By Lulu

Out in Melrose at the Howlin Wolf on State Road 100 is a great biker bar that puts on some old school events. This year they added biker games which included slow ride, keg roll, ride the plank and wiener bite all of which they had lots of participants for. Add that to the great day of music by Branford Hwy, the bike show, and burnout contest you couldn’t make it any more old school than that…oh add in scantily dressed dancers and sexy biker girls working out the pole! Gainesville H-D is a sponsor for this and the trophies and awards all went home with happy winners. Funny though as old school as this was a dude won the wienie bite and a chick won the burnout. LOL you just never know what you will find at Howlin Wolf. The owners of this bar, Mark & Jamie, are vets so make sure you stop in and have a cold or stiff one while exploring Florida.

By Lulu

Officially the first Bike Week for the new owner of Daytona Harley-Davidson was an enormous success. Vendors had huge crowds shopping every day. Two of our ad clients were set up at Teddy Morse’s H-D, Suspension Technologies and Sanity Jewelry and they both were hopping! Bands at Saints & Sinners entertained the masses, and even War Hippies and Jackyl had free concerts on the main stage. Bike shows under the pavilion gave browsers plenty to look at. Full Throttle kicked the week off, Hardcore Cycles and Bike Show Mafia all put on great events. The Flying Piston Builders Breakfast is a benefit each year. We spent time visiting our friend Jim Lynch of Bike Show Mafia and Revelation 1 Concepts who put on a big show with featured guest Dave Perewitz. Our Texas friends from Ladies in Leather who put on the largest ladies parade each fall were set up at his event to promote the parade and rally for women. Their event will be September 7-9 in Beaumont, Texas. If all that wasn’t enough for the motorcycle enthusiasts, they completed the week with a bikini contest put on by Bikini Coast International. A stage full of beautiful girls. Thanks to Lawrence Klein for providing the shot of our friend Sandi Pastor. Patti Miracle is doing one heck of a job running Saints & Sinners so check out their Facebook to see what she has happening each day!

By Lulu

Another successful Bike Week has come and gone at the World-Famous Cabbage Patch Bar in Samsula. Their famous ladies’ coleslaw wrestling matches on Wednesday with the finals on Saturday were packed as usual! The brave contestants slung each other around in the slippery oiled cabbage and wore me out just watching them! Along with the antics in the coleslaw pit, Radical Randy puts on several bike shows during the week with awesome bikes to gaze upon. Live music fills three stages and plenty of shopping in the vendor spots kept peeps pulling out their wallets. The bar is open daily, year-round with a classic car & truck show 11a-3p the 3rd Sunday of each month and vendor spots are free for the swap meet which is part of the day’s event. Free BBQ and live music complete the day. So don’t wait for Biketoberfest to visit the patch, the staff are always happy to sling you a cold or stiff one across the bar! More photos of the week are on Thunder Roads Florida Facebook. And a special thank you to Jackman Photos for the group shot of the slaw winners!

By Lulu

This is by far one of the biggest shows of the 2023 Bike Week. Willie, emcee Roadside Marty, Heather from Cycle Source and the huge staff of volunteers pulled off a successful show once again. This year the weather was nice! For anyone living under a rock that may not know, this event benefits the Veteran’s Support Fund with the sale of alcohol, including tips! Lots of bikes I haven’t seen before filled the grounds. Live music in the back by Big Rick and the Troublemakers kept those hiding in the shade entertained. Special thanks to Rue & Ziffra, Twisted Tea, Gorilla Pro, Spectro, US 1 Hogridin.com, Hardcore Cycles, Cochise Chops, Cycle Source, Blings Cycles, S & S, Hot Leathers, Grandview Live, Iron Horse Saloon, Broken Spoke, Church of Chops, SR Perrott, Renegade Magazine, & for their support in putting this major event on! There isn’t a better event anywhere!! A great day to see old friends, make new ones and see creations so unique you will always leave thinking I can’t believe how talented these bike builders are! If you need some new skin art visit Tropical Tattoo, one of the oldest tattoo shops in the US and staffed by real artists! More photos from the day including all winners’ photos on Thunder Roads Florida Facebook!

Winners of 2023

Perewitz Paint Award    Kenny MacDonald
Best Knucklehead           Jeff Grabau
Rev Al Award                   Blake Benson
Tino’s Choice                   Joe Shahady
Best Shovel                      Tommy Joslin
Best Vintage                     Mike DiPreta
Best Evo                            John Siweckyj
Best Custom                    Tyler Watts
Tropical Tattoo Choice     Brock Bridges
Best Sportster                  Daniel Heman
Roadside’s Choice           Zach Gostelli
Best Paint                         Gusher Cycles
Best Chopper                   Derek Spitsnogle
Best Bobber                     Rich Ruck
Tarball Choice                  Endless Phil
Bling’s Choice                  Eric Allard
Willie’s Hardcore            Daniel Heman
Best Antique                    Billy Franklin
Cycle Source Choice       Garry Cutis
Best Metric/Gorilla Pro  Jeff Hartley
Willie’s Choice                 Mr. California
Ed Kerr’s Choice              Warren Lane
Crowd Favorite                Myles Harris
Best Rat Bike                    PT Jungerman
Best Panhead                  Panhead Bob
Best Flathead                   George Casale

By Lulu

I have had the pleasure of getting to know some really good men that call themselves the Green Swamp Chapter of the Nam Knights of America, MC. We all have busy lives, and most, as we age, retire…play golf, sit on a couch with a remote, travel and visit family when we feel like it. These guys spend their free time working towards a cause! I see them staffing the bar at Gator H-D in Leesburg to raise funds, riding on charity events, particularly for veterans and putting on Christmas in the Swamp, a huge toy drive for needy children. God bless these men and their wives.

This Bike Week this band of brothers donated a trike to Specialist E4 Shawn Burke who had lost a leg in Kandahar, Afghanistan. His love for riding had not dulled. He and his father rode to the 100th Anniversary in Milwaukee back in 2003 and “The Swamp” wanted Shawn back on the highway! They flew him down to Florida and presented him with the trike with a huge event and you can tell by the smile on his face he was truly honored. All these men are heroes to be honored for their service. Just giving up time away from your family to be deployed to faraway places is a sacrifice. Sacrificing limbs, lives and the trauma of war is a huge price for our freedom!

Having been five times to D.C. for Rolling Thunder (Ride to the Wall), I have watched Vietnam Vets work hard to not allow these young vets to be treated the way they were when they returned from war. They hold each other up with pride and spend their retirement helping out others. If you get a chance to buy a drink from them at Gator or to visit The Swamp for one of their events, please do. These guys are really good men I am proud to know!

A special thank you to Reverend Al Paquette for covering this event for me since Bike Week in Daytona kept me from joining their event. And a special note Nam Knights MC welcomes all veterans from all branches of the military!

By Lulu

Iron Horse is world famous for many reasons: t-shirts, Craiger’s Beef Tips, the Wall of Death, David Alan Coe, and other great music acts. David Alan Coe hasn’t been able to perform the past few rallies due to health issues, and people do miss that, but this year’s line-up was top notch. Whey Jennings, Cowboy Kid Rock, Sawyer Brown, Eddie Montgomery, JB and the Cheap Whiskey Band, Joe Nichols were some of the many bands that filled the air with their music. All the headliners signed guitars to be auctioned for St. Jude and brought in nearly $10,000 for the kids. Yuengling sponsored the tattoo contest with Willie and Roadside Marty running the show. Gorilla Pro, a new participant of Bike Week, sponsored a burnout contest that caused tires to pop, engines to blow and a young man with a prosthetic leg to go home with extra cash, a new tire, and a big smile on his face! In June, the St. Jude’s ride coverage will be in the magazine. Find more photos of the burnout, guitar auctions and the tattoo contest on Thunder Roads Florida Facebook.