Today brings to a close a week of rides, festivities and events that are marketed as Arizona Bike Week by FX Promotions Inc. all centered around the valley and with their main focus being at WestWorld in the form of an Expo called Cyclefest.
Now as far as Bike Week on the whole, we as a valley don't really need it as year round we have great weather, great rides and even great events, so the real focus is the Cyclefest and what it does exactly for us as riders.
Above is a photo taken at 2:30 pm on Friday in the midway of the Cyclefest event...notice anything? I mean beside that fact that there are no people!?!
Forget the thing about people for a second and let's focus on just two items. One is the absence of motorcycles and the other is the primary sponsor of Cyclefest......yes, Jagermeister.
The first is actually the most surprising to me, the fact that an event called Cyclefest would not have a way for people to display and show off their motorcycles?!? I mean heck, I am pretty sure they could even make a little more if they sold passes to include riding your bike in the area. Now before I get some excited comments from the promoters of this event I am sure that WestWorld has limitations, but I do remember just a few months ago the place being full of cars moving around, yes?
Hold on, I actually know the real problem.
OK OK forget that as well, because once we focus on the real issue everything begins to become clear.
The real issue is a large bus sitting there on the right of the photo. It belongs to the primary sponsor of Cyclefest. Yes, Jagermeister is the key sponsor of Arizona's Bike Week and the Cyclefest specifically, good choice right? I mean since alcohol is the #1 killer of riders I guess they should pay for the show....(Um, yeah I didn't think so either.) of course since they need to sell alcohol at the event, you can't exactly have people riding their vehicles around, can you? Thus, no bikes in the Cyclefest.
I would think that if the show was centered on motorcycles and riding in Arizona the sponsors would be be either motorcycle related or heck even hydration centered, not something that leads to the deaths of motorcyclists directly.
So, let's back up and consider what this event is really about. Specifically for motorcyclist there were demo rides and I even got reports that sport bikes were available. That's a good thing. As far as vendors there were a lot of t-shirt, chaps and head accessories, but beyond non-DOT half helmets I didn't see a single helmet vendor. Also there were a good amount of other companies represented, even some in the sportbike realm, not a lot but look folks the vendor availability wasn't low.
So, what's wrong with this show?
Nothing, if you understand what the show really is all about.
Arizona Bike Week and Cyclefest is a 5-day concert series with a motorcycle cruiser theme!
Yup that's it folks, it isn't Daytona Bike Week, it isn't Sturgis, heck it isn't even a real rally. It is simply a decently put together Country Thunder for the cruiser crowd.
If you're a vendor and you were standing around wondering where all the riders or people were, they didn't show until later for the concert, so figure out a way to integrate into that or do something off-site during the days of ABW to drive traffic to your location specifically.
So, the next time you get upset about what ABW does or doesn't have just understand that $20 gets you into one concert and $38 gets you into 5 days of concerts and it should all make sense. Everything else that happens at WestWorld and is advertised around the Arizona Bike Week moniker is just additional marketing and money for the promoters.
Make sense now?
I'm not going to worry about it, or even try to change it...I'm just gonna ride!
4 comments:
Rob, you can put what ever kind of label or twist on Arizona Bike Week, but the fact is it is a poorly organized event. I don`t care what kind of bikes it is designed around. Cyclefest is a 5-day flop! Money is not the issue. Look at some of the other successful motorcycle events that go on in the country and it is difficult to give this one a good rating. Now I am not about to give up on this. Maybe we can bring new ideas and encourage better sponsers to attend the event. A good bike event will welcome all kinds of riders from all walks of life no matter what one rides. You should encurage your readers to come up with some things they would like to see at next years bike week.
John
As I understand it, AZ Bike Week isn't just the Cyclefest event at Westworld, rather it's 10 days of events spread across the valley at various dealerships and biker venues, most of which are centered around rides. The larger rides, which tend to benefit some worthy cause, are held the mornings of the Cyclefest events and include entrance to Cyclefest and the concerts. So while Cyclefest itself may not be anything more than a series of concerts surrounded by motorcycle related vendors and displays, the overall event is more about rides than music, imo.
That said, I loved the concerts. Partly because of the headliners but also because my band (74th Street) opened for Eddie Money ;)
Matt, those rides would be around and supported with our without it being called AZ Bike Week.
In fact year round the Valley has charity rides weekly and they can be found on www.cyclerides.com
Now, I am willing to admit that FX Promotions does support the 10 Days of rides and thus undoubtably grow the participation, so they are due some credit there.
My comments were to help understand what the Cyclefest Events were all about. My short answer and what you found the true benefit as well....the concerts!
See ya next year!
Jagermeister was only the sponsor of the HandleBar Saloon, not the presenting sponsor of the event.
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