Daytona Bike Week- Daytona 200 King of the Baggers

Daytona 2026

I am going to preface this post by telling all of you, right up front, that I'm not a big "rally guy". But, in my recent retirement from my payin' job, I've found myself with a lot more time to do some of the things that I haven't had a chance to do for the past quarter of a century. Things like, taking a long motorcycle road trip with my eldest son, or visiting my best bro at his house in Florida. So, when the opportunity arose this year, to do both, I jumped on the opportunity. We also had the opportunity to see one of the most iconic motorcycle races in history- the Daytona 200 and, of course, the MotoAmerica King of the Baggers race. 

Pre-trip Prep

My son chose his 2007 Dyna Street Bob for this trip, and I... of course... would be taking my 2017 Road King Special because, well, ROAD KING! I swapped the seats and put on my tour pack, cleaned her up and figured I was set and ready. My son, however, needed to do a few more things to his Dyna before we left. He had been putting them off for a while, but this trip forced his hand, which isn't always a bad thing- after all, sometimes we need the right motivation to get things done, and this was definitely the right motivation. He needed to fix some wiring issues on his rear lights, his tires were toast, he needed a tune, front and rear brakes and, just for fun, his idle air control valve wasn't working properly... all things that we were more than capable of doing in-house, so he ordered his parts and we got to work. Murphy decided to apply his Law while we were working on the tires, as we quickly discovered that the wheel bearings on his rear wheel were pretty crunchy. The worst one fought a hard battle, but after a couple of hours of profanity-laced frustration, we finally prevailed with sheer determination, anger and a bit of luck and got it out of the hub. With only a couple of days to spare, I lucked out and found the bearings at an Indy shop in a nearby city. After hauling tail down there and picking them up, I got the bearings in and we got his wheels back on... just in time for me to notice that my front tire was worn down to the wear bars! I guess I missed that on my initial inspection, so with only two days left until we set out, I was on the hunt for a new front tire. My local H-D shop came through for me, so I went and picked up the tire, then hauled tail back home to mount and balance it, and get it on the bike. I won't get into the details of what happened during installation because I was in a rush and not paying attention... but suffice to say, I made a couple of stupid mistakes that cost me an extra hour or so of my time and a great deal of frustration. It all worked out though, and I was able to get my bike done with just enough time to scrub in the new tire. That same night, my son got his tune downloaded, installed his IAC valve and was able to get his tires scrubbed in, his brakes set and make sure the bike was running right with the new tune, the day before we left! 

The trip

We left the house on Thursday morning and pointed our bikes East on the superslab. Since this was the longest trip my son had taken so far, we took it easy and didn't push too hard. My Road King is equipped with electronic cruise control and a six gallon tank... my son's Dyna, however... has neither, so we made plenty of stops for fuel and rest. 

Both bikes were running, and riding, great though and we had beautiful weather the whole day, with the exception of a late afternoon rain shower once we got past the Florida state line. We stopped several times, taking plenty of time to snack, hydrate and stretch our legs and even stopped at a dealership to look around. We made it to Lee's house after dark, which was a bit later than we had originally anticipated, but we made it safe and he and his lovely wife had a delicious dinner ready and waiting for us! After a couple of hours of catching up, we turned in to get some rest before our next day of riding. 

Bike Week (in a day)

The next day, we jumped on the bikes and headed down to Daytona for a pass through Main Street for Bike Week, just to say we did it. As I said previously, I'm not really a "rally guy." I've been to a few, and they're okay... but I'm just not into parking my bike for several hours so I can hang out at a bar and I definitely don't enjoy being in the middle of a huge crowd of people. I also don't like sitting in the stop-and-go traffic... ugh. Even with the Rekluse slave cylinder I installed a few years ago, my clutch hand starts getting tired from the constant gray zone riding needed in heavy bike traffic. Not to mention, riding behind all of the duck-walking weekend warriors with throttle tourettes makes me crazy, especially as a certified motorcycle instructor. Look- I'm not judging anyone... if you need to duck walk your bike so you don't fall over, and you need to blip your throttle every few seconds to make sure your bike stays running, then more power to you... but I don't want to be stuck behind you in slow, stop, slow, stop traffic, either. 

After we made our obligatory pass down Main Street Daytona, we FINALLY got out of the traffic and were able to let our bikes breathe a bit, right before running into another traffic jam as we got closer to Destination Daytona, where most of the vendors were set up. 

Now, let me take a moment to tell you that some of the riders that show up for Bike Week are asses, plain and simple. We were all stuck in the same traffic, but some of them felt the overwhelming need to try to weave through the sea of bikes, ride along the shoulders, run red lights and ride like hooligans on the streets, doing burnouts and taking off like they were on a drag strip. Again, I'm not here to judge anyone, but don't get mad at the local cops for pulling you over when you are acting like an ass on the public streets, either. Take your tickets and be glad you didn't hurt yourself or someone else. Three people died in motorcycle crashes this year during Bike Week... that is 3 families destroyed in an instant. Local law enforcement reported, a staggering, 75 crashes during Bike Week... those are only the crashes that were reported, too- there were probably at least a few dozen crashes that weren't reported. That may not seem like many, considering that the number of people at the 85th Annual Bike Week was around 500,000... but imagine being in one of those 75 crashes. Imagine being the person with your bike totalled out because some jagoff decided that he needed to do some stupid stunts in traffic and lost control and smashed into your ride. Now, imagine being the family member of one of those three that died and getting that phone call. It just isn't worth it. I'll get off my soap box now. 

Destination Daytona was insane. The sheer number of vendors will make your head spin- over 120 just at the dealership alone. There must have been a skunk den nearby too, because it seemed like every hundred feet or so, we were smelling a strong, skunky, odor... so weird. We perused a few of the vendors, then went over to Houligan's for a late lunch before heading out. Traffic wasn't too heavy leaving, so we were able to get away from the crowds (and the skunks) and onto some back roads pretty quickly. 

Lee has only lived in Florida for a few years, but he is an avid rider and, like me, he loves to explore on two wheels. In his time on the East Coast, he's found some incredible back roads and he took us along a few of them. If you've never ridden this area, you need to make the trip. The roads may not be very curvy or hilly, but the ancient oak trees draped with spanish moss make for some truly breathtaking scenery. Riding along the St. Johns River, we stopped at a park that was absolutely stunning. The air was fresh, the wind was blowing and the temperature was perfect. After taking in the scenery, we jumped back on the bikes and headed back to Lee's house for the night.

Off to the Races!

The next morning, we headed out early to meet up with a couple of Lee's local riding buddies, Frank and Ben, both of whom were great guys riding gorgeous new Road Glides. After fueling up, we jumped on the superslab and headed south to the Daytona International Speedway. We had free parking in the infield of the racetrack, which was pretty awesome. Going into the venue, my son and I noticed a significant difference in the crowd at the races, compared to the crowd on Main Street or at Destination Daytona. The first thing we noticed was that there were no drunks, which was nice. We also noticed that there was significantly less skunk odor in the air. The crowds were friendly and the drinks, snacks and vendors were reasonably priced. 

We watched the Hooligans race first, which was pretty cool, then... the 200 kicked off. 57 laps of pure speed. The Super Sport bikes are cool, but if I'm being completely honest, I don't have the attention span to watch nearly 50 motorcycles racing for 57 laps. We were in the infield, so we got to see them coming through the S-curve, and also as they exited the pits, which was pretty impressive. These riders are practically on their elbows in the turns! They are also incredibly powerful, incredibly fast, motorcycles. Even if you're not into racing, you can appreciate the sheer power these motorcycles have and the skills that their riders have. 

Next up, was the real reason that we were there- the King of the Baggers race. Nine laps. 11 motorcycles. ALL V-TWIN baggers. Now, the sound of these machines don't even compare to any of the other bikes that were racing that day. Deep, loud, tuned, powerful V-twin engines roared... absolutely roared... along the track. Each rider trying to best the other, in 9 laps. These guys didn't have 57 laps to make up time, they had to get it done in less than 10! Don't get me wrong- I know that the 200 is as much of an endurance race as it is a competition of speed, but the 31-ish miles of the Baggers race is just pure fury, right out of the gate. You can see it in the infield, as the bikes power through the S-curve and nearly break the rear tire loose on every lap, as the riders crack the throttles and let those huge, torquey mills breathe! My Indian-favoring MotoReaders got to take the bragging rights on this race, as Team Harley-Davidson's Kyle Wyman lost his winning streak, although Wyman did jump in first place for a lap or two before being overtaken by Team Indian's Troy Herfoss (1st place) and Rocco Landers (2nd place). Side note- if you watched the "Why We Ride" documentary... you may have noticed a young Rocco Landers riding with his family... and in the final scenes, mentioning how he wanted to be a motorcycle racer when he grew up. Goal achieved, Rocco... good job, buddy. If you haven't seen the film... do yourself a favor and watch it- trust your old pal, the MotoWriter, on this one.

That's a Wrap!

After leaving the races, we rode to a cool little Irish pub for dinner and a cold drink, then, after dinner, we bid farewell to Ben and Frank and headed back to Lee's house for our final night on the East Coast. We got up the next morning, had a couple of cups of coffee, then got on the bikes and headed West. My son and I made really good time heading back, since he was, basically, a long-distance pro at this point. Our stops were also much more efficient- we rode tank-to-tank, only taking our breaks during the fuel stops. A storm front had been moving East across the country and we ran into it before we reached Alabama, but fortunately, we didn't get the rain that we were prepared for- just a few light showers, instead. We made it back to the MotoCompound by late afternoon, wrapping up a nearly 1,500 mile trip over 4 days. 

In all, it was an awesome trip... one that was long overdue. Even though we may have cut it to the wire before leaving, we got our bikes road-trip ready and we had a safe trip. As a matter of fact, the only close-call of the trip happened when we were on our way down to Bike Week, when a jackass in an old, crappy, Honda SUV decided to pull directly out of a side road, right in front of Lee, which forced him into an emergency, brake and evade, situation... which he handled like a pro. 

Final Thoughts

If there's a trip that you've been putting off until the "right time"... let me tell you- NOW is the right time! Take that trip! Make those memories! Do it before you're too old, too broke, too scared or too worn out. Don't be afraid to get out there and explore our world. Put a few bucks aside, here and there... skip the local latte lounge and drink your coffee at home for a few weeks, pack a lunch instead of hitting the drive-thru and plan a trip of camping or staying with friends. Your life is passing you by right now. As much as I love that you're on your computer, tablet, or phone, reading this... it's time to turn off the device and turn on your motorcycle. I'll be here when you get back... now... go... 

Ride safe, and make good memories! 

 

Our Janus Experience, Chapter 1

Chapter 1, Finding Janus 

Before I shut down my socials, I would occasionally see ads for Janus Motorcycles. At first glance, I thought, “hey that’s pretty cool looking” but, being a “Harley guy” for over 10 years, once I noticed that they were small displacement bikes, I just sort of overlooked them and went on with my mindless scrolling (hence the reason for my signing off). I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was overlooking something that was, potentially, going to be a game changer for me.

So, you may be asking, if I kept overlooking Janus while I was on social media, then how did I end up finding it again, after I signed off? Well, the funny thing is, I was actually doing some research for one of my recent blog posts- A Star is Born. You see, I like to pretend that I’m a real writer, so I do as much research as I can before I start writing. Maybe I’m hoping that one day, some big executive at a major motorcycle rag or, even better, a motorcycle company, will stumble upon my blog and want to hire me as a full time writer after I retire from my current job. Who knows. Either way, I realized that I had been writing a lot of posts about making good choices and dealing with stress, and sort of dropped the ball on writing about actual motorcycle related topics. 

Before I settled on the piece on Star Motorcycles, I looked up all the different companies I could think of, just to see if there was anything new and exciting out, or about to be released. The results were pretty lackluster, so I went with the story on Star. During my research though, I had come across the Janus website and, after finishing the Star post, I went back to the Janus site to spend a little more time there. 

As I perused their website, I started playing with the bike builder with my wife and over the next couple of hours, we configured several different combinations. I read several reviews and we watched enough YouTube videos to make our eyes hurt. The more we watched, configured and read about them, the more excited my wife got about this little motorcycle from Indiana. So much so, that by the end of it all, she was telling me to put a deposit down on one that day!

This was different

My wife has always been very supportive about my moto-addiction. When we were dating, I spent a lot of time working on my car and she was right there with me, pumping brakes, handing me wrenches, or simply sitting there, just keeping me company. Early on, she recognized my passion for old cars and motorcycles and she has been there with me, every step of the way. 

Even though I started on metric bikes, over the years I gravitated toward Harley-Davidsons and, after a few years of being back in the saddle, my motorcycles began to grow bigger and bigger in displacement with each bike I got. Several years ago, we saw the film Why We Ride  (if you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it). I didn't know it at the time, but after seeing it, my wife became inspired. A few years later, she mentioned that she was interested in possibly getting her own bike, so off we went to the local Harley-Davidson dealership! After looking at a few bikes, mainly Sportsters, she became disenchanted with the idea. The primary reason being that they were loud, heavy and more powerful than she was prepared to handle. A couple of years later, I ended up getting a good deal on an 883 and I tried teaching her to ride it, but again... the weight, power and noise was a little too much and after she dumped it in the yard, she was done with the idea again. 

When we were looking at the Janus though, something was different. She was excited about the size and the simplicity of the Halcyon. Her excitement was electric and it didn't take long before the desire to have her own motorcycle was rekindled. Initially, she just wanted me to get one, but after seeing the Janus Experience video of Terry and Mark, she became inspired! 

If you're not inclined to click the link, I'll briefly tell you that Terry and Mark aren't your typical "biker" types. They are regular people that, through Janus Motorcycles, became motorcyclists. That, to me, is amazing! I love that there is a motorcycle company that can inspire and encourage the love of motorcycling in people that, ordinarily, wouldn't give a second thought to riding. Don't get me wrong, I love my Harleys and I don't plan on getting rid of them at all, but the machines (and the culture) can be intimidating for someone that isn't already all-in on the idea of riding. For my wife, seeing Terry and Mark tell their story, was just the inspiration she needed to get on the site and start building her own. We gave it a couple of weeks for the "whim" of it to wear off, just to make sure that we were ready to commit to it and, in that time, we both configured multiple combinations of the Halcyon 250, trying to decide on what we actually wanted. We never even considered the other bikes- the Halcyon 250 was the one, without a doubt, that we both wanted. 

Go Fast, Don't Die

Now, I would be remiss if I told this story without, at the very least, mentioning another little piece of the puzzle that helped in this overall decision. If you've never heard of the "lifestyle brand" Go Fast Don't Die, do yourself a favor and click the link. I love this brand. They are, in a lot of ways, much like the folks at Janus- they are a small operation that is run by people who are absolutely passionate about the motorcycling culture. To the folks at GFDD, it's not about what you ride, your age, your background, your social status or where you're at in your personal journey- it's all about living the life that you are meant to live. I have a small collection of their merchandise because I love what they're doing and I love why they're doing it. In one of their weekly newsletters, they shared a story from one of their events where they were racing around on little mini-bikes. One woman, who was probably closer in age to my wife and I than to our sons, was riding this little Coleman mini-bike around and having the time of her life. Basically, the point of sharing the story was to remind people that speed was just a number, but going fast was a feeling. 

That pretty much tied directly in with the Why do we ride motorcycles video that the folks at Janus put out. For those of us who have always had the passion for riding, when we started out, we didn't ride big, 800 pound motorcycles. We started out on small, lightweight machines, most of which had knobby tires and were basic enough that we could work on them ourselves. So why then, should we limit that experience based on our age, or station in life? Why do we think that, once we enter adulthood, we have to conform to some unspoken rule about riding motorcycles? Why do we think that we can't enter this lifestyle unless we have years of riding under our belts and have a big V-twin engine in our garage? When did we get conditioned to believe that being a motorcyclist meant that we had to become a "biker." And, most curiously, where did we get the notion that we had to hit a particular speed before we could have fun? The folks at GFDD hit the nail on the head- fast IS a feeling. It's not the number on the speedometer that exhilarates you, it's the feeling that you get as it relates to what you're doing. 

The small size of the Janus engine, and the top speed being 70 mph became less significant the more we both talked about it and realized how we were planning on using these machines. We are planning on riding them exactly as they were intended to be ridden- along the backroads and beachfront drives, through the twisting country roads and down to our favorite coffee spots. 

The next step

After everything, my wife and I made the decision to get in touch with Mitch McLane at Janus and start the process of Janus ownership. The only delays we've had so far have been on our part because we have both been extremely busy at our respective jobs. Mitch was awesome and got our orders processed quickly and easily, then sent our orders to Kate Snyder for processing. Last week, Kate sent us our respective build sheets to review and sign off on, and now we're just waiting to get our paperwork. That will bring us to the next step which is, according to this video, our orders being sent to the production team! 

Hopefully, we'll get that next week... stay tuned!