Myrtle Beach Bike Week Ban

It's officially official, the city of Myrtle Beach is now off limits for motorcycle rallies.

City officials have established a Web site called Myrtle Beach Biker Info (myrtlebeachbikerinfo.com) that spells out the reasons why the South Carolina town no longer welcomes rallies.

On the opening page, mayor John Rhodes explains that the town is not anti-biker or anti-motorcycle, it's just that the popular rallies had grown too large and lasted too long, adding that they "even kept visitors away from Myrtle Beach, and that's not good."

"This was a difficult decision. Myrtle Beach welcomes visitors year-round, but the giant motorcycle rallies simply grew too large," Rhodes writes. "Our staff, residents and businesses strained to keep up with these single-focus events. If may surprise you, but our economy is much healthier with a fully diversified visitor base, instead of a concentration on one or two extremely large events."

The decision effectively kills the Harley-Davidson Dealers Association Spring Rally and the Atlantic Beach Memorial Day Bikefest.

To help support the now-official ban, the city enacted a number of new laws and regulations aimed at motorcycle enthusiasts and their machines. These include a helmet law with a $100 fine, a ban on loud exhausts, allowing only two bikes per public parking space, a curfew for those under 18, and limits on where trailers and oversize vehicles can be parked on public streets — the latter ostensibly aimed at people trailering in their motorcycles.

Other new laws include one that people to have a photo ID for checking into hotels, another that makes drinking in public illegal, one aimed at loitering in parking lots a ban on using "parking lots or landscaped areas of any business next to road or street for chairs, coolers, parties, drinking or food service."

In a section on the Web site addressing frequently asked questions, the city states that it isn't targeting any specific rally or its attendees and that the ban is year-around, not just in May. "The city of Myrtle Beach doesn't want to play host to any motorcycle rally."

Another answer addresses a question about the city being anti-biker, stating that "The city welcomes individual motorcyclists 365 days a year, as long as they obey all local and state laws. However, the city doesn't welcome the huge motorcycle rallies and the problems they bring."

In December a judge declined to stop the city from enforcing the new laws. U.S. District Court Judge Terry Wooten denied a request for an injunction filed by event promoter Mike Shank and Harley-Davidson of Myrtle Beach to prevent the city from enforcing 15 amendments and ordinances dealing with special events, noise and helmets.

In November a county circuit court judge declined to issue an injunction against the city's helmet law requested by Myrtle Beach residents Carol and William O'Day.

Neither lawsuit has been dismissed, however, and a second federal lawsuit filed on behalf of Doghouse and Steel Horse Saloon owner Don Emery, The Master's Club, Myrtle Beach Bike Week - Official Source for all Myrtle Beach Bike Week Activities and other business owners, has not yet been heard.

No other hearings have been scheduled.

 

Why ya gotta be hater and blame it on the stunnas?

 

my uncle would roll over in his grave if he read this.

I can see instituting some laws on loitering...and maybe even helmets...or just restrict the rallies to certain areas, but to ban them? C'mon now. How about 30,000 individuals ride on through one weekend instead. pssh!

 

ya.
what a pisser.
people who live somewhere are tired of 52,000 drunken morons with straight pipes seeing how much noise they can make all night long for about 2 weeks in a row, so they do something about it.

really too bad.

I get tired of the one guy that rides by my house at about 11 million decibles on his noise maker & shaker.

A little common sense / common courtesy & this wouldn't have happened.
F#cks it up for all of us.........

 

Not to start any war here with my rebel brethren to the south, but South Carolina is a place that tend to react rather than think. I can think of a few places down there that I could lump in to that category. The politicians down there tend to use what they call "common sense" when it is really a short sighted, alarmist method. They will lose income over this and it will cover the whole spectrum; from public funds to private business. They will all suffer.

 

Screw 'em, I'll just spend my money elsewhere.

 

What's next sturgis, no im kidding that would never happen im sure.

 

I don't blame them. If the participants would police themselves and be more respectful of themselves and others (not saying everyone that goes acts inappropriately), then maybe the city wouldn't of had to act in such a severe way.

 

LOL!

Good one Stuka!

 

Loud pipes kill MC rallies.

BZ

 

ya know.......

I've been to Monterey about.....oh........I dunno....maybe a 1/2 dozen times for WSBK & MotoGP. The night before the race, thousands of bikes show up downtown - on Cannery Row - for a "gathering". I'm sure beer gets drunk & there is that explosive chemical combination of alcohol, testosterone, and gasoline (ATG).....but the VAST majority of the participants talk & swap lies & admire all the bikes & walk around just having fun. The street is cleared of cars & blocked off by the cops
You hear & feel all that horsepower to weight ratio idling along, and everybody (including the cops) seem to be having fun.
Nobody busts the place up.
If there are fights, I have never seen them.
Don't typically see stupid drunk riders staggering around...(Darwin at work, maybe)
It's a little noisy, but you can have a conversation easily with another rider.
Sure, you hear bikes bouncing off the rev limiter from time to time.....always important to burn out a tire untill it pops, AND a few squids can be found looking for help to pick their bike back up, but they are kind of the exception, not the rule. Saw a guy crash on the Parade Lap one time....couldn't keep it together for one Parade Lap around the track.....

anyway.

The Folks in Monterey seem to be very welcoming to the events.


Wonder what it is that makes these gatherings so different.....

 

Your impression of a motorcycle rally is one of the west or left coast. This is South Carolina that we're talking about. Pure redneck country boys and a lot of east coasters mixed in for the fighting and adult fun. Folks come from the entire east coast for this event but the locals have to monopoly on the culture. I don't want to sound like a Yankee (cause I'm not) so I'll say it this way: good 'ole boys will be good 'ole boys. Boys fight and have a lower common denominator out here on the right coast. We invented the redneck. If you want to act like an assholé, the south is a safe place to do it, just not around the cops or any municipality.

 

i think thats great !! good job law enforcement...!!!!!

 

If you've ever spent any amount of time in Myrtle Beach during the rallies, you understand why the rallies are being discouraged.

I used to live in Myrtle Beach while attending college. This was before I even owned a bike or even thought about it (late 90's). The behavior I witnessed and the total lack of respect for the area by visitors is not acceptable by ANY group of human beings.

I've participated in MANY chats on the myrtlebeachonline.com website as a daily visitor. WE bikers deserve the treatment the city of Myrtle Beach is giving out. It is flat-out embarassing to ANYONE who rides a bike for the sport of it. Rally attendees aren't my cup of tea but even so, bad behavior is bad behavior.

Belive me, I'm the last person to come down with discipline. Like I said, the respective groups (both harley and BBW) who hold rallies deserve it. Grow up. You don't find real bikers at a friggen' rally on some of the flattest roads in the US. You find them on the backroads all throughout the US. Everyone else is just posing and you guys know it.

I don't get fired up about a lot of stuff, but this topic does it for me. I rented a Harley a few years ago during the Fall Harley rally (was there on an interview) and was nearly run off the road by a "fellow" rider dodging in and out of traffic with his tough-guy 300 rear tire or whatever the hell they are.

The rallies go well beyond your basic bike issues. There are huge racial tones unfortunately. Again, gotta' be honest. Harley guys show up for 10 days, make a lot of noise, cause a few fights, drink a lot of booze but are "generally" respectful. The Black Bike Week is a mess in every sense. I remember clear as day looking at all the trash that was left behind by a rally that lasted less than 5 days. Literally parking lots full of paper, fast food bags and other garbage. Not to mention the lude behavior. Chicks on the back of bikes with thongs who had no business wearing one, family vacationers forced out of their hotels, restaurants tabs not paid, etc...you name it.

I've ridden my bike from PA to MB twice now to meet family for week-long vacations. Probably won't do it anymore. We'll see...

 

I was not going to say it, but you hit the nail on the head. You can not allow one rally without the other. This is not about loud pipes or rednecks fighting at all. It is not about drinking, It is about costing the state thousands of dollars to clean up trash, police, and supervise people with no respect for the law at all. It's about women with very little clothes on, which eliminates almost all families. People order and eat food and then leave without paying and if you confront them you are threatened with knives and guns. So now you have businesses shutting down during that time, and now
the business community is putting pressure on the city to stop it. I know a agent that has worked those rally's for years and he said you would have people come down with no money and steal to be there. One fact he said is the night before the rally is over robber went sky high because people would have to steal to get money to get home. He also talked about people walking through hotels firing guns into ceilings for the heck of it. Then they would try to blend in with the crowd. These are some of the problems down there and it's a shame. The last thing he told me about that situation was he hated his job that week, he said it was like being in war. He also said if the public knew what was going on that it would not be one again. By the way he works all the other bike weeks down there and said they were very few problems over all. I'm just repeating what a agent that has been at most of the bike weeks at Myrtle Beach said.

 

My sister lived just north of the Myrtle Beach and told me the same thing Faith7 & two4one just stated. Most people (locals) stay away at that time. It's a shame cause it reflex's on all bikers/motorcyclist.

 

Two, Faith and Gray:

I had only heard 3rd hand accounts about both rallies in MB.

From what I knew the locals hated the noise the HD crowd brought and the anarchy that came with the following rally.

Sounds like what I heard was true.

BZ

 

Seriously Bubba, the stuff I listed was all witnessed by my own eyes. Totally out of control and this was ten years ago I lived there. If I had to deal with it every year as a local, I would have wanted the same thing.

I remember standing in a fast food line during my first Harley rally. A local woman started up a conversation with me about the rallies in general. I was just minding my own business when she proceded to tell me that she and her husband leave for the week during the black bike week. I didn't understand why until I saw the aftermath. Seriously, no BS, no exaggeration...literally a mall parking lot full of trash blowing around in the wind like a tumbleweed in the dessert. My girlfriend and I at the time looked at each other like WTF happened here?

We were also sitting at a traffic light perpendicular to 17 business which is the main drag. A pack of sportbikes went rolling through. Each one of them with a, lets just say, big-boned girl on the back in thong attire. Now here's the kicker. Each of them was jerking the throttle on and off causing said big-boned woman to shake every ounce of extra junk in their junk like a bowl of jello. Just the nastiest thing I've ever seen. The image is burned in my head and I can't get it out since. Now normally given my personality, I would probably chuckle. But this was just a nauseating experience.

We won't even talk about the Jason Britton wannabees.

My personal opinion is that over time the local economy will be better for it. More family vacationers will return during May which is the big bang to start the summer season. The first few, non-rally years might be confusing to potential visitors but eventually May will be back to normal.