Grand Strand, SC - Profile of Harley riders: older, higher income

OFF THE WIRE
 Joel Allen
 carolinalive.com

 
The roar of motorcycles will slowly fade from Grand Strand roads and highways this weekend, as the spring Harley Rally winds down.
Thousands of bikers came from all over the country and from all walks to life come to enjoy a few days of riding, eating and spending.
Their profile today is far from the long-past image of young leather-clad rebels invading a small town, intent on hellraising. Many of today's rally-goers are professionals, like Grady Hendrix of Summerville, general manager of Charleston TV station WLCN.
"I think the image is changing for us," Hendrix said. "I think we're fighting against a long history of bad guys and bikes, but we're making a difference. I think we're changing it."
Today's median Harley Davidson owner is a white male about 47 years old, with an income of around $90,000, according to company demographics.

Jerry Grindstaff, a paint and wallcovering contractor, rode the 400 miles from Elizabethton, Tennessee to Myrtle Beach, to enjoy some good times with other Harley owners. He calls the rally an escape from real life.
"It's just fun and you don't have to be anything. You can be just whatever you want to be or be nothing."
Grandstaff said rally-goers should plan on spending at least $200 per day while they're here, and if a biker can't afford that, "you don't really need to come. Let's just be honest."
The Harley rally provides some extra income for Paula Gephart, who has been using her vacation days for the past 6 or 7 years to work as a bartender during the spring and fall rallies.
"I kind of call it double dipping. I get vacation pay, plus I make the money from the rally," Gephart said.
Gephart's usual job is working at a Johnson & Johnson plant in eastern Pennsylvania. She says the bikers she meets at the rally are nice people and good tippers, who defy easy stereotyping.
"We've had plastic surgeons, we've had eye doctors and just normal factory workers as well. It's just every walk of life."
Grindstaff says many people who aren't bikers have the wrong impression of who they are, based on old movies or stories they may have heard about biker gangs, like the Hell's Angels.
"People think they're the scum of the earth. And most of them are basically pretty nice people," Grandstaff said.