Bike Time director sees room for improvement, expansion in future years

October 29, 2007
By Eric Gaertner
Muskegon Chronicle

Editor's note: Paul Winter recently was named executive director of Bike Time, a Muskegon summer festival which drew rave reviews in its first year in July. Winter, who also was part of the committee that organized the inaugural event, is busy planning for 2008 Bike Time, which is scheduled for July 18-20. Winter also is general manager of Hot Rod Harley-Davidson in Muskegon.

Q: What were you most excited about from the inaugural event?

A: I was totally overwhelmed by the turnout we had this first year. We didn't dare let ourselves even hope that we would have anywhere close to 20,000 motorcycles. To see the whole town fill up on both sides of Western Avenue with a row down the middle, many of the side streets lined with motorcycles ... was very, very gratifying. In addition to that, we had 60,000 people, so many of the people who were in attendance didn't even come on motorcycles. They were just excited by the event and the opportunity to see all the motorcycle people.

Q: With the novelty of the inaugural event gone, how do you follow it up in the second year, because a lot of people seem to think that's the key year to keep the momentum going?

A: For sure it is, and I don't want to, in any way, be overconfident that it's a guarantee that we'll have the same turnout that we had that first year. With the enthusiasm we saw and the feedback we've gotten in the last several months, if we do almost nothing I think we would have double the turnout in 2008. Of course, weather could work against us, there are a lot of risks with an event like this, but I'm sure that with the proper promotion it will be quite a bit more successful in 2008.

Q: The concerts at Heritage Landing didn't draw very well. What's the future of music for Bike Time?

A: We found that people just like being on the street, near the motorcycles, in the crowd, in the beer tents, listening to music in the background but not coming primarily for music as their reason to be here. The one big act we had, Poison, was a pretty good success. The other two were great musical acts, but they didn't have the name draw. So I think in 2008 we'll focus on having one big-name draw on Saturday night, most probably, then focus more on the beer tents and having bands in the tents on the other nights and having those beer tents closer to the street.

Q: Local tourism leaders are always looking for events that draw people here when hotels aren't seeing heavy bookings. Have you looked at moving the event outside the summer months of June, July and August?

A: Like anything, people who ride motorcycles have a high season and a low season, and the high season, of course, is in the middle of July and that's when an event like ours can be most successful. We've certainly given thought to other events that could attract a different or a subset of the crowd we have at different times of the year. We would hope that if those events get a foothold they could help attract people in times of the year when there's less tourism.

We've had active discussions about it. We've thought about the possibility of an event focusing on women. Women have become an important demographic within the bike-riding industry. We've also thought about the possibility of an event that would appeal to law-enforcement personnel and/or firefighting personnel.

Q: Where do you see this event, looking further ahead than just next year, say, 10 years from now?

A: I think the event can grow. The major events today are Sturgis, which can attract as many as three-quarters of a million people, Bike Week in Daytona can attract similar-size crowds, there are events like Laughlin in Nevada and there's one in Laconia (N.H.) that are huge draws of people, and I don't see any reason longer term why this event couldn't draw similar crowds to those events, because we're so much closer to people in the Midwest. Big metropolitan areas like Chicago and Detroit and Toledo are much more accessible to Muskegon than they are to places like Sturgis or Daytona.

© 2007 Muskegon Chronicle. Used with permission