Cold weather rides into Daytona motorcycle rally

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Rally & Event News
69th Daytona Beach Bike Week leaves behind rain but faces chilly temperatures
The legendary bike week that many consider as the start to the motorcycle calendar kicked off to cold temperatures in Daytona Beach last weekend.
Whether it was from chilly temperatures in the normally sunny climate of Florida or would-be attendees being snowed in in the more northern states, the winter chill slowed the start of the 69th annual Daytona Beach Bike Week.
The event’s opening weekend was plagued by cold and rainy weather keeping normally crowded streets clear and business slow for hopeful vendors.
The Daytona Beach economy is counting on $300 million from the rally and although it may started the road trip with cold weather and some rain, the sun has since come out if not with some chilly sunshine.
The weather report for the remaining days of the motorcycle rally is predicting clear sunny skies with high's in the upper 50's and maybe even reaching 62 degrees. The nights however promised to be a touch nippy with lows in the upper 30's.
At its height, the Daytona Beach rally has drawn 500,000 attendees, making the motorcycle event one of the largest in the world.
And while many of the major motorcycle manufacturers have brought truckloads of motorcycles for riders to test ride and the latest models to entice would-be buyers, an unusual story is buzzing through the event. Two chiropractors from Georgia were arrested for allegedly riding stolen motorcycles.
David Nudelman, 31, and David Hershkowitz, 35, were arrested on Monday after authorities discovered the vehicle identification numbers on their sportsbikes, a Kawasaki ZX-10 and a Yamaha R-1 were altered. Officials eventually determined that both bikes had been stolen recently in Georgia.
Reportedly, it was the suspicious way the two behaved that alerted the Volusia County Motorcycle Anti-Theft Task Force. But the number of police on the streets of Daytona may be fewer than in years past, with budget cuts to blame.
According to a report by local television station WFTV, Daytona Beach is using fewer police and more part-time employees to manage its huge special events.
"In any place I can get away with not putting a uniformed full-time officer and just putting a special events officer, somebody just to direct traffic, we've filled all those intersections with those kind of folks," Chief Mike Chitwood of the Daytona Beach Police Department told WFTV.
One area a police presence can be particularly helpful is keeping drivers and riders sharing the road safely. On average, six to twelve riders die during the Bike Week event. So far this year the event has experienced one official fatality, an Ohio woman who was a passenger was killed in New Smyrna Beach over the weekend when two motorcycles collided.

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