The 2025 edition of the world’s largest motorcycle rally is expected to be a record-breaker.
A week ahead of Bike Week’s official opening day, one of the event’s longtime fans is getting a head start with a cold bottle of beer at the bar at the famous Boot Hill Saloon on Main Street.
“My first Bike Week was in 1976 and I’ve only missed three of them since,” said Jim Lee, 67, of Daytona Beach. The main appeal?
“Motorcycles and people who aren’t phony,” he said, without missing a beat. “Riding with friends, people I’ve known for years. I know that at least once a year, I get to go riding with them.”
At the same time, Lee has noticed a big change in the atmosphere of the event since his introduction to it during the nation’s bicentennial year.
“It has become more commercial,” he said, “but I still like it. It used to be just a bunch of bikers, partying, having a good time.”
That still happens, but when the 84th Annual Bike Week opens its 10-day run on Friday, the event also will be a marketing showcase for an array of official corporate sponsors.
It’s a list that includes the ubiquitous Harley-Davidson Motorcycles, Progressive Insurance, Amsoil Motor Oil, Los Angeles-based Russ Brown Motorcycle Attorneys, locally based Daytona Beverages and Southern Stone Communications as well as the Florida Department of Transportation.
It’s a corporate presence that has continued to build over the past decade, said Janet Kersey, executive vice president and chief operating officer of the Daytona Regional Chamber of Commerce, which organizes the event.
“We definitely see corporate engagement progressing,” Kersey said. “If you look at how corporations interact with consumers, it’s a very challenging environment with all the changes in communication.
“These companies are all experts at social media online marketing and customer relationship marketing, so they look to events like Bike Week, that is 84 years old with a long-standing good reputation, that is managed well and effectively draws a large amount of people that are in their direct target audience.”
While the sponsors connect with potential customers, the relationship also helps elevate and expand Bike Week’s appeal to a younger, more diverse, global market, Kersey said.
“When you’re working with corporations like Harley-Davidson, they promote Daytona Beach along with us,” she said. “They are promoting Daytona Beach and Bike Week in a good positive manner to a broad market, far more people than we could ever market to. Plus, we know it will be good clean marketing, things we want our community to be represented by.
At the event, one needn’t look farther than the banners that will stretch across the event’s traditional hub on Main Street, signs that now welcome “riders” as opposed to bikers. It’s a change that resulted from collaborative thinking between sponsors and event organizers, reflecting the fact that Millennials don’t consider themselves bikers, Kersey said.
At 2024’s event, more than 420,000 visitors came to Daytona Beach during Bike Week’s 10-day run, based on geofencing data that uses “location intelligence” from cellphones to count visitors and provide “dwell time” in three Bike Week hot spots: Main Street, Daytona International Speedway and Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune Boulevard.
The city paid $26,250 for a one-year service term with the analytics firm Placer.ai to calculate the number of Bike Week visitors and also offer a trove of demographic and other information.
Preparations for this year’s Bike Week influx also include an additional emphasis on security, in the wake of an attack during New Year’s celebrations over Sugar Bowl weekend in New Orleans.
In that incident, a man drove a pickup truck into a crowd of revelers on Bourbon Street, then exited the truck and engaged in a shootout with police before being fatally shot.
Fifteen people were killed, including the perpetrator, and at least fifty-seven others injured, including two police officers who were shot.
Kersey said that organizers have been in contact with Volusia Sheriff Mike Chitwood and other law enforcement officials. She is confident that the event will unfold safely.
“Safety is one of most important things we work on, especially with motorcycle events,” she said. “It’s a topic that can be approached from many different angles. From safety of riding, to helmets, pedestrian safety, traffic patterns, gathering in crowds.”
In the wake of the New Orleans attack, terrorism-related preparation is a focus, she said.
“It’s top-of-mind, especially when we see these things occur. One thing we know from Sheriff Chitwood is that when these big events come to town, it’s not just local law enforcement. The federal government is very much keyed into these events through multiple agencies.
“It’s a high, high priority for him (Chitwood) and we honor and respect that. Our reputation is riding on it. He’s not going to wait until something happens. He’s going to make sure it doesn’t happen on his watch.”
With a week to go before Bike Week’s official opening day, the scene was quiet on Main Street, but merchants are optimistic that’s going to change.
“Last year, it was more chaotic, with the election year and the concerns about the economy,” said Roger Harb, owner of two Biker Brothers apparel and souvenir shops that are open year-round on Main Street’s eastern end.
“There have been a lot of changes that have happened, so I think people will have more confidence to spend. If people are in town, and they’re willing to spend, we’re here to help.”
Next door, at John’s Rock ‘N Ride, owner Johnny Sanchez offered a similar appraisal.
“People are tired of what’s happening in the country,” he said. “They’re tired of the floods and the hurricanes. Daytona’s Bike Week is one of the biggest in the world. The bikers know it and they come from all over the world.”
In case you missed it:A Bike Week, Main Street fixture for more than 40 years, John’s Rock ‘N Ride rolls on
At Humphreys & Son Jewelers, a Main Street fixture since 1954, Bike Week’s demographic shift is reflected in customers that now include famous YouTubers instead of long-ago celebrity visitors such as Evel Knievel and Paul Newman, said Helen Humphreys, the shop’s beloved matriarch.
The shop has been busily filling orders its limited-edition one-ounce pure silver Bike Week collectible coins that the shop has created annually since 1988, she said.
“We’ve been working on that list for weeks, getting it ready,” said Humphreys, adding that world events, bad weather or other complications never seem to dampen Bike Week enthusiasm. “It almost doesn’t seem to matter that much. These visitors are going to come to Daytona, they’re going to have their Bike Week.”
Across Main Street, a newly opened business is equally upbeat about its first Bike Week.
“I hope to feed 400,000 people,” said Steve Brock, owner of the new Urban Soul Daiquiris & Wingz, a New Orleans-themed restaurant.
At area hotels, the Bike Week crowd is boosting occupancy and rates, especially over the two weekends of the event, according to area hoteliers.
“We are seeing good advance demand for Bike Week 2025 and it should be another good one for the destination,” said Jim Berkley, general manager of the 744-room Hilton Daytona Beach Oceanfront Resort, the area’s largest hotel.
“Hilton Daytona Beach Oceanfront is projecting sold out occupancy over all Bike Week dates, with growth on ADR (average daily room rate) performance as well.”
The event also is having a positive impact at hotels owned and operated by Ormond Beach-based Premier Resorts & Management, said Domien Takx, vice president of operations.
The company operates a roster of hotels that includes the Hilton Garden Inn; Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites; and the Best Western Daytona Inn Seabreeze; all in Daytona Beach; as well as the Holiday Inn Express & Suites, Daytona Beach Shores.
In October, Premier opened the new, $50 million, 11-story, 190-room Renaissance Daytona Beach Oceanfront Hotel, which is expected to be among the company’s sold-out properties.
“Bike Week represents another example of how special events materially help local businesses, including hotels,” he said. “The past few years, both weekends are still strong, but weekday occupancy is harder to get. The room demand just is not there for the Sunday-Wednesday days of the 10-day period.
“Having said that, this year is shaping up to be on par with last year, where we expect to sell-out both weekends, with above average occupancies for Sunday through Wednesday.”
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