Business, church welcome Bikers to the Grand Strand

If you’re not looking, you may miss it, but management at the Bojangles restaurant on S.C. 544 near The Witch golf course put on the marquee, “Welcome Bikers.”

The restuarant put up the sign Thursday and has seen a few bikers come through over the weekend already. The 69th Annual Cruisin’ the Coast Spring Bike Week is scheduled to kick off Friday and last through May 17.

“We want them here,” Gary Faulkner, the restaurant’s general manager, said of the bikers. “We’re looking forward to seeing them.”

Last year, Myrtle Beach City Council passed 15 ordinances and amendments, including a helmet law, designed to crackdown on the bike rallies.

Faulkner said he thinks the new helment laws in Myrtle Beach could mean a boon for his store’s bottom line.

“Typically, they (the bikers) are more on (Highway 501). Hopefully we’ll get more over here on 544” as the bikers head to Surfside Beach and points south,” he said.

Over on U.S. 501, Dr. Freddie Young knows hundreds of thousands of bikers could be coming past the front door at his church, Grand Strand Baptist Church, which sits right next to Myrtle Beach Speedway.

For the first time, the track will host bike week events expected to draw big crowds, especially because Myrtle Beach set out a slew of anti-bike week ordinances to keep the crowds and noise outside the city limits.

That’s why Young and his congregation are gearing up to reach out to the masses with free waters, tents to cool off under and a quick message about the word of God.

“I think we probably have as much momentum and enthusisasm amoung our membership about bike week as any single thing I can remember in a long time,” Young said.

For more information about Cruisin’ the Coast Spring Bike Week, visit http://www.mbbikeweeks.com or http://www.myrtlebeachharley.com.