At 65 years and counting, bike run attracts thousands
BY GLORIA J. KATCH Special to the VOICE
On any given Friday the 13th, but particularly when summer temperatures turn tropical, the peaceful beachside community of Port Dover awakens to the roar of hundreds of thousands of bikers swarming their town in a metal buzz, all wanting to party hard.
“From Far and Away,” the slogan for this year’s 65th Bike Run to Dover, captures the enormity of this motorcycle extravaganza known across Canada and parts of the U.S.
While bikers have many philosophies, most of which are turned into tattoos, a country music lyric, or T-shirt monograms, for Lisa Tache, Advertising Manager with Clare’s Cycle and Sports in Fenwick, the Thunder Run is, “Just the way we relate to our customers.”
Tache has been helping to organize the bike rally with HTZ-FM, already in place when Tache started at Clare’s in 2002.
“We meet at Clare’s, then we all rev our motorcycles and cheer as we’re taking off.”
Ideally, the Run takes the scenic route and eventually make its way to Clare’s Harley Davidson in Port Dover. There are giant tents and a meet-and-greet team, where motorcyclists pick up their new T-shirts, patches and pins for members of the Harley Owners Group (HOG). Seamstresses on site will actually sew patches on for you, Tache said.
There are also new parts and accessories and demonstration rides on the latest Harley Davidson models.
“It’s kind of like a rally within a rally when you really think about it,” she said.
The huge merchandising event means, “work for us, but a lot of fun for everybody else.”
This event is sometimes difficult to plan, because one never knows how many riders will participate each year. Friday the 13th has activities running at full throttle throughout the day, from different groups, businesses and organizations, but Tache said, “We got our own thing going on.”
Leading the bike run from Clare’s is the sporty HTZ.FM’s cruiser, and HTZ.FM Radio’s Promotions Coordinator, Jessica Carter said, “The event is so much fun and it’s great exposure for us.”
The station has been promoting the event for about 30 years, long before Carter was an employee of Bell Media. The station establishes an activation booth, where they distribute free swag, including bacon-scented bumper stickers, and a chance to win a raffle. HTZ.FM’s enthusiasm for bikers has broadened, and the station has also become involved in promoting summer bike night for 13 weeks every Thursday from Clare’s Harley Davidson in Niagara-on-the-lake.
“Our team goes out there, and they love it. Bike people are a different breed,” Carter said.
The monetary appeal of the event also attracts an unsavory element, as the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) advised the public to be wary of purchasing motorcycle attire and accessories from biker gangs. The OPP wanted to remind the public that some gangs are criminally connected, and buying their products contributes to illegal activities like loansharking, racketeering and prostitution.
Despite any controversy, Friday the 13th is a tale of celebration and philanthropy. It’s the local Kinsmen’s legacy and banner event, which draws hundreds of thousands of people annually, and more recently, in a single event.
The Kinsmen donate $10,000 to Cystic Fibrosis each year, and the list of other agencies they donate to is considerable. The Kinsmen donate to several sports leagues, which lowers the membership fees, so everyone, including the disenfranchised, can participate.
Historically, the motorcycle run was created 65 years ago, when Chris Simon approached the Kinsmen to raise money for a friend he wanted to honor, who had just passed away. It began as the “Sausage, Pin and T-shirt” drive, which raised $3,000 that first Friday the 13th. That event turned into a tradition that exploded into a two-day celebration that includes trade booths, entertainment, cookouts and camping. It’s no wonder organizers says their biggest complaint is that the liquor and beer stores are not open long enough to accommodate the festival.
About 35 Kinsmen and a lot of local volunteers run the park, barbecues and event booths. According to this year’s takings at the gate, this year was a record-breaker for camping, said Fraser (Ooggie) Pringle, Past President.
While the number of bikers is difficult to estimate, this year’s turnout was huge, but didn’t likely break the record of 250,000 people two summers ago. This year, the Kinsmen opened a beach club with entertainment and bar under a huge tent.
Over the years, they have invested in installing showers in the pavilion for campers, and renting buses to transport people from the campgrounds to downtown. Initially, they used haywagons, “to move people up and down heart attack hill,” said Kinsmen Coordinator, Leigh-Anne Cowan, but added they created more liability issues with insurance companies, so they were replaced. The Kinsmen always have ATV’s and other smaller vehicles to navigate through crowds in an emergency. “We always think of safety first,” Cowan said.
“There’s not too much that surprises me and [Kinsmen President] Dave anymore.”
Almost every bike run has a couple getting married, and a bride decked out in leather chaps and a lace veil may appear odd, but is not an unusual sight.
This year, there were diehard bikers with large placards expressing sympathy for an elderly gentleman known as the “Thong Man,” who has never missed a Friday the 13th, asserted Cowan. Even in the cold and inclement weather, he rides around in just a thong and a toque. Unfortunately, “Thong-man” had an accident recently and was convalescing in the hospital. This year, Naked News had a booth on the main drag, where one of the female broadcasters happily posed topless for a few pictures.
The wild and creative fun isn’t just about the characters, but the motorcycles that arrive in all shapes, sizes, colors and models, meticulously painted in themes and blaring music that are the main attraction in this roadshow.
Of all the spectacle and chrome pagentry, Cowan noted, “Some people just want to get in the media,”
While Friday the 13th has negative superstitious connotations, it has proven to be a Godsend for the Kinsmen. The noise and parking may bother some residents, but by-and-large Port Dover has embraced the event as “the whole town makes a lot of money,” said Dave Johnson, president of the Kinsmen. He was quick to thank all the participants. “We wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for them.”
Overall, considering its magnitude, there is little violence, and the event is heavily patrolled by police, many of them not local, Johnson added. A few police officers on the main streets were even carrying automatic weapons.
“Ninety-nine per cent of the bikers are great. It’s just the village idiots that are the problem,” said Pringle the next day as the event was wrapping up. The downside of having 200,000 people in a small town is that, “Every Friday the 13th, one person dies,” he said referring to highway accidents.
CTV’s news on Saturday included Norfolk County Provincial Police reporting that two unnamed bikers from Niagara Falls collided on Blue Line Road late Friday afternoon, and one of them suffered minor injuries, while the other is in serious condition.
Considering the event is to honor bikers, Pringle said, “It’s sad.”
Police are still investigating the incident.
