In a more peaceful U.S. of A., in the days shortly preceeding September 11, 2001, I joined a pair of online friends for a day-trip to visit the First Annual Delmarva Bike Week near Ocean City, MD. While we did visit the event to see what the hype was about on the first day, September 6th, we didn’t stay long. The hours of riding that followed created what would be a memorable and fitting conclusion to my riding season for 2001, which was cut short due to events that unfolded the following Tuesday.

As we had planned, I met Chris and Earl on Route 50 just east of the Bay Bridge early Thursday morning. The lone ride was a little chilly, and I thought maybe I should have worn an extra layer. After stopping at the Wawa (like a Circle-K or 7-11 for all you folks not living in the northeast) for some hot French Vanilla Cappucino (screw Starbuck’s!), I was ready to press on to the meeting site. I wasn’t exactly sure I had found the right spot, until I saw a silver Bandit looking alot like mine. Earl and I talked Holeshot equipment, and shortly Chris rolled up, giving us something new to look at - his black ‘01 B12N. After a few more minutes of conversation on Holeshot equipment and showing off some minor custom touches we had made to our rides, we rolled out.

We hit MD Route 50 East and immediately fell into a legal-speed staggered formation. A few minutes later, a group of maybe a dozen Harleys slowly rolled up on our left. When they signalled that they wanted to get right, only the first few Hardleys were past us, leaving most of the group alongside. Earl politely slowed and waved the line of rolling thunder past our obviously superior machinery. The last few actually waved thanks to us for letting them over to make their exit. This was to be a taste of what we would see at the Delmarva Bike Week event.

Being the most familiar with that area of Maryland, Earl turned us left off Rt 50 onto another road, which sort of parallels Rt 50 eastward, only this road has some nice 2-lane twisty parts through some quaint little towns. No peg-scraping, we took it easy, especially through the towns. Although, I remember the front end of my bike getting very light as we turned onto a long straightaway bordering open fields. It was a new experience for me to ride with other folks on the same kind of bike - there was no desire to race (”lemme see what your bike can do”) and there was no need to watch the mirrors to make sure we weren’t leaving someone behind. An occaisional sprint was in everyone’s blood, though. It was probably some of the most comfortable, and most enjoyable riding I’ve ever done with a group.

We arrived at the Bike Week festivities around 11am. There were already a few dozen Harleys and a few Japanese-built cruisers lined-up in the open grass field that served as the mass parking lot for visitors. I was amazed that some folks had been able to maneuver their full-dress tourers through the uneven ground. Kindly enough, every visitor was given a small piece of wood (with appropriate sponsor advertising) to put under their kickstand to prevent the domino-effect mass destruction that would ensue should your bike’s stand happen to sink into the soft dirt. The rest of the event didn’t seem as thought-out.

There were a few vendor tents, mostly Harley products and accessories, and a few tents actually selling Harleys. One vendor was showcasing the trike conversion kits for both Harleys and Honda Gold Wings. We spent a few minutes watching a vendor show us how well his aluminum polish works (on soda cans, even). After a quick perusal of the meager selection of vendors, I took the initiative and headed for the concession stands to fill my grumbling belly. Seeing that I didn’t choke and die from the first hot dog, Chris and Earl joined in the early lunch. The selection of food was at least as good as the selection of vendors, and the quality was better than I had expected.

What caught our attention the longest (well, we were still eating) was the dyno trailer. Yup, they brought a single-wide trailer, with a dyno and for $50 US, you could have your bike’s power curve printed out to take home and frame. For an additional $50 they would use the dyno to tune your carbs. $100 for a carb tuning and a dyno chart? No, thanks. It was fun to watch the Harleys on the dyno pull all the way up to a whopping 6,500 rpms. One of many charts posted on the side of the trailer showed that one bike had hit 115 horsepower around 6,000 rpms. Next time, I’ll have the full Holeshot hook-up on my Bandit and we’ll give the dyno a good breaking-in. We spent a while looking around the parking lot at everyone’s rides. There were plenty of custom paint jobs, and a few custom-built machines. We even spotted a Kawasaki ZRX1100 (Z-ReX) in the field. I think the Z-ReX and our Banditos were the only non-cruisers in attendance, though.

The sun had been out all morning and warmed things up alot. By noon it was approaching 80 degrees F, and I was glad that I hadn’t worn an extra layer after all. We decided that we had seen enough of Delmarva Bike Week and it had little to offer the average Bandit rider. So, we scooted out of there before the outlaw-types started showing up for the BBQ. Ocean City, MD was right down the road, and as we leaned onto route 50 once more, the noon-time heat had me fantasizing about bikini-clad young ladies still swarming all over the beach-resort city. We hit Ocean City and parked in the lot at the south end of the boardwalk, which cost us only a dollar each - I’m not sure if it was off-season rates already, or discounted for the Bike Week(end). We spent some time on the boardwalk, Earl enjoying some gourmet popcorn. We talked for a few minutes with a wonderful senior couple selling raffle tickets for some over-priced Harley that nobody in their right mind would actually pay full price for. I bought $10 worth of chances to win it, though.

We re-mounted our steeds and cruised north through Ocean City. I had been there a few times over the summer on day trips by myself, but the Bandit got even more looks this time, with Earl, Chris and I swapping positions from light to light. We refueled before heading further north along the coast to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. A small, more relaxing beach town, Rehoboth Beach seemed a nice place to sit down and eat. We parked on the street (meters everywhere) and sat down to a large pizza and friendly (read: tolerant of us) service.

The ride back to our meeting point took us through more of Delaware’s backroads, passing through Georgetown on our way back to the Bay Bridge. Chris and I rode along to the exit for Interstate 97 and then I was alone again, with only my memories of a great day, and knowledge of some new roads that I could have been riding all summer had I known about them. All in all, I estimated I put on at least 300 miles of fun that day. As weak as the first morning of the actual Delmarva Bike Week event was, we’ll definitely have to give the second one a try in September of 2002, if only for the ride itself.

- (C)2001 J.G.

For official pictures of the 2001 Delmarva Bike Week, and up-to-date news and info on the next annual event, visit www.delmarvabikeweek.com.