Bike Week in Myrtle Beach

By Teri Champigny

         Bike Week in Myrtle Beach

Every year in May, Myrtle Beach hosts Bike Week. This will be the sixty-seventh year. Bike Week started back in 1940. Can you even imagine what bikes looked like back then? There would have been Harley’s, Indians and maybe a few from England. There wouldn’t have been any that had been made in Japan for sure and none of them would have had electric starters either....they would have all been of the kick-start variety. There were very, very few motorcycle dealers at that time and getting a bike repaired would have probably been up to the rider. Spare parts were likely unavailable. It would have taken ingenuity, imagination and probably chewing gum and bailing wire to keep a bike in the race. Bikinis hadn’t yet been invented and the total population of Myrtle Beach consisted of 1597 souls. There has been a lot of progress and growth since 1940.

This year the Myrtle Beach Bike week will begin on May 11^th and run through May 20^th. It isn’t too early to make your reservations at the camp grounds or at the hotels and motels in the area. You should always verify that a hotel or motel is biker friendly and if there is security provided for your bike before you make reservations. With all those bikers converging on Myrtle Beach, they will need a place to stay, and they will be hungry. Reservations are imperative.

Bike Week in Myrtle Beach in 2006 got off to a pretty rocky start. The headlines in Bikers USA read,

“TRAGIC START AT MYRTLE BEACH BIKE WEEK. 3 DEATHS ATTRIBUTED TO CAGE DRIVERS FAILING TO YIELD ON OPENING SATURDAY. TOTAL FALLEN RIDERS ALREADY AT 6 BEFORE THE WEEKEND BEGINS, WITH 5 DUE TO NEGLIGENT CAGE DRIVERS.”  

The piece went on to say that four of the five fatal accidents that claimed the lives of six motorcycle riders involved automobiles.  The drivers of automobiles were at fault and all five accidents were failure to yield.

There are over 200,000 bikers expected to attend the Myrtle Beach Bike week this year. The emphasis is, as always, on safety of the riders. The advice from Bikers USA is, “Even if you see them looking right at you, don’t assume they see you. If it even looks like they could try and take a left, beware. Assume they are IDIOTS, and are going to try and hit you. Your job is to not let them.”

There are an abundance of activities scheduled for the 2007 Bike Week event in Myrtle Beach. Events include a swap meet, live music, entertainment, a memorial poker run, stunt shows, a rock 'n roll fashion show, raffles, tattoo contests and so many others that they are too numerous to name. Admission is as always free.

For bikers Bike Week in Daytona Beach is a precursor to Bike Week in Myrtle Beach and most bikers attend both. Bike Week in Myrtle Beach has come a long way since it began back in 1940. Oh, and bikinis have been invented!