Motorcycle rally will be held at Harley dealership

Off the Wire News
By Shelley Widhalm
Loveland Reporter-Herald
The annual Thunder in the Rockies motorcycle rally will not be in downtown Loveland nor at The Ranch.
Instead, the four-day Labor Day weekend event will take place solely at Thunder Mountain Harley-Davidson.
“The goal was to try to get it in an alternate location that is more sustainable,” said Bob Herrfeldt, director of The Ranch. “We’re holding true to that. We haven’t seen these events be successful at remote locations.”
The Ranch is located at 5280 Arena Circle, just east of Interstate 25 and a 1.6-mile drive from Thunder Mountain Harley-Davidson, 4250 Byrd Drive, which is on the other side of the interstate.
Nationwide, motorcycle rallies have proven more successful in downtown areas, Herrfeldt said, adding that over time, the event would not be sustainable at The Ranch.
“My intent was to see if there was a better place to have this,” he said.
In January, Herrfeldt approached Engaging Loveland Inc. about possibly relocating the rally from The Ranch and Thunder Mountain Harley-Davidson, where it has been held for the past five years, to downtown Loveland.
The rally sold 25,000 to 30,000 tickets last year, about half as many as the year before, or 45,000 to 50,000, Herrfeldt said.
Hosting the event “in one location is in the best interest for the attendees, as well as the vendors,” according to a statement issued March 6 by Todd Erdmann, owner of Thunder Mountain Harley-Davidson.
As that one location, The Ranch would not be able to accommodate the daily bike tours and poker runs that, in the past, have been held at Thunder Mountain Harley-Davidson, Herrfeldt said. The vendor sales and entertainment will be moved from The Ranch to Harley-Davidson, he said.
“We are scheduling all of the events that people have come to expect for Thunder in the Rockies at Thunder Mountain Amphitheater. We believe keeping all that encapsulates the event within the confines of one venue adds to the experience for our patrons,” said Erdmann in his statement. He did not return phone calls by this edition’s deadline.
The event also is not suitable for downtown Loveland, according to feedback gathered by Engaging Loveland Inc.
“I made a decision from our end and made a recommendation to our board of directors to not continue based on the information we received,” said Kim Vecchio, executive director of Engaging Loveland.
Vecchio, with the assistance of Herrfeldt and Erdmann, gathered input from stakeholders. She met with residents and downtown business owners, along with representatives from the police and fire departments and city councilors.
Several concerns were brought up, including the size and scope of the event, the level of noise and the provision of public safety and traffic control in downtown, Vecchio said.
“It was a good process for us to go through. It opened the dialogue of how we would bring a larger event to downtown,” Vecchio said.
Most of the comments Don Williams, city manager, received expressed concern about the noise and increased traffic levels brought about by holding a rally downtown.
The majority of comments coming from downtown merchants, which were forwarded to Williams from Engaging Loveland, said they were in favor of it, he said.
“I didn’t have any business people who contacted me and thought it was a bad idea,” Williams said.
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