Myrtle Beach leaders react to biker rallies moving north

MYRTLE BEACH-The beach’s spring bike rally was supposed to happen eleven weeks from today but organizers with the Carolina Harley-Davidson Dealers Association announced Monday that they are not happy about the new restrictions and ordinances that went into effect this past Saturday. That’s why they are packing up and taking their 69 years of celebration to New Bern, North Carolina.

City officials said that the organizer’s decision is no big deal and that they are happy about their move.

Mark Kruea for the City of Myrtle Beach said that because of those rallies, the month of May had become “bike month” in the minds of many visitors that come to the beach for leisure.

Kruea added that because of that notion they just could not deal with hundreds and thousands of loud bikes for three straight weekends.

“The dealers association event is the oldest event, that’s the one that goes back 69 years and for most of that time it was a weekend event and then it became a three day event or a four day event,” explained Kruea, “and I think finally it was a five day event but we’re not talking about five days we’ve had three straight weeks worth of motorcycle rallies for the last dozen or more years and that’s too much and I don’t know if there’s a community in the country that would welcome that straight three weeks worth of motorcycle rallies.”

Mike Shank, the spokesperson for Harley-Davidson Dealership in Myrtle Beach said that the Carolinas dealers association was looking to move for several years and now that they have made the decision to do so for sure, he doesn’t think it will make a difference on the city because the rallies will continue happening.

“Them leaving is the equivalent of one vendor out of the 400 that were here last year leaving,” explained Shank, “so it’s got no impact on the rally, the rally is not moving to New Bern.“

Even if it is just one vendor leaving, city officials said that is good for the organizers and wish them well. They add that they are hoping to make Myrtle Beach a place to welcome families again who weren’t so keen on visiting in the month of May.

“I just care about doing what I think is right for Myrtle Beach and help Myrtle Beach become better,” said city Mayor, John Rhodes. “About three years down the road you’re going to see families starting to get back in during a period of time those families were not coming because they had really associated those 14 days to almost 3 weeks that May was a bike month and not a family month,” added Rhodes.

Shank said that once the spring season starts, the dealership and vendors can’t wait to welcome bikers that are not moving to New Bern, North Carolina.

“Spend some time with us,” said Shank, “and we are going to do everything we can to make it safe for you to make it a good time and to help you avoid the city and to obey their ordinances.”