Port Dover who is going ?
- Thread starter Shwarider
- Start date
I'll be there, going with friends and making a bit of a multi day Niagara/south shore trip out of it at the same time.
Headed out Thursday morning with friends and spending 2 nights in Niagara with PD13 in the middle. I’m just east of Oshawa myself so I’m guessing from your username...somewhere in your neck of the woods.
If I wasn’t going with friends alaready I’d be happy to ride there with ya, but alas, won’t work this year.
Headed out Thursday morning with friends and spending 2 nights in Niagara with PD13 in the middle. I’m just east of Oshawa myself so I’m guessing from your username...somewhere in your neck of the woods.
If I wasn’t going with friends alaready I’d be happy to ride there with ya, but alas, won’t work this year.
Yep I am from oshawa
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Go insanely early...like, if you can, plan to be there by 7AM. The weather is looking good, it's peak summer riding season (so all the garage queens and Hortons Choice riders will be out for their "big ride of the season") which means it's gonna be insane.
Thanks for the suggestion! I'll keep it in mind when we plan this
That's why I'll be going the other direction.
I'll do the ones that are on the fringes of the riding season, with much smaller expected crowds.
It ain't for everyone, same as Sturgis...or lots of other Rallies. Went to Americade this summer, I could see how it wouldn't be everyones cup of tea either, but it's what you make of it.
Personally we wont be staying long - a few hours, see the sights, maybe buy a few things...hopefully avoid Thong Guy, and then we are outa there.
Yep I'm going.... got the day off especially for this, it's gonna be busy as it right in Summer which doesn't happen every year.
Which direction are you going from
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Veej
Well-known member
Going from Scarborough, so planning on leaving around 6:30 am, as I need to cut through 401 west traffic, and according to WAZE anything after 6:30 am adds on time due to morning commute traffic.
Taking my swimming trunks, beach towel and a book, so may take a dip in the waters, read and have a nap if the beach is not so busy, may even ride a bit east to Port Stanley in the afternoon if the beach is not that good a PD, the Port Stanley beach is amazing.
He's the best sight to be seen....lol.
His bike was in his driveway yesterday, ready to roll.
PP - how was Americade this year? I haven’t been in years after attending for many. Still a mixed bag of bikes? Or has it gone mostly cruiser now? Nothing wrong with that, but I used to like it for its mix of different types of bikes. The “party” used to be confined to the 2 bars at either end of the strip. Still the same or has it spread out?
Cheers,
Rob
heard he crashed yesterday actually..we'll know tomorrow
wonderings
Well-known member
I was in the Adirondacks with some friends for the final Saturday of Americade we decided to check it out make a trip out of it coming from Old Forge way on the west. Did not go in Americade itself but walked around the town and looked at bikes and everything going on there. I would say it was 99% cruisers. Saw some ADV bikes and sport bikes but they were a rare sight. Not my cup of tea, way to busy and crowded so opted to avoid the $20 entrance fee and just take a longer way back to Old Forge and enjoy quiet country twisties.
It was our first time attending (albeit with friends who were on their second or third visit) so I didn't have a lot to compare with.
My thoughts, based on what the others who had been there before, was that it took a bit of a wrong turn this year. A lot of the big vendors were no shows (including HD, of all things...not that it mattered to me, but others were infuriated) because the fees were so high.
The idea of putting a motorcycle demonstration and bandstand in the middle of main street was just terrible - traffic trying to get through town was a NIGHTMARE as a result.
The vendor area seemed really small and of course if you didn't pay the entry fee, you couldn't even shop.
Paid street parking sucked, seemed like a cash grab, especially when it wasn't even included for registered attendees. We just walked into town from our motel instead. There was a (pay) shuttle service but it wasn't well organized and only got us as far into town as we could have walked in 5 minutes or less anyways so it was a waste of money.
There were test rides from some manufacturers, mainly Honda. Unfortunately they were booked solid up to the next day often in the early hours of the morning, so it was just impossible to partake.
We went to some of the events we booked - the Friday night dinner (including the desert), the comedy show, etc. Dinner was good (but I wasn't blown away), the "desert spectacular" was a joke (a story in itself), and the comedy show was good but under-attended and in a crappy venue...which was a shame as the comedian was actually pretty funny.
Never was able to use my $20 voucher for Americade gear - by the time I got to the booth they were sold out of so much stuff that I would have ended up wasting it on a bunch of keychains or other trinkets/junk I would likely have thrown in the garbage. That was a waste.
The best part of the whole thing was the riding, and since we were there with a group of friends we didn't do any of the organized Americade rides, we just did our own.
I'd totally go back to Lake George, but would probably do it outside of Americade itself. I think the others who were with us (even those who who were on repeat visits) may have felt the same.
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Thanks for the review PP. It doesn’t surprise me that it’s gone that route...it was always heading that way. Funny to think that it started out as an Aspencade owners club get together and grew from there. When I was going in the late 90s/early 2000s the demo rides were awesome. Almost every manufacturer has bikes there and lots of them so you could always ride something. The vendor section was good and had lots of bike specific stuff that you couldn’t find everywhere. We did one organized ride once...never again. Too slow.
The roads in the Adirondacks are amazing riding.
We were there last year, but in September after all the tourists were gone.
Cheers
Rob
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The roads in the Adirondacks are amazing riding.
We were there last year, but in September after all the tourists were gone.
Cheers
Rob
Sent from my iPad using GTAMotorcycle.com
