Scanning the local headlines this morning, I may have just found one more reason to boycott Myrtle Beach, SC. I already prefer to frequent quieter beaches during my vacation time, but the one time of the year I even consider hitting Myrtle Beach is during Bike Week.

One local headline caught my eye this morning when I saw something about Myrtle Beach wanting to raise property taxes to put a stop to bike rallies.  What?!!!!! The bike weeks at Myrtle Beach bring in hundreds of thousands of tourists each year providing tourism dollars not only to Myrtle Beach but to the state. Now they want to put a stop to bike rallies at the beach? Why?

Yet again it looks like the city is stereotyping bikers as unlawful citizens who are rowdy, using drugs in public, and wreaking havoc.  The story just disgusted me. I think about bike week, then I think about senior week that comes only a weekend after bike week. The city is saying they want to promote May as being geared more towards a family friendly setting. Do they seriously believe senior week which normally begins around the last week of May is family friendly?

Of course business owners are fighting back, and many of them want to know where the city will find enough tourists to make up for losing the bikers. Many of these bikers not only show up for the rallies, but they return throughout the year with their families for vacationing. This could mean a big loss for businesses in the area. Other businesses are willing to take the hit to get the bikers out of town.

“We’re going to have to displace them with the tourists we want,” Councilman Chuck Martino said at Tuesday’s workshop discussion. “Then when the bikers want to come, the hotel rooms are already full.”

The Chamber of Commerce has already listened to people from both sides, and they have made it clear that they are willing to listen to anyone who wants a say on the matter, but they think this is simply what the residents want.

I give a big middle finger to the city for doing this. Thanks for stereotyping us all once again as rowdy unlawful people who don’t care. Go ahead and kick us out because we aren’t spending our money frequenting your golf courses and overpriced shows that are geared more for the higher income family.

Atlantic Beach, known mostly for being the first rally to allow black bikers, has invited all bikers to join them next year.

“My constituents are telling me Bikefest must go on,” Thompson said. “We’re certainly not saying Myrtle Beach is doing wrong for Myrtle Beach. But for Atlantic Beach, we intend to continue to host our Bikefest.”

Those bikers of all colors shunned by Myrtle Beach, Thompson said, will be welcome in Atlantic Beach next year - just as black beachgoers once found the little town nicknamed the Black Pearl their only welcoming spot on the Grand Strand.

“It should be about bikers; it shouldn’t be about color,” Thompson said. “It’s unfortunate that the Myrtle Beach council has taken this position, but that’s the position people took back in the early ’50s. Times change, but sometimes people don’t.”

The Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce will continue to hear from both sides, and this is a discussion that could drag out. You can check out MyrtleBeachOnline.com for updates as the discussions continue.

I learned something very valuable this weekend. A lot of dealerships will tell you they don’t price match, but if you keep refusing to order a part from them because you found it cheaper (over $100 cheaper in our case) they will eventually give in.

I’ve been looking all over the place for a front rim. That’s pretty much the only major thing we need now to get the bike back on the road…after it’s finally put back together. I can’t find a used one anywhere, and I’m not sure I’d want a used one anyway since I can’t be sure it isn’t warped.

I refused to buy the rim from the local dealership because they want $402.80 for it. The markup is at least 40%. Hubby made mention a few times that we needed it when he was checking on prices for parts we needed to order, but he kept telling the part’s manager no I’ve found it cheaper. I’m not paying that much for something that I can get over $100 cheaper from Mr Cycles. Mr Cycles has the rim for $274.28. That’s an immediate savings of $128.52. Yeah I would have to pay shipping, but I would still end up saving a little less than $100.

Hubby went to pick up some parts he ordered Saturday, and the parts manager asked him about the rim. Hubby told him yet again we wouldn’t be ordering it because we found it over $100 cheaper. The parts manager brought up the fact that they eat the shipping costs if we bought from them. Hubby said yes, but it’s not going to cost me $128 to have it shipped. Besides, Mr Cycles is in Asheville, NC. We’re already making a trip to Asheville in a couple weeks for personal reasons, so we can order it and pick the rim up while we’re there saving us shipping costs.

The parts manager wanted the sale so badly he finally said ok I’ll price match and take 10% off. We ended up getting it for $246.85! Heck yeah, I like that number a lot better. My father in law jokingly told us to put that extra $155 we saved in savings because he’s still looking up packages for Las Vegas vacations. He’s bound and determined to make his cross country trip, and he wants to make sure Hubby knows he wants him going with him.

Ok so I was being optimistic when I hoped we’d have the bike together (minus the plastics) by July 4th. The good news is that the jet kit, forks, battery tray, and battery will be here this week. I can’t really order anything else this week since I blew what little bit of extra cash I had left on a few pool toys. I needed something to float on in the pool, and the old floats we had weren’t holding air.

We also have another problem I wasn’t expecting. The gas tank sat on the porch for a couple weeks, and we’ve had 1 heavy rain. It looks like water got in the tank, so when Hubby cranked her up the other night she sounded like crap.  There wasn’t much gas left in it to begin with, so he drained that.  The carbs are getting a full cleaning anyway since he’s got to take everything apart to install the jet kit. He cleaned the tank up last night and JB Welded the two small holes. That’ll hold until I can find another tank.

The only other major thing I still have to order are the rotors. Putting things back together is the easy part. Waiting on things to ship is killing me!

Wow, I can’t believe how well the bike is coming together. It’s not back together yet, but a major part of getting it put back together is hunting down all the parts we need. When I estimated the price for our parts list we were looking at close to $2500 if we bought all the parts from the dealership. I knew it would be a lot cheaper getting them off Ebay and the YZF600r forums, but I still figured we’d take a big hit before our friend/my cousin has a chance to pay us back.

I’m happy to say I’ve already got most of the major parts we need, and I’m still sitting below that $1000 mark. Our biggest concern have been the front forks. We found one set on Ebay that sold very quickly. I’ve called numerous motorcycle junkyards all over the country with no luck. The cheapest price I’ve found anywhere for a brand new set, $324.26 EACH. Yeah, that’s a big blow.

Hubby finally tracked down a set on the 600r forums, and it looks like I got my wish. We found a full set for under $300 including shipping!

For now our plastics are still usable to get it to a point where it’s just ridable. I don’t care what it looks like. We’ll rock a rat bike all summer if we’ve got to. So really right now all we need to get it on the road, the front seat, front rim, front rotors, passenger pegs, r6 battery tray, front stay, and r6 battery.

The mounting blocks for the subframe are being machined this weekend, and then we’ll be able to weld the blocks to the new subframe and the existing bike frame. Just to get an idea what it’s going to look like Hubby tied the subframe up last night and suspended it roughly where it will sit. It looks hilarious though. He couldn’t find a rope around here long enough to suspend it, so he used a long CAT6 cable I had lieing around. He better be glad the subframe doesn’t weigh much!

I figured it would take at least a couple months to get everything back together meaning we’d miss most of this year’s riding season.  Looks to me like it’s going to be complete by the end of the month if we stay on top of everything, 4th of July at the latest!  Yeah!

Speaking of my Father-in-law, he did finally decide he’s going to do a little Las Vegas travel at the end of the summer. We had talked about going on a Vegas Run later in the year after our bike’s put back together, but he finally decided he’s doing it with or without us. A guy he works with has been wanting to make a cross country trip, so that guy is going with him. You don’t know how bad I want to go! The longest trip I’ve made on a bike? I think to Deal’s Gap, and that’s only about 2 1/2 hours from the house. I really want to make a cross country trip, and I really want to go to the Salt Flats!