After wiping down my bike from the early morning rain to make it look nice and clean(saw alot of disgustingly dirty rides there yesterday :/), filled the tank, picked up my girlfriend and left Hamilton around 8:30. Hit Burger Barn on 4th line just off 6 for an amazing breakfast, I can't say enough about this place, including tip it only came to $28 for two people and we were both more than satisfied with our food and the service. I'm sure anybody travelling to or from dover on 6 couldn't miss the BB signs. We rolled into town around 10, and parked right on the corner where the car wash is on the main street. I forgot to take a picture of the street when it was full, but this was when we were leaving, around 4:30
There was definitely a ton of people there, and despite GTAM's propensity for stereotyping, the crowd and the bikes were very diverse. As for the people, ofcourse the zebra lady was there, and we also did see the thong man, aswell as a naked man in an opaque rain suit lol, yeah quite the characters indeed. Yup, plenty of MC colors to be seen aswell, HA, RD, etc. There were, as the name suggests, far more 99% club members present than there were 1%. There was even a christian MC whose tent was directly beside HA and RD tents, from which a nice gentleman from MN led my girlfriend and I in a prayer and gave us cross key chains. The bikes on display were definitely WAAAY more diverse than some here would ever give credit for. New and old, Imperial and Metric, new bikes that looked old, and old bikes that looked new. From choppers to gixxers, mini bikes all the way up to couches on wheels, on the street that looked to be somewhat HA controlled, I even saw a bike that was converted to hold a wheelchair and that was really cool. While I had the only Phantom that I saw all day, it was far from rare to see metrics. For anyone who doubts the diversity, here's a picture that accidentally tells that story, in this sea of bikes, there were many more metrics than harleys.
Anyone recognize this one from the overpriced motorcycle for sale thread? lol I spotted it right away and had a good laugh(sorry about the crappy quality).
The real show stopper though, by far the coolest creation at the whole event was this, a hand built steam punk rat bike. Pictures really can't do this thing justice, because the more you study the bike, the more cool little details you pick out. Like an antique liquor bottle for a gas gauge. Or the air bag front springer suspension with adjustable wrenches for spindle mounts, etc. I wish I could have stared at this bike all day just to go over every detail, it was awesome to say the least.
So yeah, been there, done that, got the tshirt, the pin, the sticker, the patch lol and we will DEFINITELY do it again.