Chris-CJ
Well-known member
Anyone going?
Will be great to hear of your experience and a link to pics will be nice!
Will be great to hear of your experience and a link to pics will be nice!
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Friday 13th @ Port Dover
- Thread starter Chris-CJ
- Start date
breakablecomb
Member
lookin like rain in the aft/eve. been riding 8 years & still haven't been but I'd like to go at some point
Sent from my SM-N910W8 using Tapatalk
Sent from my SM-N910W8 using Tapatalk
Lakota
Well-known member
I have been riding 35 years and never heard of it until 5 years ago. Strange thing was, I was in North Carolina doing that Tail of the Dragon thing and some Floridian's I was talking to said ya, we know where London is, we pass it on the way to Dover. Have since been a few times, but probably still have no concept of the PD 13 experience. A couple hours in that size crowd, I end up running for the border. Always amazed at how many people I run into during that short a time that I know or work with. Got talked into taking the day off to ride with a couple friends that wanted to go to the Move Over Dover event in Ipperwash. Plan was to meet in Dover then check out the Ipperwash event afterwards. They seem to be worrying about the weather so will by flying by the seat of my pants as usual tomorrow. Took the day off so, minimum, will be in Dover tomorrow morning.... bloody hell where does the time go, guess that should be, This morning.
roadrash
Well-known member
35 years ? Wow ..that's longer than I've been alive
I went once. In February 2004. During the ride in, I saw maybe a half dozen bikes. In town, maybe 100 more. But pirates, frig me, thousands of leather clad pirates and parking lots full of Toyota Camrys. The amount of posing was ridiculous. If you are going to wear riding gear, you better be out for a ride or you just look like an idiot. Not my scene. Never went back.
I was there today...I typically go to every one. Well, with the exception of 1995 through 2013, but hey, life got in the way. 
It's more about the excuse to ride somewhere more than anything else now honestly. Left the east side at 4:30A (to get through Toronto before traffic) with a few likeminded friends, had buffet breakfast at the Erie beach, and then wandered through town.
Had a 30 minute conversation with the owner of an 2018 Star Venture - learned lots of stuff about what may very well be my next bike. Saw lots of other interesting and unique bikes, trikes...classics, crotch rockets....etc. Saw a really cool trailer setup that I may try to duplicate for my own needs in the future.
That's what it's about more than anything for me...checking out the stuff you don't see everyday, thousands of lookalike Harleys aside.
Ultimately, it's a ride. A destination.
All the "Dover is over" BS is exactly what I expected - bunk. There were tens of thousands of people there at 11:30A when I left (bike parking was already backing up to quite some distance from main street) and we passed probably 1500+ bikes on Highway 6 headed into town...and it wasn't even lunch hour yet.
Got damp on the way home...but meh, if you don't ride in the rain, you don't ride.
It's more about the excuse to ride somewhere more than anything else now honestly. Left the east side at 4:30A (to get through Toronto before traffic) with a few likeminded friends, had buffet breakfast at the Erie beach, and then wandered through town.
Had a 30 minute conversation with the owner of an 2018 Star Venture - learned lots of stuff about what may very well be my next bike. Saw lots of other interesting and unique bikes, trikes...classics, crotch rockets....etc. Saw a really cool trailer setup that I may try to duplicate for my own needs in the future.
That's what it's about more than anything for me...checking out the stuff you don't see everyday, thousands of lookalike Harleys aside.
Ultimately, it's a ride. A destination.
All the "Dover is over" BS is exactly what I expected - bunk. There were tens of thousands of people there at 11:30A when I left (bike parking was already backing up to quite some distance from main street) and we passed probably 1500+ bikes on Highway 6 headed into town...and it wasn't even lunch hour yet.
Got damp on the way home...but meh, if you don't ride in the rain, you don't ride.
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pfbmgd
Well-known member
I was there today...I typically go to every one. Well, with the exception of 1995 through 2013, but hey, life got in the way.
It's more about the excuse to ride somewhere more than anything else now honestly. Left the east side at 4:30A (to get through Toronto before traffic) with a few likeminded friends, had buffet breakfast at the Erie beach, and then wandered through town.
Had a 30 minute conversation with the owner of an '08 Star Venture - learned lots of stuff about what may very well be my next bike. Saw lots of other interesting and unique bikes, trikes...classics, crotch rockets....etc. Saw a really cool trailer setup that I may try to duplicate for my own needs in the future.
That's what it's about more than anything for me...checking out the stuff you don't see everyday, thousands of lookalike Harleys aside.
Ultimately, it's a ride. A destination.
All the "Dover is over" BS is exactly what I expected - bunk. There were tens of thousands of people there at 11:30A when I left (bike parking was already backing up to quite some distance from main street) and we passed probably 1500+ bikes on Highway 6 headed into town...and it wasn't even lunch hour yet.
Got damp on the way home...but meh, if you don't ride in the rain, you don't ride.
When my group goes it sounds exactly like your day .
J_F
Guest
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Riceburner
Well-known member
Went once a couple of decades ago. I imagine it's not much different from what I see on the news, etc. Would rather spend the day riding.
They've changed things here and there over the last few years - last year main street was side parking only (no middle parking like years past), this year it was different again with the lower half of Main St setup as vendor only. The parkette that used to be vendors was now parking for a TON of bikes instead. The main park area had far fewer vendors because most were now on main street.
I agree that having bikes on main street vs the blocked off vendor area would be nicer, but I'm guessing there must have been some reason in the end....maybe the grass was being torn up too much in the park? Who knows.
Any Dover in the winter is going to be weird. You get two crowds - the really hard core riders who actually show up on their bikes, and the poseurs who show up in their cars and pretend they rode in on their bikes.
It's not like Dover in the summer.
However, if you're the sort who's going to be fixated on what everyone else is wearing like some are, then yeah, you're not only missing the point of Dover, but it may not be for you.
Don't disagree, but for many, Dover is just a stop on a days ride, that's all. Again, it's just a destination. Some arrive 2 days early and camp and whatever and spend the entire day in town on the 13'th itself. Some like myself go early, enjoy a quiet breakfast with friends, by the time you get back outside everything is in full swing....look at the iron, blah blah blah....get back on your bike and ride out. I rode 500K today, Dover was just one of the stops.
Forgot about the middle parking, much better setup back then.
I assume the reason for blocking the street is to allow more vendors with a higher vendor fee for being on Main St.
Pretty sure the reason they stopped allowing middle parking was that the fire department said it was too much risk in the case of an emergency - there was no way in heck they'd be able to get through town in any expeditions fashion for any reason at all.
Like I said, I liked it better with the bikes on Main Street all the way to the corner and the vendors in the parks, but whatever.
Like I said, I liked it better with the bikes on Main Street all the way to the corner and the vendors in the parks, but whatever.
Because they are.
kruzuki
Well-known member
I go to every PD13 that I can. It's an excuse to take a day off work, get together with friends, go for a ride, do some people watching and look at tons of different bikes. What could be better?
We do plenty of 'real' riding the rest of the year. It has nothing to do with posing.
We do plenty of 'real' riding the rest of the year. It has nothing to do with posing.
Been enjoying watching all the butthurt about how "Dover is over!" and the competing Ipperwash rally didn't exactly work out as the overwhelming switch many had hoped and anticipated.
Dover is most certainly not over....crowd estimates from this one was 75,000..which given the fact it was September and the forecast was far from ideal, is a pretty resounding success IMHO.
The Ipperwash "Move over, Dover" rally looked like about maybe a few hundred bikes parked on the side of a road with not a whole lot going on.
Dover is most certainly not over....crowd estimates from this one was 75,000..which given the fact it was September and the forecast was far from ideal, is a pretty resounding success IMHO.
The Ipperwash "Move over, Dover" rally looked like about maybe a few hundred bikes parked on the side of a road with not a whole lot going on.
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