LACONIA, N.H. (AP) – Organizers of one of the country’s oldest largest motorcycle rallies have fired up their engines in anticipation for this weekend.
The Laconia Motorcycle Association expects more than 350,000 people to attend the Laconia Race and Rally Week that begins with a biker breakfast on Saturday.
This would be an increase over last year when attendance was down by nearly 125,000 after motorcycle gangs created negative publicity with several shootings in New York and Las Vegas.
Belknap County sheriff’s deputies based in Laconia will be conducting business as normal, they said. They expect nothing out of the norm to occur this year because there haven’t been major incidents between biker groups.
The nine-day event will have everything from bike shows and amateur racing to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and guided scenic tours of the White Mountains.
The event is behind only Daytona Beach, Fla., and Sturgis bike week in South Dakota in size and scope, according to Motorcycle Week Association spokesman Rick Fink.
Fink said bike week will bring in more than $220 million for the state.
, including money spent on lodging, meals, gas, entertainment and at motorcycle shops.
Harvey E. Chernin, part owner of Weirs Beach Lobster Pound – the main headquarters of the rally – said the anniversary will bring in more people.
“I think a lot of people put aside extra money to travel to this event this year,” he said.
Bike week is part of a long tradition in New Hampshire. Charlie St. Clair, executive director of the Race & Rally Association, said the first motorcycle rally in Laconia began in 1916. (There have been seven years with no rallies, which is why this year is the 80th Anniversary.)
“They probably ended up coming to Weirs Beach because it was a destination of a lot of tourists at the time,” he said. “There were probably a couple of hundred people.”
Over the following years, the rally slowly grew in size and the community saw it was bringing in money.
But in the late 1950s and early ’60s, the noise and crowds from bike week started to draw complaints, St. Clair said.
The negative feelings came to a head in 1964, when bikers rioted and destroyed property. The State Police and National Guard responded with tear gas, clubs and riot guns that fired birdshot. When it was over, more than 120 people were taken to the hospital.
Things were turned around in the early 1990s, when organizers recast the event as more family friendly and linked to fund-raising, St. Clair said.
In 1992, attendance jumped to 100,000 bikers. An emphasis on public safety and adapting the city to the crowds helped it grow through the decade.
Two years ago, the association reported more than 375,000 bikers were in the state for part of the week, making it the largest event in New Hampshire.
AP-ES-06-02-03 1357EDT
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