Thursday, Apr. 16, 2009
Checking Out Online Sources for Local Bikers
When my wife, Sissy, and I first got our motorcycle I jumped online to look up some things to do. I was amazed to find that in an area with great riding weather, three huge motorcycle rallies, and thousands of motorcycle owners, there wasn’t a single local site online listing events like poker runs. There were a number of sites dedicated to the spring and fall Harley rallies, but nothing listing year-round events.
I was in the Web site business at the time so I figured I would start a site of my own and Sissy and I created and ran what became the hugely popular web site www.RideMyrtleBeach.com for six years. I’m not bragging when I say that. The statistics proved the site was popular and we really appreciated all that running it allowed us to see and to do.
Before opening our family restaurant last March I was approached by a guy in Florida who offered to buy the site and his timing couldn’t have been better so I reluctantly turned over what had been a labor of love to a complete stranger. As I feared, the new owner doesn’t have the same passion for the local motorcycle scene that Sissy and I do and the site, in my opinion, has really gone downhill. The most recent local event it shows (excluding the rallies) is from February of 2008. The site is now plastered with banner ads and even the photo galleries that once held dozens of pictures containing my personal memories of the Myrtle Beach biker scene and those submitted by visitors has been replaced with images that aren’t even from Myrtle Beach – they’re all from the Black Hills Rally in Sturgis, S.D.
I still have a couple of domain names reserved and have always left open the possibility of creating a new site to fill the void we have here along the Strand, but in the meantime I wanted to share some of the online resources that are out there with my readers.
The local Harley-Davidson dealership has a Web site at www.myrtlebeachharley.com. The site is mostly about the dealership, which is fair, but at rally time you can always find detailed information about vendors and the dealership has begun getting a little more active in hosting its own events during the last year. I’m sure with the economy the way it is they are realizing the need to reach out a little more than they have in the past. The site lists a Chili Cook-off & Blood Drive on April 25, Biker Games on Sundays at the dealership, and has a link to a flier about the Myrtle Beach Speedway’s upcoming Bike Week events. The local H-D shop also sponsors www.mbbikeweeks.com to promote its interests in the spring and fall rallies. For my readers on metrics you may want to check out Red Line Powersports’ site at www.redlinepowersports.net.
Our local daily paper, The Sun News, takes a lot of heat from bikers for presenting what is seen as slanted coverage where motorcycle news is concerned, but to its credit does provide us with a number of useful tools online and I have never had any trouble finding out the latest developments in local bike week news on the Web site www.thesunnews.com. In addition to running stories, there is a page dedicated to motorcycle news at www.thesunnews.com/bikers/ and two online discussion boards dedicated to general biker topics and one dedicated to a local group of riders. I have come to meet a lot of nice people by way of the discussion boards on The Sun News site and it is not uncommon for local rides and events to be posted there. Unfortunately it seems like lately some of the regulars have decided to use it as a means of mudslinging, but when the tempers cool there is always something worth reading there.
There are also discussion boards for bikers available at www.wave104.com (local classic rock station) and at www.ibiker.org, a relatively new site that focuses on the recent battles over abolishing or saving the rallies in Myrtle Beach. Ibiker.org also has the closest thing I have seen to a legitimate local event calendar online. April shows a couple of ABATE meetings and a benefit run in Hemingway on April 25.
ABATE is a motorcycle rights organization with a local chapter in Horry (and Georgetown) County. It too has a Web site that you can find at www.horryabate.com. The April calendar lists a support party for the Hammer Headz Motorcycle Club earlier this month and the dates and times of upcoming city and county council meetings, which are important to us all as the fight to protect our rights as bikers continues.
Most of the local hangouts have sites of their own too. Here is a brief sampling: The Beaver Bar – www.beaverbar.net; Suck, Bang, Blow – www.suckbangblow.com; and http://myrtlebeachrallies.com brought to you by the folks at Jamin’ Town in Surfside Beach.
If you are looking to find a ride outside the Grand Strand area, check out the aptly named Motorcycle Events site at www.motorcycleevents.com. It is a great resource for locating other events across the country.
And of course you can’t forget www.weeklysurge.com where you can read my column twice a month, or check out articles I have written in the past in the archives, and you can look for rally events listings coming in early May.
If you have any questions, comments or suggestions of bike-related topics send a "Big E-mail'' to surgebiker@yahoo.com.
Click here for previous Ridin' with Big E columns