Anyone riding to Daytona Bike Week

[hig4s]

For those down in Daytona still watching the board,, there are severe storms going through Florida today.. they are moving through the West side right now and should be to the East coast around 1PM...

Because of this the Tuesday Destination Daytona meet, at the Daytona Pig at 11AM will be Wednesday instead.

[Mac]

I'm out after all, damit.

[CafeTBird]

Let's not forget that RACIN is the reason for the season.....

Meet cha at the track Saturday!

[quote from: stefrrr on March 03, 2008, 11:42:59 am]
They have test rides at Bike Week?

I thought all they had were chrome polishing seminars & such.  
[/quote]

[Laura0107]

Hubby & I are heading down Thursday morning.  Plan on taking in the flat track race that night, the J. Wood auction in Deland on Friday, & the Superbike race on Saturday and maybe a little of the 200.

[ibppjr]

I'll be heading south in the AM on the big Duc.  Catchin' all the road races and probably the supercross on Friday.

See ya all there!

[JoBu]

They have test rides at Bike Week?

I thought all they had were chrome polishing seminars & such.  

That's really appealing. If Ray can't come I'll meet you guys in Daytona. As it is, turns out we're not going to know until last minute if we'll be able to make it. Jobu, can I give you a call Friday morning to find out what's going on?

Hey Stefrrr...

Oh most definitely...they have some nice opportunities to ride a variety of bikes.  Last Sunday, I hung around the Kawi area and rode the Concours 14, the ZX-14, the Verseys 650, a Vulcan 900 (I happened to be around when they had a no show), and the biggest surprise of the day...the Ninja 250.  I will be there tomorrow, but I'll be down at the east end of the track.  I plan to hop on a few Triumphs.  I'll be arriving there around 7:30 a.m.  I'll PM my cell number to you.  I hope to see you and Ray there.  

FYI...Kawi has the best selection of bikes to ride.  They have their rides broken up into three groups: 1) Concours 14, ZX-14, ZX-10, and ZX-6  2) Verseys, Z1000, Ninja 650, Ninja 250, KLR-650, etc and 3) Cruisers.  All the others break their rides into two groups:  1) Cruisers and 2) Everything else.  Until this year, Kawi was the only one to bring their full-on sport bikes, but I saw that Yammi brought their R1 and R6.  Suzuki did have a couple of Burger Kings.  I would like to take a spin on one of those, but it doesn't look like its in the cards for this trip.  

Along the north end of the track, you'll find Kawi, Yamaha, Suzuki, Honda, Buell, BMW, and even a fleet of Can-Am 3-wheelers.  Honda is a bit of a pain as they only bring our a few models and their bikes are on the south end of the track.  You have to arrive a good amount of time prior to your demo ride and take a shuttle bus around.  I've only done that once and never again...just not worth it.  

Along the east end of the track, you'll find Triumph, Victory, Harley, and Boss Hoss (those V-8 monstrosities).  I pity any demo ride that gets behind the Boss Hoss demo ride.  They practically stop for turns/curves and then sort of blast on the throttles on the straights.  I was behind a 3-wheeled version styled like a '57 Chevy.  I thought the trunk was going to fly off the bike on each and every bump.  

Cheers,

Joe

[Mac]

I demoed one of the boss hoss bike several years ago in daytona. It handled suprisingly well in the curves considering it weighs over 1100 lbs. You did have to be carefull with the throttle as torque would lay you over or pick you up in the middle of a turn. The engine noise at idle was seriously wood producing!!

[Against The Wind]

We ended up spending most of Bike Week in places other than Daytona. One day was spent doing the vendors at the track and test rides (FJR, Gold Wing and ST1300) and half a day was spent doing the Main Street shuffle. We actually went to watch the Bud Clydesdales and were quite underimpressed. The Carlsberg horses and their wagon are much more impressive. We went to Tampa to the aquarium which was terrific and had lunch at The Columbia, the Cuban-Spanish restaurant. It was amazing, so much so that later in the week we went to the same restaurant in St. Augustine. The best part of the holiday was spent in Beaufort, S.C. where we did the tourist horse and buggy with funny guide thing. We're into houses and there sure are some very impressive ones there.
As for Daytona itself, I've been for 6 years in a row now and I seriously believe that I won't go back again. I'm feeling that it's a "been there, done that". The Harley crowd was fun for a while but it's now very tiresome. We did get in a nice ride up to Palatka and across to the Ozello Trail road where we had lunch at the trendy and unimaginative food place there. But WTH, I didn't go to Florida for the food.
I was very very impressed with the Gold Wing which was a huge surprise to me. I expected it to be boring. I found it FUN. But at $30K it's not likely to ever be found in my garage. I loved the Ducati area and I was able to afford an umbrella. So now I can pretend to be cool when it rains.
The RV was a blessing especially since it got quite cold as the week ended and the furnace made it cosy. As well, our camping neighbours were great cooks and we ate like kings. So all in all it was a great holiday.

[Against The Wind]

BTW Gar, how did you do?