NSBNEWS.net photos by Henry Frederick. Jennifer LLoyd, a bartender at Pub 44, pours a soda for one of her friends during the midnight hour Thursday, the opening night of Biketoberfest with a sparse crowd. In middle photo, Eddie and Linda Albertson of Chatsworth, Ga., and in right photo, Fred and Judy Weekly, of Rome Ga., leave Pub 44 to head back to their beachside timeshare.
NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Georgia resident Judy Weekly was blunt in her explanation for the poor showing on opening night of the Biketoberfest motorcycle rally as she hopped on board husband, Fred's Harley Davidson: "They elected the wrong (expletive) president."
Eddie Albertson, who came down from Georgia with his wife, Linda, to join the Weeklys for Biketoberfest added: "The whole Daytona-New Smyrna (scene) is dead."
Both couples have good paying jobs and came down earlier in the week to spend a few thousand dollars, but they understand the impact of the recession in beachtown resorts like New Smyrna Beach that in past year drew literally tens of thousands of bikers.
"It's like this everywhere, said Albertson, a freight forwarder.
The four-day Biketoberfest has drawn between 50,000 and 60,000 bikers in past years, with Daytona Beach's Main Street as the epicenter and neighboring communities like New Smyrna Beach, Port Orange, Ormond Beach and South Daytona gettting the spillover crowd.
Pub 44, just a few miles east of Interstate 95 is New Smyrna Beach's main draw for bikers, not only for the fall rally, but also for the spring's 500,000-biker Bike Week.
Biketoberfest Reporter's Notebook: Biker critically injured
DELAND -- A biker was in critical condition after he struck a fallen tree in the road and then run over by a biker who swerved to avoid the tree, the Florida Highway Patrol reported.
Juan Partridge, 45, was transported to Florida Hospital-DeLand just after 11 p.m. Wednesday, but later transferred to Halifax Health Medical Center in Daytona Beach where he remained in critical condition.
Neither he nor the other biker, Carl Harmon, 51, of Sarasota, were wearing helmets when they were riding on Ne York Avenue near Lake Avenue, the FHP said.