Motorcycle Week has changed, but the freedom of riding has not

Motorcycle Week is not what it used to be. For better or worse, the annual event at Weirs Beach in Laconia has changed dramatically over the course of its 84-year existence.

Rest assured, there is still a head-spinning concentration of leather, tattoos, piercings and big-ass motorcycles. Thousands of Harley Davidsons, Kawasakis, Yamahas, Hondas and custom bikes thunder along the lakeside strip, purring like oversized wild cats in a steel jungle. But longtime attendees say the wild behavior and biker brawls that darkened festivals in the mid- to late-1960s have all but vanished.

Bill Barnard, a former Concord police officer who has worked security at Bike Week for more than 40 years, recalled a particularly gruesome incident that occurred in the late ’60s or early ’70s. He and other officers had responded to a report of heavy smoke in a gravel pit off Route 106.

“I get down there and two of the rival gangs were having a confrontation. They had taken two of the rival gang members, poured gas on ’em and set ’em on fire,” Barnard said. “When I drove in I couldn’t see what it was ’cause there was so much smoke. I got closer and it was bodies burning, two guys.” Both men died, and Barnard has not been able to erase the incident from his memory. “There’s nothing any worse than the smell of a human burning. It’s just unbelievable,” he said. “I’ll never forget it.”

Barnard also remembers years in which Bike Week was tainted by shootings and riots. A massive riot in 1965 made national headlines. Confrontations often erupted between rival biker gangs like the Hells Angels, the Devil’s Disciples and the Renegades. The gangs were all vying for power in the motorcycle stronghold of New Hampshire, but according to Barnard, the Angels ruled the roost. “When they came into town, we used to give them escorts from the border,” he said. “When they stopped in a town for gas, we’d have five or six cruisers there, and we’d escort them right out. We wouldn’t let ’em stop.”

Belmont native Cindy Lou Gary also remembered some of the festival’s darker years. About 30 years ago, she said, police used tear gas on the crowd on Weirs Beach in an attempt to restore order. The experience of getting tear gas in her face is one Gary hopes to never repeat. “It burns your eyes pretty bad. I didn’t see any need for it, but they wanted to clear the Weirs out,” she said. “But that was a long time ago.”

Gary has attended Motorcycle Week every year since she was 18, and she has now been riding for about four years. As she backed her Harley into a parking space on Saturday, June 9, the first day of this year’s festival, she described how much the event has changed. “It’s not half as wild as it used to be. It’s more family-oriented now,” she said. “But you never know what you’re gonna see.”

Bike Week in Laconia is one of three major motorcycle rallies that occur every year, the other two being in Daytona, Florida, and Sturgis, South Dakota. Many motorcycle aficionados attend all three rallies, trekking across the nation to mingle with fellow bikers and show off their mighty rides. One such biker is Douglas Dervin, who has been riding since about 1965. Dervin and his friends rode into town from Long Island on Friday night, making the 350-mile haul in about six hours and arriving after midnight. Although he has ridden all over the country, Dervin has a special fondness for New Hampshire as motorcycle terrain.

“The best riding on the East Coast, I think, is in New Hampshire,” he said. “The minute you come into New Hampshire you just smell the pine trees. It’s just unbelievable. That’s what it’s all about. You’re riding, you feel the wind, you smell the trees, it’s just great. There’s nothing like it. Florida sucked.”

Dervin and his cronies enjoyed cold beverages on Saturday afternoon in a beer garden, where a live band played classic rock tunes at high volumes. He considered himself lucky to be around for the rally after all the bad motorcycle crashes he has been involved in. Despite a number of hairy incidents, he has never been seriously hurt—not even when he plowed into the rear of another vehicle at an intersection.

“I hit ’im right in the ass and went flipping right over the top,” Dervin said. “He just kept on going. I pulled over to the side, pulled the forks out, took the fender off, threw it in the bushes and kept on ridin’. It’s all good.”

Bill Overton, of Taunton Mass., is another longtime biker who has had brushes with death aboard his bike. “About 15 years ago I almost got killed. I had a real bad time. But I was drunk and I was stoned,” Overton said. “I haven’t drank or done any drugs since then.” Overton hosted a radio show in Massachusetts called “Big Bill’s Motorcycle World” from 1987 to 1996. Today, he always wears a helmet, as do his two sons.

One of those sons, 26-year-old Steve Overton, owns a Harley and has been riding for two or three years. He said riding a motorcycle is like nothing else he has ever done. “The freedom of it, the wind, you feel like you’re all by yourself. It’s just great,” he said. “You can’t explain it, you know, you just get on a bike and it’s fun.”

His father expressed similar feelings when asked what draws him to riding. “Probably just the freedom of it,” Bill Overton said. “You just feel like you’re sitting on top of a motor, riding down the street. It’s just you and the machine. It’s more personal than a car.”

The concept of freedom is a recurring theme among motorcyclists who attempt to analyze their passion for riding. Many found it difficult to put the sensation of biking into words, but Gary summed it up nicely. “I love the wind on my face, and I like being in control rather than sitting on the back,” she said. “It’s a whole different feeling when you’re behind the handlebars. There’s nothing like it in the world.”

Steve Boeder flew in from Madison, Wis., to attend Bike Week for the weekend, borrowing a motorcycle from a friend who lives in Manchester. He too cited the freedom afforded by motorcycling and said biking offers unique exposure to New Hampshire’s lakes and mountains. “It’s so pretty out here with all the trees,” Boeder said. “This is like Northern Wisconsin, with the lakes. It’s just gorgeous.”

Brian Small, who rode about 250 miles to Laconia from Valatie, N.Y. with his wife, attended Motorcycle Week for the first time. He said the rally was shaping up to be one of the highlights of his motorcycling career. “This is pretty awesome,” he said. “I’ll be back from now on every year.”

Small sat at a picnic table in the beer garden, where scantily clad bartenders vended cold bottles of Bud Light to thirsty patrons. The event gave bikers of all shapes and sizes a chance to sate their appetites for beer and biking. Surrounding streets were lined with tents selling tee shirts, chaps, patches and motorcycle accessories. Tattoo artist Rich Bustamante, of Asylum Studios Tattooing & Piercing, said people stopped into his tent all day to spruce up old tattoos or get brand new ones. Asylum Studios is based in New York but travels to motorcycle rallies in Laconia, Daytona and Sturgis. The most unusual tattoo Bustamante has ever executed? A raccoon crawling up a man’s arm, he said.

Bill Overton said Motorcycle Week now includes a more diverse crowd than it did 30 or 40 years ago. Bikers used to be much more particular about which motorcycles they tolerated at the event. Straying into a pack of Harley Davidson riders on a Yamaha was ill-advised back then, he said.

“I think it’s a wider variety of people now. It’s more all types of bikes,” Overton said. “It used to be a lot of Harleys and Triumphs, British bikes and American bikes. They looked down upon sports bikes.”

The rally was also much more party-oriented years ago, characterized by excessive consumption of alcohol. Laconia Police Chief Thomas Oetinger said the decrease in belligerence is due to two main factors. The crowd is generally older now, he said, and police have stepped up their presence at the rallies.

“Attendees are gentrifying. The crowd is getting older and more mature. There is not as much drunken rowdies,” Oetinger said. “Over the last five years, we’ve developed a very consistent and somewhat strict enforcement policy involving violations surrounding the use of alcohol and disorderly behavior.”

Police departments from Concord, Bow, Merrimack County, Hillsborough County and the University of New Hampshire send officers to Laconia during Motorcycle Week, and once-common practices like camping along the highway have been outlawed. The result has been a friendlier and safer atmosphere, where motorcyclists from all walks of life can congregate amiably.

But not everyone at this year’s event was friendly. One large, bearded biker was less than receptive when approached by a reporter for this article. “Walk away before you get hurt,” he advised. Others tersely refused to be interviewed. But the majority of bikers were exceptionally friendly. They came to see the bikes, have a good time and ride.

When asked why he rides, Brian Small took his time before answering. “The freedom of it, the thrill of it,” he said after a time. “The feeling, to me, is unexplainable.”

Motorcycle Week continues in Laconia through Sunday, June 17.