By Raven Van Pelt

American Legion Riders Chapter 9 held the 2nd Annual CMO”s Kids Poker Run on Saturday November 5th.  CMO”s Kids is a 501c (3) not for profit organization that takes special needs children, physically, mentally or economically disabled, on life changing/life empowering outdoor experiences such as hunting, fishing and camping.

The ride started at American Legion Post 316, with breakfast during registration. There were several stops with American Legion Chapter 9, being the final stop. BBQ dinner was included in the registration. Great raffle prizes, phenomenal LIVE auction items and a 50/50 were held while Circus rocked the night away.

CMO’S KIDS is always looking for people who are willing to volunteer to help with our events, both helping to organize and run them, and to provide the necessary elbow grease to make sure each event goes off smoothly.  Any help is appreciated.

By Lulu

In Sebastian on Indian River Dr. is a great spot for cooling your pipes! They are known for their huge outside Tiki garden and great music. Frannie throws a Sunday concert series, a Thursday night bike night; and for just about any holiday there is something going on. At Earl’s the crowd really participates! On Halloween, the costumes were awesome! We happened upon Big Engine and they were celebrating Hans’ birthday with cake and singing. If you get a chance to see Love Valley perform you must! We caught them on one of Earl’s bike nights and we loved this band! Another bonus at Earl’s is the pizza! A huge slice for $2.50, $3 if you add pepperoni and it is almost more than you can eat! This bar for those of you traveling the east coast of Florida is on US 1. They are one of our new clients and their ad will keep you informed of the many happenings scheduled, it is a nice ride from just about anywhere and right by the bar is Capt. Hiram’s, a cool hotel, if you want to make a night of it!

By Lulu

Our first south Florida Twisted Tea Bike Night was at Mickey’s Tiki Bar in Pompano Beach. Alan started carrying Twisted Tea just for me! If you haven’t stopped in Mickey’s while traveling through the southeast part of our sunny state, I can tell you this it is a REAL biker bar. Outside seating, good drinks, GREAT music and an owner who rides. This is what attracts bikers from all over to Alan’s cool joint! We raised $101 in cash thanks to the nice man who gave his $50 winnings back and about 20 pounds of food, the cash and food were donated to Our Father’s House right in Pompano. A special surprise at our event at Mickey’s was Bill Grotto from Twisted Tea who rode in as did our Tampa reps Bill and Deborah Speicher! Great seeing you guys.

By Lulu

What an awesome event! The weather was perfect. The traffic bearable, probably because it wasn’t too hot! But best yet our hotel was perfect…thank you so much Holiday Inn Resort. A beautiful view, great hot tub, delicious breakfast and beachfront bar…you couldn’t ask for more. Oh wait…what about a wonderful staff? Holiday Inn Resort had that too, from maids to hostesses everyone we met was on their best behavior. I know there are hotels that are part of Thunder Beach’s event but often they are filled by the time we get to make our reservations. We totally lucked out by finding this gem in Panama City Beach! Now don’t book your room before I get my room saved for the spring rally!

By Deborah Speicher

The mission of the national Harley Owners Group (“HOG”) is to ride and have fun, so when I arrived at the registration office for the Florida State HOG Rally (October 26-29), I realized that it would be just that – lots of riding and lots of fun.  In addition to a schedule of events, I also received a ride guide.  During each day of the event, there were a minimum of two rides that were guided or self-guided.  Add a poker run, demo rides and off-site parties, the riding never ended.   Perfect weather, scenic roads a group of riding buddies from my HOG Chapter (Old Town HOG) and other like-minded riders, made this a great event.

The hub for this event was Sun‘n Fun in Lakeland.  If you just rode there, there was plenty to do and see – an antique bike show/aircraft display, live music, factory demo rides, vendors, food, drill team demonstrations, and an opportunity to meet riding legend Gloria Tramontin Struck.  Gloria is 91 years young and still riding two wheels; an H-D Heritage Softtail to be more exact!   For a fee, you could also ride something other than a Harley as helicopter and biplane flights were available as well.
Saturday evening the event came to a close with the announcement of winners of prizes and raffles, awards to various HOG members who made this event possible, and then some dancing to the great music of the Déjà Vu Band.  I heard this band in Shreveport earlier this year and they play music that you can actually dance to!

I have always felt that a great part of owning a Harley is being part of HOG.  If you own a Harley-Davidson motorcycle and don’t belong to HOG, get more information, go to:  https://members.hog.com/

By Deborah Speicher

I have been having a great time these past few months attending the Ladies’ Nights at Bert’s Barracuda Harley-Davidson in St. Petersburg (formerly Jim’s H-D). These monthly events feature everything ladies like – hair styling, manicures, makeup, chair massages, fashion shows, ladies only bike shows and so much more! I would be remiss not to mention the giveaways. We are talking about store gift cards and Rider Academy classes!

The man behind all the fun is Bert King who also owns Bert’s Black Widow Harley-Davidson in Port Charlotte. The ‘Cuda dealership states that they “operate on three principals: to give you kick ass customer experiences; to get you the sweetest ride on two wheels; and throw the best parties in Tampa Bay!”
In addition to the monthly Ladies Night, there is a lot happening at this dealership — Friday night bike night, free food and live entertainment every weekend, etc. Check it out next time you are in the area!

By Lulu

Mid Florida in Marion County on Silver Springs Blvd. in Ocala the tartan plaid skirts were flying around as The Bearded Brothers Band brought the bike night season to a close at the Tilted Kilt. The place was so packed it was hard to get around to take pictures. The season starts up again in the spring I believe in April so look for their ads so you can take a ride to horse country for great food, hot girls, great music and friends old and new who love to ride!

By Dave Twichell

Hurricane Matthew laid its deadly force on Florida cancelling the 8th Annual Unity Outreach Think Pink Ride for Breast Cancer in October. Cancer of any kind doesn’t stop for extreme weather and neither do we, so the ride for Hope, Support, and Research was rescheduled for November 19th. One doesn’t have to look far to find someone afflicted by Breast Cancer – a quarter-million Women every year and sixty-thousand Men will battle the deadly beast. An estimated 40,000 people will die from this fight in 2016.

With extensive support from St. John’s County Sheriff’s Department over a hundred bikers were escorted from the Flagler Imaging Center. Perfect weather was a blessing for the seventy-mile route. Residents lined the roadside to cheer on the parade of supporters and survivors. Plenty of downed Cypress trees and damage piles served up the pre-Thanksgiving reminder of how much vengeance rained down from Matthew just weeks earlier.

As with nearly all benefit rides, the crowd was diverse in both Machines and their Riders. After such an ugly month for America, bikers are one group of citizens that can put aside our differences for a common cause any given day. We rode together on heavy steel with loud-ass pipes alongside comfy Cruisers kickin’ jams through City & Swamp. A harmony of sorts was thrown together to raise awareness and lofty dreams of ultimately eliminating this cancerous threat.

By Lulu

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Phaedra Lee and the crew at Main Street Station do a few things extremely well. They have made quite a name for themselves as being a “must do” bike night with $1 beer. They are also known as one of the best spots for hearing great bands. And over the last couple years they have put on the most attended bikini contest anywhere in town! This year was no exception. Even with the smaller attendance of Biketoberfest the place was packed liked sardines. Nicole Gatrell walked away with the title but all the girls took home some cash. Be certain to join in during Bike Week and if your girlfriend is smokin’ hot tell her to sign up…you never know she may just win!

By Lulu

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History is what Biketoberfest is now. This yearly event has been going on for 20 years. AND part of the history is …the Cabbage Patch Bar. Sadly, the week after Biketoberfest, owner Ronnie Luznar died in an automobile accident. I took a quick picture of Ronnie with TJ and bounced off to catch some shots of Joe Santana never dreaming it would be my final shot of him. The Cabbage Patch is a family tradition. His aunt passed the bar on to Ronnie and Ronnie’s boys Roger and Ronnie will continue the family business.

As usual this year the bike shows, music inside and out, vendors, scantily clothed bartenders and the coleslaw show gave us plenty to look at. The wrestling got delayed due to a rainstorm so I must thank Jackman Photos for the photos of the wrestling and the winner as we had to make it to the next venue on a time frame.

Our sympathies to the Luznar family and to the friends of Cabbage Patch Bar, as we know Ronnie will be missed by all who knew and loved him.

By Lulu

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No one knew what to expect for Biketoberfest post Hurricane Matthew, but the one event I knew would go on without a hitch was Willie’s Chopper Time. This is a well-honed machine. Twice a year Willie and the crew register bikes, cram the lot full of bikes, then get them judged and awards given. Roadside Marty yells at them through the microphone trying to herd the cats! The bands this year were Jasmine Cain and Rick and the Trouble Makers rocking the back yard. Of course, like everywhere the crowds were down, but it made those in attendance able to get around a bit better. I could get in and take pictures a lot easier. Willie would like to thank all the entries, all who attended and his sponsors for making this one of the best events of Bike Week and Biketoberfest each year. The sponsors were: The Horse, Back Street Choppers Magazine, Twisted Tea, Biker’s Choice, Self Made Customs, Rue & Ziffra, PA, Bare Bones Leather, Chop Docs, Cycle Source Magazine, Led Sled, Biker’s Pocket Guide, Bling’s Cycles, Boomer’s Bike Shop, Lucky Loser, DK Customs, Lowbrow Customs, Anvil Customs, Black Water Guns, TC Bros Choppers, Biltwell, Custom Chrome, Hijinx Apparel, Raven Hollow Leather, Factory Metal Works, Billet Proof, BD’s Customs, Mo’s Customs & Suspension Technologies.

To view more photos of winners go to our Facebook page at Thunder Roads Florida!

By Lulu

If you have been reading Thunder Roads Florida for long you will know that the Bike Week and Biketoberfest Survivor Party I will be attending is in Bunnell at my friend’s bar, The Dog Pound Saloon. As the saying goes, I will be there “licking my wounds”. The number of events and places we try to attend during the four-day event is exhausting and on the tail of Hurricane Matthew this one was worse than normal, but there is no place I would rather be than in the back yard of the Dog Pound if the weather is nice or sitting on the porch if the rain Gods are busy. Free BBQ, live music and friendly folks on two wheels is what you will find there. This year the band was Southern Chaos and they got folks up dancing. I am always exhausted by the last day of the event, but a few cocktails in and I finally get a chance to relax and unwind. Join us the last Sunday of Bike Week for an afternoon of howling or ride in anytime for a cold beer or two!

By Lulu

Amazingly Rick and Denise Hilliard got lucky and Hurricane Matthew spared the deck and trees at First Turn in Port Orange. Their house didn’t fare as well, but they pulled their boots up and went to work throwing a party for those who didn’t call off their trip to Daytona Biketoberfest. There isn’t a better spot to sit under the stars and twinkling white lights and have a great meal while listening to GOOD music. One of my new favorite bands out of Ocala played and sang their hearts out for their first trip to a major bike rally. If you haven’t heard 4 Play they are extremely entertaining and play a great variety of tunes. Don’t forget their Tuesday night bike nights for some free vittles and live music!

By Deborah Speicher

Once again, “The Show That Changed the Powersports Industry” a/k/a The American International Motorcycle Expo (“AIMExpo”) was back for the fourth and final year at the Orange County Convention Center. It was held the same four days as Biketoberfest (October 13-16), with the first two days open only to media and industry people.

There were 451 exhibitors which featured most of the major motorcycle manufacturers as well as many upstarts, along with apparel, accessories and just about anything related to the powersports industry. Exhibitors represented 49 states and 44 countries. And, as in the past, there weren’t just demo rides – there were on and off road demo rides!

The AMA also had a presence once again. On Thursday night, they held their Hall of Fame Induction at the Convention Center. Gloria Tramontin Struck and other legendary motorcyclists were inducted that evening. The AMA Master of Ceremonies for the evening was actor and motorcycle enthusiast, Perry King. Perry also did a presentation for the AIMExpo with the media and spoke about his motorcycles (he owns 30) and some of his trips (he rode from Mexico to Canada this past summer with other AMA riding buddies).

The AIMExpo piggybacked their event at the same time thousands of motorcycle enthusiasts would be in the area and, despite Hurricane Matthew, I believe it worked as attendance numbers were at an all-time high. This is not the last of the AIMExpo but it will be leaving Orlando and held in Columbus, Ohio next September 21-24, 2017. It was a great four year run for Floridians!

By Lulu

Rudy is not new to the bike bar scene. He had a great bike night every Wednesday night in Deland at Rudy’s Crossroad for years, but when the motel was sold out from under him the week before Bike Week he found himself without a bar. Finally, he found a new spot on US 1 in Holly Hill, used to be Mac’s and more recently One Horse Saloon. He has food, wings, and ice cold beer. Rudy is doing a Wednesday night Bike Night too. He welcomes poker runs and features live music on the weekends. Please be certain to stop in and visit him at his new place, between getting the boot from his last location at the worst time ever and then the hurricane making Biketoberfest weak at best, I know he would appreciate seeing your smiling face!!