A long time supporter of the motorcycle rallies announced Thursday it will boycott the Myrtle Beach area Harley-Davidson stores because the owner extended the dates of the spring rally to Memorial Day weekend.
Gary Balcom is the coordinator of the Horry County Chapter of ABATE, and has been happy with where the biker community stood with local government.
"Over the past few years we've kind of ironed things out and come to a medium a relatively good medium between both sides," he said Friday.
But Balcom’s afraid that standing may get wrinkled again with the change of dates of Harley-Davidson's cruising of the coast spring bike rally.
"We just don't feel like think gentleman from the Harley dealership should have stirred the pot, per say," said Balcom.
The person ABATE said is responsible for the shake up is the owner of the Harley-Davidson stores in Myrtle Beach and North Myrtle Beach, Phil Schoonover. ABATE says it tried to contact Schoonover multiple times to discuss the situation, but its calls have not been returned.
The store's marketing manager spoke to News13 about ABATE's proposed boycott the store.
"I do appreciate their concern; I truly do as I would anybody,” said Denise Triece, Harley-Davidson marketing event coordinator. “But they have to understand, when we make decisions we're basing it off of business and we can pick the times of our events."
The length of the spring rally upset residents near the Harley dealership immediately. One man even voiced his opinion in front of Horry County council January 24. It sparked a debate over revoking vendor permits for the rally.
"I've got no heartburn at all with the bikers please understand it's the rally organizers,” said councilman Gary Loftus after the council meeting. “They keep wanting to push and push and push well they've just pushed too hard this time."
"We are behind Horry County 100 percent with the exception of we do not want them to pull any permits. Let's leave things as they are," said Balcom.
"We had a good bike week for the last couple of years so I'm all for keeping it the same as it was,” said Bob Grabowski, Horry County councilman, district 6. “I don't want to see anything change."
Horry County Council will discuss what to do with the vendor permits at its Committee of the Whole meeting on February 14th. Its will start at 9:00a.m. in the morning and is open to the public.
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