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Bikes, Blues, and BBQ


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There's two helicopters flying around town, a very small bubble body one and a larger sleek looking black one. One is flying from the old Razorback 6 parking lot and the other from the Clarion Inn. I'll try and check out what options are avaialable.

Ah, I didn't realize there were two different services. I bet the one I've seen is the one from the old Razorback 6.

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Well another BBB has come and gone. It surprised some people that this year's event was a big success. Sounds like some of the other bike rallies earlier this year were down. Not only was BBB not down it was the biggest ever. All the estimates I've seen have figures at or above 400,000. Quite a bit better than the 300K, 325K and 350K numbers I saw predicted. Not only has this festival spread outside Fayetteville to other parts of the metro, it's even having effects outside the metro. Eureka Springs and Ft Smith reported lots of bikers in their areas as well. BBB had been third in size but after this year I think it's probably only second to Sturgis. Another good thing to point out was that there wasn't really any big problems either.

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Well another BBB has come and gone. It surprised some people that this year's event was a big success. Sounds like some of the other bike rallies earlier this year were down. Not only was BBB not down it was the biggest ever. All the estimates I've seen have figures at or above 400,000. Quite a bit better than the 300K, 325K and 350K numbers I saw predicted. Not only has this festival spread outside Fayetteville to other parts of the metro, it's even having effects outside the metro. Eureka Springs and Ft Smith reported lots of bikers in their areas as well. BBB had been third in size but after this year I think it's probably only second to Sturgis. Another good thing to point out was that there wasn't really any big problems either.

Yeah, the numbers were really good this year from what I could tell. I would say close to 400,000 as well, although I did hear a couple of people mention closer to 500,000. That still seems quite high to me. I am sure that the hotels were full from Ft. Smith all the way to southern Missouri.

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Here's something I wasn't aware of- in the 6 years prior to this one the festival only turned a profit in three of them. In 2007 the they actually took out a $100,000 loan so that they could donate to charity although in 2003 they made no donations. That was the year they lost $100,000 on the Neville Brothers/ Blues Traveller concert at the NWA Mall. With the added expenses of holding more of the festival at the Randall Tyson Track Center in 2008 it looks doubtful this year will turn a profit. Being a non-profit organization means a profit isn't neccessarily expected but not meeting expenses and borrowing money to donate puts a damper of the rally's original idea for existing.

NWA News.com article

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Here's something I wasn't aware of- in the 6 years prior to this one the festival only turned a profit in three of them. In 2007 the they actually took out a $100,000 loan so that they could donate to charity although in 2003 they made no donations. That was the year they lost $100,000 on the Neville Brothers/ Blues Traveller concert at the NWA Mall. With the added expenses of holding more of the festival at the Randall Tyson Track Center in 2008 it looks doubtful this year will turn a profit. Being a non-profit organization means a profit isn't neccessarily expected but not meeting expenses and borrowing money to donate puts a damper of the rally's original idea for existing.

NWA News.com article

That is a bit disappointing to hear. They did say the money borrowed has already been paid back. But still probably not a trend you want to continue. Another interesting point is they mentioned it is billed as the 4th largest bike rally. I had always heard it was the 3rd largest behind Sturgis and Daytona.

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  • 8 months later...

Another BBB is upon us. It officially started today although it won't really get going in full force till it gets a bit closer to the weekend. Maybe it's just me but I don't recall hearing as much about it this year as opposed to some of the other years. Maybe everybody is starting to get used to it.

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Another BBB is upon us. It officially started today although it won't really get going in full force till it gets a bit closer to the weekend. Maybe it's just me but I don't recall hearing as much about it this year as opposed to some of the other years. Maybe everybody is starting to get used to it.

Yeah, I think after Bill Underwood made peace with it a lot of the opposition dropped off so there wasn't that aspect of it in the news. This year it is more welcome than ever- it's like having several Razorback football games all in one week. Although some businesses still take a hit, overall it is a great economic boost for the area and it gives the area some positive national exposure. Plus- it is really cool to see all the motorcycles and other machines in town. I saw a trike looking machine today that had the single wheel on the back- it had the two wheel part in front and that part had a wheelbase as wide as a small car- never seen anything like it before. I saw one bike with a Conn. license plate- now that must have been quite a ride.

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Ok- so the trike looking machine is called a Spyder and is made bya company named Can-Am. You can get a demo ride by signing up at Bradford Marine out at the Tyson track center. I'm not a motorcycle rider but I think I would feel good on one of these- might have to try it out.

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Ok- so the trike looking machine is called a Spyder and is made bya company named Can-Am. You can get a demo ride by signing up at Bradford Marine out at the Tyson track center. I'm not a motorcycle rider but I think I would feel good on one of these- might have to try it out.

Yeah I saw something about them in the newspaper. I admit I'm not a motorcycle rider either but might be more likely to try something like that.

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Sounds like BBB might have been a bit excessive on their numbers on how many people attend the festival. In recent years we've seen pretty large numbers and this year they were saying and predicting 400,000 people would attend. Obviously it's pretty hard to count such a large number of people who aren't standing still. Not sure how they were coming up with their numbers but this year somebody decided to make an estimate from the amount of trash. He came up with a figure closer to 100,000. Now obviously that number could be off as well. But it does make it seem to like 400,000 number rather excessive. Even if the trash estimates are off it would seem to me that we're probably not exceeding 200,000 to 250,000. Not sure if that drops us down in the rankings , so we might not have the third largest bike rally. Of course who knows how those other rallies come up with their numbers as well. Either way I'd still have to think BBB is pretty high up there.

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Sounds like BBB might have been a bit excessive on their numbers on how many people attend the festival. In recent years we've seen pretty large numbers and this year they were saying and predicting 400,000 people would attend. Obviously it's pretty hard to count such a large number of people who aren't standing still. Not sure how they were coming up with their numbers but this year somebody decided to make an estimate from the amount of trash. He came up with a figure closer to 100,000. Now obviously that number could be off as well. But it does make it seem to like 400,000 number rather excessive. Even if the trash estimates are off it would seem to me that we're probably not exceeding 200,000 to 250,000. Not sure if that drops us down in the rankings , so we might not have the third largest bike rally. Of course who knows how those other rallies come up with their numbers as well. Either way I'd still have to think BBB is pretty high up there.

Yeah, I think that 100,000 is much closer than 400,000. I think before they were counting each day's visitors and adding them up for the entire festival so one person could have been counted 4 times. Even if it isn't the third largest it seems to be the most popular for the type of attendees that Fayetteville wants. Can't imagine any one wanting the Sturgis crowd in town. :o

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