LACONIA, N.H. (AP) -Though local businesses and vendors offered mixed reviews of Motorcycle Week, organizers said the annual event ended on a high-note thanks to a surge in attendance that accompanied the sunnier weather.

Charlie St. Clair, executive director of Laconia Motorcycle Rally and Race Week Association, said he doesn’t like to make year-to-year comparisons. Some business owners reported fewer sales than in the past, he said, while others said business was better.

“We’re getting a spike in attendance due to the weather,” St. Clair said Saturday.

Attendance may have appeared light in Laconia, but the event also has spread to other parts of the state, said Jennifer Anderson, director of the Laconia Motorcycle Rally and Race Week Association. More than 4,000 bikers participated in Thursday’s “Ride to the Sky” up Mount Washington, she said, compared to about 2,000 in past years.

When the sun came out Saturday, Lakeside Avenue quickly turned into a sea of chrome and leather.

Jason Thompson, a salesperson for Biker Design on Lakeside Avenue, said that while sales were sluggish at the beginning of the week, the sunny second half was drawing in more biker bucks. “We’re doing all right,” Thompson said.

Dennis Sawyer of Andover, who has managed the Bear Hollow Trading vendor space for the past five years, said Saturday was shaping up to be the best day yet.

“We got off to a slow start but it’s going to be a busy end,” Sawyer said. “They (bikers) have been out on the road since 7 a.m. and The Weirs is already filling up.”

Sawyer categorized this year’s business as moderate, compared to past years.

“The last few years the number of people coming has gone down,” Sawyer said. “With the cost of the gas and the economy, people have been really careful as to where they go and how they spend their money.”

James Locke of Farmington, a magician by trade, said he has been a bike week regular for the past 15 years and has come up for the event every day of the past week.

“Attendance definitely appears to be down,” Locke, said basing his judgment on the amount of traffic he has seen during his daily trips from Farmington to The Weirs.

“It’s becoming more a yuppie biker event, with less of the old, hard-core bikers we used to see here,” Locke said. “It’s still a great even, bit it has mellowed out.”

Meanwhile, Sgt. Matt Canfield of the Laconia Police Department said Motorcycle Week 2007 was relatively tame from a law enforcement perspective.

“In general it seems that arrests are down and serious accidents, at least here in Laconia, have been down,” Canfield said.

There were four fatalities involving motorcycles during the week. On Saturday, a Connecticut man died and his wife was seriously injured when they crashed into another motorcycle on Route 106 in Meredith. A New York City police officer died Wednesday, a day after his motorcycle went off Route 25 in Center Harbor.

Two men injured in a crash in Bristol on June 10 died the next day.

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Information from: Foster’s Daily Democrat, http://www.fosters.com

AP-ES-06-17-07 1411EDT

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