Liz Schmitz rode her “rat rod” motorcycle from Panama City to Daytona Beach for the 85th anniversary of Bike Week.
And that is probably not the most comfortable thing to do given that the seat is a small, flat wooden board.
Ask Schmitz if she uses a cushion, and she turns her body and motions toward her butt.
“That’s my cushion” she said.
Schmitz was among the legion of bikers, gawkers and a few dogs, some very large dogs, that converged on Main Street for the 2026 edition of Daytona Beach Bike Week on Saturday, Feb. 28. The weather was cooler than most would have liked and the sun decided to remain hidden behind a blanket of clouds the entire day.
“It’s cold. I’m ready for the sun,” Schmitz said.
While some people said the attendance was average, Schmitz said it was slow. She said in the past, Main Street had been so thick with motorcycles that it was stop-and-go traffic the entire length.
Rat rod bike gets attention at Daytona Beach Bike Week
Meanwhile, her rat rod-style bike was attracting attention. It had a gray-rust paint pattern that contrasted with most of the gleaming and immaculately painted machines parked along Main Street or parading down the road.
It also had a rust-splotched, empty can of Planters cashews bolted to the frame beneath a bottle opener.
Schmitz said the can was for her beer bottle caps.
The bike also sported a fat electrical cord sticking out the back, like the kind that would go for a big appliance like a range.
“You got to be able to plug it in and charge up. What if you’re battery goes dead,” she joked.
Another bike attracting attention was something that looked like a moped but bore the Harley-Davidson name.
Donny Fabela brought the small two-wheeled machine from Meadville, Pennsylvania. He said it was a 1969 M-65 and was made in Italy.
How fast will it go?
“Ninety-five miles an hour,” Fabela said, pausing before adding “on the back of my pickup.”
He said its actual top speed was 45 mph.
Large dogs check out Daytona Beach Bike Week
The small cycle was in contrast to the many large Harley-Davidsons and other motorcycles on Main Street.
There were also some large dogs.
Nick Matta, a Lakeland resident, brought his two Great Danes to Main Street.
The dogs attracted as much attention as the customized motorcycles parked along the street. People stopped to look and take pictures.
Roman was the bigger of the two. The smaller one was named Milkshake.
“I love this dog, he goes everywhere with me,” Matta said. “He was so good. We went and got Milkshake.”
Chuck Pisik of Ormond Beach rode in on his Kawasaki H2 which he has had since he was 19-years-old. He is 60 now.
“This was my very first drag bike,” he said about the brightly-painted machine.
He said he thought attendance was “about average.”
Although he says it’s gotten ‘stricter,’ Kissimmee biker says ‘I love Bike Week’
Richard Gore of Kissimmee rode in on his 1995 Harley-Davidson Heritage Softail Classic, which he custom painted himself and added other touches, like a sheath to keep a knife on the side of the bike and a gas-cap that doubled as a place to hold his cigar.
He said he’s been coming to Bike Week for 10 years.
Ask him what changes he has seen and he says things have gotten stricter.
“The law enforcement is definitely a lot stricter than they used to be,” Gore said, adding as examples he said about police telling bikers not to rev their engines or the music is too loud.
But Gore said that doesn’t change his feelings about Bike Week.
He said: “I love Bike Week.”
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Lots of motorcycles and some large dogs arrive for Daytona Bike Week
Reporting by Frank Fernandez, Daytona Beach News-Journal / The Daytona Beach News-Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
