Car XxX Blog

I was shocked, shocked I say that I did not see one random act of nudity during the time I was in the Lake Erie town of  Port Dover during the 50th Friday the 13th motorcycle rally. I did see the thong wearing energizer bunny dude so I guess I was lucky that he had something on.

It was a gathering of thousands of bikes and approximately 150,000 people crowded the small town and filled all available spaces with shiny chrome and leather machines. It's hard to believe the amount of metal and flesh packed into the small town streets.

And there are plenty of bikes and plenty of vendors selling all sorts of leather and bike accessories so I made sure I picked up my event patch and some chaps. I really like bold colours and cool helmets. A popular theme is skeletons and especially skulls, which can be very scary. They also liked sayings like "Ride or Die" and "Live to Ride, Ride to Live".

Chris Simons organized the first Friday the 13th event in 1981 and they continue to build in popularity every year with the summer rallies being the busiest events since leather tends to harden in cold weather. The next summer rally is Friday, July 13, 2012.

With so many bikers and bike watchers the traffic started to slow up about 40km from Port Dover so we quickly bailed off Highway #6 and it's stop and go traffic and took a lot of side roads to get to the outskirts of town with the help of our GPS unit (got to love the GPS). Cars are blocked from going into town and only the bikes are allowed through the police roadblocks. The Legion has a great parking and shuttle system set up outside town with easy to find green P parking signs. You park for $10 and you get a free ride on a school bus into the downtown core and return back to your car whenever you want to leave.

After the event you can always party at Suck Bang Blow on Highway 20 in Stoney Creek with a Bike Night and an after Dover Party - yeah, I love that name too.

For bikers in the Toronto area there is the upcoming Motorcycle Show scheduled for December 10th to the 12th, 2010 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre (south building).

See more pictures after the jump.