The "Wild and Crazy" Palm Springs Biker Weekend

The sound of glass packed mufflers, and Hogs without mufflers roared into Palm Springs Friday October 5^th. The Harley bike and hotrod weekend was wonderful with lots of unique looking bikes to see and the local merchants put on quite the show themselves for this yearly event. People came from as far away as Idaho, Washington, and Oregon, some rode down from there and others brought their show pieces in tow due to the fact that October is rather cool everywhere but here in Palm Springs. Where daytime temperatures were in the 80's and 90's for this weekend. The sound of Harley Davidson motorcycles putting and even roaring with that throaty signature sound that the #1 American built motorcycle is know for the world over, was heard everywhere, not just in Palm Springs, but everywhere. I live out in the boonies, outside of town by about 7 or 8 miles, however the local Harley Davidson shop is directly up the street from my home by about ¼ of a mile. It was truly beautiful seeing those long rows of bikes gleaming in the sun.

There were events and exhibitions hosted by the local Spa Casino for the weekend and the bikers that I spoke to said that the town had really gone all out to make them feel welcomed. There was absolutely nothing objectionable about our guests,other than the noise, which many people object to. This is normally a retirement community with a great number of senior citizens living in town, and almost none of the oldsters had any interest at all in the weekend, the events, or the bikes themselves. There were a few q-tipped diehard bike enthusiasts, mostly locals, who did come out and joined the in celebration but the average age at this event was around 38 to 40. I must say that for bikers our guests were very well behaved with no bar fights to mention, few scuffles with the local law enforcement agencies, and almost no rowdy hotel parties that got out of hand. In fact it was so uneventful that the local newspaper, The Desert Sun, did not even publish a story related to the biker weekend during the weekend or even after. The last article published by newspaper was distributed Friday Morning before the event even began. It was almost like they were never here as far as reporting the event went.

There was an oppressive atmosphere all over town with local law enforcement pulling out all the stops, running around town in flak jackets and bulletproof vests, with riot snipers in position on the roofs of local businesses and hotels along Palm Canyon. I guess that they were up there "just in case". Fortunately they had an uneventful and chilly tour of duty up there this weekend." I would hate to see riot police firing into any crowd here in Palm Springs, that would be a true tragedy" Says local resident George Burnham whom I asked Saturday night. I pointed them out to him when I saw them cruising the rooftops. There was also the entire City of Palm Springs S.W.A.T. team on hand with the official S.W.A.T vehicles prominently displayed and all of the officers looking resplendent in civvies and bullet proof jackets. They were all standing in a large clutch, "just hangin' out" less than a block from each of the local bars that were catering to and welcoming bikers with big red banners reading "Welcome Bikers". I wonder how welcome the bikers really felt when they buzzed past that cadre of testosterone and attitudes unleashed on Palm Canyon.

Bikers are not what they have been in the past. They don't ride around looking for trouble and destroying property. In fact most of them are middle class white Americans that, while they have seen "The Wild Bunch" starring Jack Nicolson, have never even seen "motorcycle enthusiasts" acting the way that the bike gang in the movie acted. Most of them have nice responsible jobs, while others own their own enthusiast related businesses such as custom bike builders, locating hard to find bikes for collectors, and parts and service businesses. They're hard working people who do not go out and tear up the town, any town on the weekend. Their bikes cost anywhere from $20k to $35k for anything "nice" and more if they had anything custom'ed on the bikes. They own homes and property and have far too much to lose to be going crazy anywhere. I think that the local gendarmes were just a little overenthusiastic about their coverage of any potential problems that may have broken out. Either that or they wanted the retired and sleeping Q-tips in town to feel as though their department was taking every precaution against "those awful bikers" tearing up the town. And that they would peacefully return the town to its sleepy resortfulness without any muss or fuss Monday morning. In fact the craziest thing that I saw the entire weekend was a woman named Mavis, who is from Palm Springs, with a Barbie doll tied to the back rack on her bike. (see photo)