DAYTONA BIKE WEEK 2001

INTRO - Editor 'arris

As I pull up to the lights at the end of Main Street the Florida drought has just broken and Bike Week is looking decidedly wet. There’s a girl with her back to me under a large umbrella, standing in front of a large bath sized bucket of cold beer.

She's abiding by the Daytona dress code, skimpy top, a leather dress that could double as a headband and a garter belt - stuffed with twenty dollar notes. With no customers to deal with, she pulls gently down on her skirt, showing more thong, and pulls out three of the notes. Carefully refolding them before reinserting them under the garter belt - just in case people didn’t get the message that she was there to sell beer in exchange for hard cash.

The light turns green and I pull away on a Honda VTX1800 amongst a heaving swarm of American v-twins. The air is full of exhaust fumes and the din of a thousand slash cut pipes. The uniform here is jeans, black t-shirt, shades, bushy beard and a beer gut (and that's just the women).

This is early March, this is Daytona, this is Bike Week 2001.

With the main racing events still to happen, I checked out the first weekend of Bike Week with fellow journalist Mark Richardson (Toronto Star) and here's a selection of some of the madness - all in easy to follow pictorial form ...

DAYTONA PHOTO ALBUM
 
At night, watching the endless stream of bikes becomes somewhat hypnotic.
There's no helmet law in Florida anymore, which meant about 90% were lidless.
There's also a whole load of bystanders soaking up the circus.
 Isn't that hypnotic? It is. Oh yes sir.
Interesting philosophy. Especially since it's written on the back of a KZ1300.
  This one was actually more covered up than many. Daytona bar tenders know how to get their tips. Miss America (patriotism and hatred of government go hand in hand). Even Jesus himself made an appearance (and yes the cross did have two wheels). This is our mate Peter from England getting into the Daytona spirit.
  It's the Bible Goldwing with all your favourite biblical scenes. Is this what Jesus came on? As impractical as this was, there was something strangely attractive about it. As practical as this was, the re was something obviously stupid about it. A rat Kawasaki KZ1300? Yes. No comment on this one.