Black Bike Week: Five things to know about the annual Daytona Beach event
DAYTONA BEACH — Along with all the rumbling tailpipes on Main Street, rock bands at work on outdoor stages, mammoth swap meets and other Bike Week rituals, another less well-known but equally significant tradition will unfold again this year in the city’s historic Midtown neighborhood.
Black Bike Week, an informal family-oriented gathering that has been a staple for more than 50 years, is slated to welcome motorcycle riders from across the country to Daytona Beach’s Joe Harris Park from March 7-10 during its traditional timeframe over the Bike Week’s closing weekend.
Here are five things to know about the event:
Black Bike Week is steeped in history
Black Bike Week was born in 1971, after a Black biker said he was told to leave the Bike Week event on Main Street on the beachside, supposedly because his Harley Davidson was dripping oil.
He and other Black bikers formed their own event, an informal annual gathering that features music, food and vendors at Joe Harris Park, at the corner of Mary McLeod Bethune Boulevard and Green Street.
Looking back: Daytona Beach's Bike Week: A history of beer, bikes, cole slaw and 'rowdyism'
During the event, activities also expand to include businesses on Mary McLeod Bethune Boulevard. Nowadays, both Black and white bikers attend events both at Joe Harris Park and on Main Street, the hub of activities during the 83rd annual Bike Week, which runs from March 1-10.
Where do riders come from?
Black Bike Week attracts motorcycle enthusiasts from across the nation, said Manny McDuffie, president of the Orlando chapter of the Buffalo Soldiers, an international group of Black bikers named in honor of the famous African-American Army units created in 1866.
Although not involved in officially organizing Black Bike Week, the Buffalo Soldiers are a major presence at the event annually, said McDuffie, known by his rider name “DJ Man.”
This year's edition of Black Bike Week represents a first for the club, he said.
"Our club, the Buffalo Soldiers, the largest minority biker club in the United States, will partner with Harley-Davidson to present several events at Black Bike Week," McDuffie said by phone from Orlando. "That’s a first for us at the event."
The Buffalo Soldiers have more than 100 chapters nationally and worldwide, including Hawaii, Korea and Germany. McDuffie expects to see members from nearly all of those chapters at Black Bike Week. "It’s mostly word-of-mouth and people show up,” he said.
What you'll see at Black Bike week in Daytona Beach
The scene at Black Bike Week revolves around food, music and vendors offering crafts and other items not typically on the shelves at other Bike Week souvenir stands, McDuffie said.
More: Daytona Bike Week 2024 is less than a month away. What you need to know.
“The main portion of it is the different foods,” he said. “There are vendors from all over selling different types of foods and clothing. There’s creole to Caribbean to soul food to seafood to New Orleans’ dishes.”
What you won't see
Black Bike Week strives to keep its activities family-friendly, said McDuffie, 65, who has been attending the event annually since 2008.
That means no wet T-shirt contests or boundary-pushing antics at events, he said.
Nor does Black Bike Week offer much in the way of motorcycle parts and accessories, he said.
“It’s about the bikers getting together,” he said, “being unified and having a good, safe time.”
How Black Bike Week has changed over the years
Although the origin of the event is rooted in a less-than-hospitable welcome offered to Black bikers at the event in 1971, those attitudes have changed for the better in the decades since, McDuffie said.
As a teen attending Titusville High School, he recalls visiting Bike Week and feeling the presence of discrimination. But those attitudes have changed considerably since then, he said.
"It’s 110% better now.”
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Black Bike Week is steeped in history in Daytona Beach
