Vendors and organizers disappointed over low biker turnout

Vendors at 2001 Nightclub in North Myrtle Beach on Friday.

By: Aisha Khan | News13
Published: May 22, 2009

It is day two of bike week and the attendance is noticeably down than in the previous years.

Vendors and organizers setting up at the 2001 Nightclub in North Myrtle Beach earlier Friday said they blame the City of Myrtle Beach and its new ordinances designed to discourage bikers.

"We come down here every year to do the bikes and we've got a lot of customers that follow us around and you know the turn out is low and it's really hurting our revenue," said Brian Ross of beaver creek customs who has been following bike rallies for years.

Ross’s business wasn’t the only one feeling the impact, just down the row from his booth, business owner Mike Kumaras says it isn't fair how the city's new ordinances have not only taken an almost disastrous effect on biker turn out but also on the way he makes his money during the annual rallies.

"We travelled about 700 miles to get here and between gas expenses and stuff like that, it's going to hurt and honestly you if it doesn’t turn out good this year, then I don't know if we would be able to come back in the future," explained Kumaras.

The changes and low turn out also had a trickled down effect on Redline Powersports in Carolina Forest where its owner Jonathan Formo told News 13 that he is disappointed at the way the city has handled this year’s bike fest and that in turn has made him lose a lot of money.

"We had finally accomplished spreading out the memorial day weekend to get traffic patterns much better and it was really working well for us until all this stuff is going on this year they've really done a good job at destroying bringing in a half a billion dollars worth of income to the city of Myrtle Beach, they have absolutely lost their mind to run off over half a million tourists then to raise our taxes trying to figure out how to get tourists to come here," said Formo.

Bikers coming through 2001 earlier Friday told News 13 that driving through the City of Myrtle Beach almost seemed lifeless, adding that they aren’t sure if coming back next year is in the plans.

"This year here seems like that more things are restricted and you know it's kind of like not biker friendly," said Will Sutton who has been coming to the spring rallies for years from Maryland.

"They’ve really hurt themselves big time by the negative publicity," added Ross.