Declining Laconia Rally will be lucky to make it to 100

To The Daily Sun,

Sunday marked the end of the 95th Laconia Motorcycle Rally, and there is a lot of talk about the upcoming 100th. I wonder if the rally will make it that far.

A little background on myself. I have been riding motorcycles since 1975, mostly road riding and touring. I have been in 26 states and every province of Canada on two wheels. I ride over 10,000 miles per year. I am a life member of the American Motorcycle Association (AMA), a member of the Massachusetts Motorcycle Association among many other groups. I am not a 1 percenter, or a 3% percenter and do not wear a vest by choice.

I have also attended various Laconia/Louden events since the mid-70s and have noticed a continuous decline in the variety and quality of events. Where has the AMA gone? In the1970s and 1980s the Camel Pro Series at Briarwood, and later NHIS were exciting multi class motorcycle racing with top flight teams and racers. Evidently the AMA no longer supports these events. There is road racing both week-ends of “Bike Week,” both are poorly promoted and difficult to find any information about times, classes events etc. This results in poorly attended, poorly executed, unprofessional events. These are the events that should be the anchors for Bike Week, and not treated like afterthoughts.

The AMA hill-climb event was little better; multiple times are listed for amateur and professional events, resulting in a large number of event-goers arriving just in time for a two hour break in the action. The event itself was disorganized, the announcer was rarely correct and the classes jumbled up, making the event difficult to follow. Add to this no seating, no shade and $4 for a bottle of water ($7 for a beer) made this an event to forget. It was also telling of the “make money” attitude of the sponsors, you could buy a lawn-chair for less money than the event T-shirt. At $20 a ticket the sponsors could do better.

Where are the vendors? Less than 10 years ago vendor tents would line Route 3 from the Broken Spoke to Weirs beach on both sides of the road. Now there is open space on Lakeside Avenue. The remaining vendors are the same old, tired junk, T-shirt and foul smelling cheap leather purveyors from 10 years ago. Giant turkey leg anyone?

The “required” stop at Harts/Laconia HD is much the same — fewer vendors, fewer people. The HD test ride center was away from the dealership at the Weir's. The test rides at NHMS are a high-point of the whole rally, again, fewer manufacturers, and where was Moto Guzzi and Ducati?

The 2016 LaconiaFest music festival was a nightmare, but whatever happened to the music series at Meadowbrooke 2006? It died from lack of promotion.

What happened to North Conway's “Rally in the Valley”? The last update on their web page was 2017.

In the mid 2000s, attendance was estimated as high as 400,000, this year the estimate was 250,000. There were vacancies at motels within a mile of the Weir's, places that 10 years ago would be booked a year in advance!

Motorcyclist are “aging out,” we all notice this. Younger folk have not taken to our sport or lifestyle, for reasons of their own. We are a gray haired, limping shadow of the group we once were. The rally no longer speaks to us, we have all drank that one too many beers, had that “nearly fatal” sunburn and bought the T-shirt. The promoters don't seem to see this, resulting in fewer vendors, fewer events and poor organization. Or maybe the sponsors and promoters do see this and are quietly “pulling the plug.”

As I said earlier, I have been attending Laconia/Louden events for almost 40 years. I have scheduled time-off to attend every year since 2005. This will not happen next year.

Don Kilgour

Haverhill, Mass.