breathed on their bikes,” said the North Carolina State freshman. “But they’re real nice. They know how to party.”But most people, even police, say most of the visitors are well-behaved.“Most of our arrests are for disorderly conduct, and for the women exposing their breasts,” said Lt. John Muffoletto.Unfortunately, Bike Week also is the Super Bowl” for motorcycle gangs, “the onepercenters who ruin the reputation of all riders,” he said. Daytona is a “mandatory run for most bike clubs and members are fined if they do not show up.The week also is a Super Bowl for organized crime detectives and they have spotted members of the Hell’s Angels, Outlaws, Banditos and Pagans; the four largest motorcycle groups in the nation.About 40 such agents came this year at the invitation of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.“You can tell the hard core,” said a Drug Enforcement Administration agent who once spent six months posing as an Outlaw’s “old lady” in Fort Myers “It's a contest to see who can be the lowest, the ugliest, who can avoid taking a bath the longest.”
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Key West Citizen

Key West, Florida, US

Mon, Mar 09, 1987

Page 3

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USA 04 Apr 2019

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