Topic: Vintage Bike Nights - Start one in your neck of the woods

[myhondas]

Find a place and approach the management about bringing more business and attention to their place by helping host a Vintage Bike Night. Explain the difference of Vintage and current production ones. This will help dispel the sometimes preconceived notion of inviting trouble by having a lot of bikers show up. We use Craigs List to help advertise the event. Here is some slideshows of previous evenings. Starting with last Fridays gathering and working back to last years.

http://s564.photobucket.com/albums/ss89/myhondas/bike%20nites/steakshake052110/?albumview=slideshow

http://s564.photobucket.com/albums/ss89/myhondas/bike%20nites/steakshake043110/?albumview=slideshow

http://s564.photobucket.com/albums/ss89/myhondas/bike%20nites/steakshake102509/?albumview=slideshow

http://s564.photobucket.com/albums/ss89/myhondas/bike%20nites/steakshake092009/?albumview=slideshow

http://s564.photobucket.com/albums/ss89/myhondas/bike%20nites/steakshake091309/?albumview=slideshow

[tramp]

thats not a bad idea
problem is that not to many vintage bikes by me

[myhondas]

 You would be suprised how many may be around..There is at least one member of this forum nearby and probably more if you put out feelers for them.... You might even get some canucks to come over too.l Anyhow, give it a shot...lots of fun.

[Aetsh]

May have to give this a shot!

Thanks!

[vanillagorilla]

Hell, just an all makes bike night would be cool. Anything that gets riders out and on their bikes is a good thing! May have to talk to some bar owners here in Nacogdoches. Not many vintage guys, though I did meet an old dude with a Norton Commando all cafe'd out the other day... 

[Motoguy23]

I know that in St Paul MN, Porky's on University has vintage cars practically everynight in the summer and I see bikes there too.  I plan on going there when I finish my bike. 

[Don R]

Here it's Sunday AM at the Donut shop.

[ProTeal55]

Half Fast Chicago has hosted a Monday Nite Bike Night for the past three years and have had great turnouts...


Nite writeup in local magazine -->

We open up our nights to pretty much ANYTHING on two wheels, weather is be a HD bagger, moped, scooter, cafe, vintage,etc...
It is a great way to get the biker community in your area togheter, get the bar you are at some biz, have a meeting points for rides, etc...

[myhondas]

We have a number of bar/restaurants that do bike nights with the largest being Quaker Steak & Lube. It is open to anything at all. What we have done is to try to concentrate on the vintage bikes and showcase them. We do not turn anybody away as you can see....but we do want to attract the vintage ones to come on out.

[Roach Carver]

I have been thinking about this for a while. I ran into some people at work who wanted to talk about my bikes. I never got around to finding out much about there projects but something like this would surely bring people like that out of the woodwork.

[Nikkisixx]

It is good advice myhondas.  You meet nice people and see cool bikes, it is well worth the effort to get a vintage night going.  Here in Charlotte we have a good scene.  Last Thursday there was a gathering at a local wine bar.  Forum members Markcb750 and Asom were there.  A guy I know rode his '89 Honda GB500TT - don't see those very often.  The blue 750 in the foreground is my heap.

[fmctm1sw]

One of the things that has always turned me off about bike nights or vintage shows is that my bike is easily the worst looking out of any bunch...

[BurtonWarpup]

One of the things that has always turned me off about bike nights or vintage shows is that my bike is easily the worst looking out of any bunch...

I'm in the same boat...

[Nikkisixx]

One of the things that has always turned me off about bike nights or vintage shows is that my bike is easily the worst looking out of any bunch...

Hmmm, not sure how to take that right after posting a pic of my bike...
 
Most shows and bike nights I go to always have at least one "work in progress".  Plus, there is always a person or two that says "mine is in the garage in pieces" or "I had a bike but then we had kids...".  You'd be way ahead of those folks, even if you rode a scooter 

[wannabridin]

i like this idea a lot!  do you guys know of any way to actually find if there's current listings for bike nights?  i can't for the life of me find them anywhere, i guess i'm looking in the wrong area on craigslist or searching for the wrong stuff.  any help?

[Roach Carver]

I posted a listing in the motorcycles for sale section on CL. seems to be working so far.

[mgbgt89]

One of the things that has always turned me off about bike nights or vintage shows is that my bike is easily the worst looking out of any bunch...

My 350f is a pile. The thing is to ride it to a general bike night, You definitely stand out on an older bike, crappy condition or not. People always have a story to tell you about the one they used to have. When i went to motorcycles on meridian moto gp weekend, I was stopped at a stop light and this guy walked into the street and talked to me while i was sitting waiting for a light to turn green. Another guy yelled as i drove by, "IS THAT A 73?" I gave him the thumbs up as i passed.

I went with a sportster, a ducati monster, and a CBR, and those three didn't get a single word. Not bad for a 100 dollar bike.

[scrapvalue]

Bike "nights" are cool, but I really like bike "days".
Down by Naples there is a bar returant that has Bike day on Sundays.
Band starts playing about 2 pm and plays till 7:30.
Bikes come and go all day.
Much better turn out then the bike nights.
I am trying to get an establishment up here to start one.

[a4x4spit]

if you get something going in our neck of the woods let me know

[seaweb11]

I ran into this a while back looking for local rides etc.

http://www.meetup.com/

Give it a whirl, its free.

[techy5025]

We have a bike night every Thursday at one of the Steak and Shake's in Orlando. Last week we had probably 50 bikes of all types including and old Indian that shows up almost every week. This is the only Steak and Shake that still has the covered parking area from back when they had car hops coming to your car with the food....great for when it's raining which can be anytime in Florida. Yes, I am dating myself! 

At one time several hundred bikes....mostly sport bikes....showed up, but they insisted on doing wheelies on the six lane highway in front of the restaurant and the resultant police harassment drove them away and left us old fogies mostly. 

Actually, I think the Orlando area has at least five or six bike meets a week....mostly on Thursday for some reason.

Jim

[myhondas]

Which Steak&Shake has the old car ports ?

[Griz]

Thanks for posting this, I heard about this at the end of last year,but never made it. Will definately be there soon. Looking forward to meeting you guys

[seaweb11]

I support Orlando Steak&Shakes'

[techy5025]

Wow...forgot about that....when are you coming back? We need more people to BS with.