The Bike Week Chronicles
Bike Week Crew, 2016.
Top, from left: Robert Cichielo, Paul Dykstra, Hettie Epison, Stuart Johnson
Bottom, from left: John Churchman (me, check out that farmer’s tan after a week vending outside), Navid Mazloom (my biz partner)
2016
Every year in Ocean City Maryland, thunder descends upon the small Atlantic coastal town with a year-round population of less than seven thousand. This isn’t thunder from a storm, but rather from the roar of thousands of motorcycles. During the second week of September Ocean City is home to “OC Bike Fest” and “Delmarva Bike Week”, which is one of the largest motorcycle rallies on the east coast, drawing riders and fans of motorcycles from across the eastern seaboard.
Growing up on the “Delmarva” peninsula (the strip of land east of the Chesapeake Bay that contains parts of Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia), I started to notice the motorcycle event during high school, around the same time motorcycles in general started to become of interest to me. By early college, now a co-owner of a powersports business and a motorcycle rider myself, friends and I would take the 35 minute ride down to Ocean City from my hometown Salisbury, Maryland to attend the event.
To provide some further geographical context, Ocean City is approximately ten miles long, fully contained on Fenwick Island, which is part of a barrier island network that includes popular beaches in Delaware, and Assateague National Seashore in Maryland/Virginia. The town is dotted with hundreds of old school condos, beach houses, big high rises, and one of the best boardwalks in the nation. When I say that the town becomes “full” of motorcycles during bike week, I mean that quite literally. Given the geographical limitations of the island, the whole town essentially “rumbles” 24/7 for the annual event in September.
The event is broken down into a few distinct zones. At the south end of town where the land meets the ocean via an inlet caused by a hurricane in the 1930’s, you’ll find the big concert stages for national touring rock bands to play every night of the rally. This area is also home to the vestiges of an Ocean City different from much of the island today, like the Cork Bar and Harbor Inn. Picture crusty sailor types perched on barstools, low-ceiling establishments with cheap beer, crispy wings, and probably a pickle shot or two (ironically enough Ocean City is home to two iconic beverage inventions; the pickle shot via Pickles Pub, and the orange crush via Harborside).
Midtown Ocean City is home to the convention center and its adjacent parking lot full of vendors, selling their goods to the Bike Week crowd. Everybody from national brands, tire companies, leather merchants, and plenty of “beverage” vendors show up to support the industry and make a few bucks.
After founding Shore Cycles (and independent motorcycle shop) in 2015, I began to postulate the potential of our store being involved in OC Bike Fest. By the summer of 2016, with the event fast approaching, we decided to take the leap and inquire about being a vendor at one of the locations in Ocean City. The festival’s organizer got back to us promptly and was excited about the prospect about having a local shop attend as a vendor, as it had been many years since one took the leap to Ocean City and involved themselves directly in the event. After reviewing the cost of a booth, we certainly had some sticker shock, but decided to go for it. We figured even if we didn’t sell that much stuff, it should hopefully be a good networking and branding opportunity to promote our (at that time) one-and-a-half year old motorcycle shop in the community. After officially signing the contract and mailing the check to be a vendor at Ocean City Bike Fest 2016, we waited not so patiently for the second week in September to arrive.
By the summer of 2016, we were a small team of only four full time employees, but despite the team size I felt like we were finally starting to “get our feet under us” so to speak. At that point, Paul had been with me since summer of 2015 (just after starting Shore Cycles in May of ’15), Hettie came on board in March of 2016, and Rob that spring as well. It was our second full summer of operating as a motorcycle shop. We felt excited to tackle vending in Ocean City.
Our goal for the first year was twofold: try to sell as much as we could, and promote our local dealership. The event at the time ran Thursday through Sunday, so Wednesday began with me loading up my truck bright and early, squeezing helmets into the truck bed like a game of Tetris.
After loading the truck, I grabbed our utility trailer and continued to pack it with display racks, slat grid panels for hanging products, folding tables, chairs, and of course more inventory. Since I was taking basically every apparel and small accessory item we had in the store, I decided for this first year we would close the retail store for the event, and have our whole team help down at Ocean City. While I wasn’t sure how busy we’d be or if we’d need all that help, it didn’t seem to make sense to strain the already small team by dividing us in half, and also leaving those in Salisbury with a lot less inventory to sell. It also seemed like a fun morale boost for the team, since Ocean City is beautiful in the fall, and working “out of office” for a bit can be refreshing. After loading everything I could, I made my way to Ocean City solo, while everyone else kept the shop open for the rest of the day on Wednesday. What I encountered was definitely not what I expected.
My personal truck (which was also our “shop truck” at the time) loaded with helmets. Like a game of Tetris.
Once pulling into the Ocean City Convention Center, I was met with a scene somewhere between a large format concert setup and a chaotic street bazaar. Fork lifts beeping, guys yelling while directing large box trucks, vendors frantically unloading and setting up their stalls. There was a motorcycle stunt cage getting setup, motorcycles getting lined up from the local Harley dealer, and a little mobile coffee bar dialing-in their espresso machine.
I had no idea where to go. Eventually, I noticed a guy riding around on a golf cart directing people with a megaphone, and figured this must be the event coordinator. We made contact and I told him that I’m from Shore Cycles. He reiterated his excitement for having a local shop attending the event, and promptly walked me to my spot. I was to pull in, unload all my stuff, and then move my truck and trailer out of the way so others could load-in as well, and that’s what I did. Working at a lighting pace, I pulled everything out, stacked it as neat as I could, setup the tents and tables, and rushed back to Salisbury for a second load of stuff, hoping nobody takes my pile of inventory (there was a security perimeter and as I learned a general trust between the vendors that made this totally fine). To say I was feeling overwhelmed and already defeated at this point is an understatement. Seeing the other vendors, mostly national brands and full-time industry event vendors, I felt underprepared, out of place, and lacking enough polish and display size to impress potential customers and actually sell stuff. Most of the other vendors were literally there in semi-trucks, with massive 100’ x 40’ displays, and here we were with our two borrowed fold-up tents, $5 tarps, and a hodgepodge of items. I was concerned of burning a week out here and not even making our vendor fee back in sales, all while deciding to close the dealership where we could at least be turning wrenches into dollars. I arrived back in Ocean City with the second load around sunset time. By 10pm or so, I had everything packed into one of my two tents nice and tight, and headed home to try and sleep and maintain a positive mindset. I figured hey, at least the weather looks incredible, I get to work outside for a week with a great team, and I can ride a motorcycle down to Ocean City every day.
Our first night at Ocean City Bike Fest. I grabbed the tarps from Home Depot that day, and stuff everything into one of our two tents. Fingers crossed nothing gets stolen overnight!
The vending hours ran from 9am to 7pm every day, so for the first day I asked Paul to arrive with me around 8am so we had time to pull everything out, setup and test our iPad/register. I showed up with a couple McDonald’s coffees and sandwiches for us, and we got to work. By 8:45am, there were already bikers rolling through the multi-acre parking lot! I still wasn’t sure if we were going to sell much, but at this point I was excited and ready for a fun weekend. Traditionally the foot traffic at OC Bike Fest is a standard deviation curve, with Friday evening through Saturday afternoon being the busiest times, and Thursday morning and Sunday afternoon being traditionally slower. If there was already strong foot traffic on Thursday morning, I was optimistic we’d see a lot of folks in the coming days. By the afternoon Hettie and Rob showed up (they were both still in college at the time), and wouldn’t you believe it, we were selling stuff! Since it was our first year, I really had know idea what to bring or what would sell, so we had quite a variety of items, including lots of small accessories, jackets, helmets, gloves, and cleaning products. The first day came and went with a blur, and sold a few hundred bucks worth of stuff. A good start.
Our 2016 setup. The Boss Audio speakers became a staple of our setup, and sold like hotcakes!
Friday rolled around and we had our whole team on hand for the entire day. Just like Thursday, there were already customers present before 9am, and they were eager to spend money. What I learned after years vending at bike week is that most customers show up with a wad of cash, dedicated to specifically spending at this event. I’d estimate most people have around thousand bucks burning a whole in their pocket, and they spend it on a mix of drinks, food, entertainment, and of course at the vendor booths at the convention center. Of course fact is something I was totally unaware of, until we were boots on the ground in 2016, vending ourselves, and trying to capture as much of that thousand bucks as possible. For the customers attending something like OC Bike Fest, this is essentially their Disney World trip: they saved up, they looked forward to this all summer, and now they’re here and ready for a good time.
By Friday afternoon we were rocking and rolling. At the advice of my good friend and industry rep Kenny Decker, we showed up with motorcycle handlebar speakers. The speakers proved to be a huge attraction! We wired them to a large motorcycle battery and blasted essential bike week tunes (think Van Halen, Motley Crüe, and AC/DC). One by one we sold the set of speakers for around 120 bucks a pop. They were easy to install with an inline on/off switch directly to the battery of a motorcycle, so customers were stashing them in a saddle bag to install when they got home. We also sold cargo nets and straps so if they didn’t have saddle bags, we had a solution for them to get the speakers home. Want to be able to control your music easily while riding and see navigation instructions? We had phone mounts for you, too.
Saturday we were really feeling on top of the world. Not only were we selling products, but people were truly thankful that we were there. Amongst the faceless big corporate brands and overwhelming displays, we were a welcome mix of genuineness, knowledge, and unique selection. The little trinkets we were selling were exactly what was missing from the other vendor booths. Most others were selling or installing fairly expensive products like suspension, handlebars, light kits, and exhausts. We had dozens of products from 15 bucks to 200 bucks, which made it easy for people to pull the trigger. We were in the volume game, and were the “impulse buy” tent among a mix of high-end item vendors. All this along with the fact that we were actually local people supporting the event really cemented the fact that we would be back next year. This biggest takeaway I noticed from our first year were that local customers loved seeing us be part of a bigger event. They associated us with the entire “OC Bike Fest” operation and were proud to come visit us down at the beach. It was a branding opportunity and gave us the bonafides we needed to continue growing our still small dealership. By Sunday we wrapped up vending, a threw a cash bonus to everyone involved, and we went back to Salisbury for a celebratory dinner and beer.
2017
2017 rolled around and we were starting to become the motorcycle dealership I always dreamt of. We had established regular customers, a growing knowledge from repairing almost every motorcycle brand, and a growing selection of quality pre-owned motorcycles, which would become our bread and butter as we grew. We were also prepared and looking forward to OC Bike Fest even more.
For 2017, we doubled down on successes from 2016, including stocking the very popular speakers, phone holders, and other small accessories. I also noticed a few other gaps from our 2016 experience — the first being helmets. DOT helmets are required in some states, and not in others. Maryland is one of the states that requires helmets, however our neighbor Delaware (less than ten miles to the north) and Pennsylvania (100 miles to the north) do not require helmets. Guess what states most of the people attending bike week come from? In 2016 saw foot traffic from riders getting pulled over for either not wearing a helmet, or wearing a non DOT helmet. Most got warnings, but some got fines. They decided that foregoing their desired freedom (and lack of safety IMO) and purchasing a DOT helmet in Maryland at bike week was cheaper than another ticket. We stocked up on all sorts of helmet styles, and they sold like hot cakes. I expected the smaller, half-shell type lids to be the most popular, but it was actually regular full face helmets! Most people that came to bike week had a 4+ hour ride (some as long as 10 hours) and the wind and noise can be brutal on a ride that long. A full face helmet provides a quieter, more comfortable, and safer riding experience. A lot of people had a better ride home on Sunday than down to the beach on Thursday.
2017 Bike Week setup and helmet wall. I designed the display to act as a retail wall plus a backstock room of helmets behind the slatgrid wall. The podium (pictured right) is from a University of Maryland equipment overstock sale from their facilities management department. I think it was twenty bucks.
Another gap I recognized and that we pursued in 2017 was apparel. Bike Week shirts are everywhere at a rally. They are usually sold by the official event vendor, as well as leather sellers looking to make a quick buck. The official shirts are great, but they kind of look the same no matter which event you go to (the Daytona shirt designs look the same as the Ocean City shirts, except for the words). They’re mass-produced and often lack originality. Having a graphic designer on staff, we figured why not throw our hat into the ring with shirts, and market them as an actual “local” shirt design produced by a local dealer. I think we ordered about one hundred shirts, and sold around 80% of them over the weekend. The rest we took back to our store and continued to sell. To my surprise, people still wanted to buy them after bike week. It was from this shirt experience that we learned how valuable custom Shore Cycles apparel could be to further building our brand. Over the next seven years, we went from stocking one or two designs to dozens, and producing thousands of garments using a trusted local screen printer and local artist. Growing up near Ocean City, Maryland I always dreamt of having branded apparel thanks to seeing the success of Malibu’s Surf Shop. Lee at Malibu’s started producing custom designs when he opened in the mid 80’s, and his custom designs became a staple of the community. It became a true joy to watch people just come in our store to buy our shirts, hoodies and hats. Recently during bike 2024, we spotted a Shore Cycles design from many years ago. It really rocks to see your team’s creation still out there in the wild years later.
Our 2017 Bike Week shirt design along with other trinkets for sale.
2017 also saw the development of a special relationship with one of our suppliers. In our first year of vending, we just brought inventory from our store; and therefore had quite a wild mix of items, but nothing stocked very deep. My rep Kenny from (at the time) Tucker Rocky approached me and said his manager approved us to order in a couple thousand bucks worth of inventory the week before the event, sell it during the event, and return it the week after the event… then just pay for what we sold. This was huge! It meant we could go deep in stocking certain known-popular sizes and models of helmets, riding shirts, etc., without having the risk of holding the inventory through the winter ourselves when motorcycle apparel sales drop like the temps. This relationship continued through 2017 and 2018 while Kenny was still involved at Tucker Rocky.
The 2017 Bike Week setup. Kenny Decker, left, and Brian Pangelinan right, both reps with Tucker Rocky.
2018
For our third year of bike week vending, we felt like veterans: seasoned, prepared, and ready for anything. And luckily, the outcome of our third act was on par with expectation. There was however, some uncertainty with 2018 that was out of our control.
As anyone from the east coast knows, fall is hurricane season, and they can be very powerful and unpredictable. The radar for Bike Week showed we were supposed to see a big storm all weekend. Many people cancelled their reservations, and all us vendors suddenly became nervous and uncertain. The storm wasn’t direct enough to cancel the event, so we decided to stick out like most and show up anyway to try and make the best of it.
Boy were the forecasts wrong. Instead of the crazy rain and wind that was expected, we got beautiful, partly sunny skies almost all weekend, except for a five minute shower on Friday, and a light rain on Sunday (when people are heading home anyway).
Not only did we have great weather, we had the best team in the game. My friends and industry reps Brian, Kenny and Jeff, showed up in full force and helped us vend all weekend long. I often reflect on their participation and realize how lucky we were to have such good friends that were willing to work *for free* ten hours a day for four days straight, when they could be out enjoying the event themselves or chilling at home. Granted, they were my reps, and of course did get a commission from our purchases all year, but they really didn’t have to show up like that. I have eternal gratitude to the commitment they displayed all weekend. No matter how many beers they drank the night before or songs they sung at karaoke until closing time, they showed up every morning, hangover in tow, ready to sell.
A selfie from our bustling booth at OC Bike Fest 2018. This year I was primarily posted up on the register, handling the point of sale system, while my awesome team was out on the floor selling. We rotated positions over the years so everyone was cross-trained and capable of handling anything over the weekend.
2018 Bike Fest was also a big moment for our dealership in that we were able to keep our Salisbury store fully operational during the rally, which meant our techs could sling tire changes, last-minute services, and more, while also having staff in the showroom to sell our shirts, apparel, and even vehicles. Breakdowns are unfortunately very common for people traveling far distances to Ocean City, so by keeping our service center open we could help get people back on the road that otherwise would have to rent a truck/trailer to get home.
Bike Week 2018 wrapped up with another big event: I purchased my first brand new Harley-Davidson motorcycle. Now, I’m not primarily a cruiser/Harley type (mainly a dirt biker), but something about the 2018 Bike Week got me, and I took home a Fat Bob. If that explain how fun Bike Week 2018 was, I don’t know what will.
2018 OC Bike Week shirt design. This was one of our most popular designs ever.
2019 and beyond
In our fourth year of vending at Bike Week, we continued our tradition of vending in Ocean City, along with keeping our retail store open. With Kenny and Brian now gone from Tucker Rocky, we shifted more of our business to Jeff with Western Power Sports, and Helmet House brands like HJC, Shoe, and more. This year was also a turning point for us when I started to see that demand at our store during bike week was increasing more rapidly than at the beach vending location. We also experienced the affect of the booth location at the vending space. In 2019, we were tucked on a side alley of the vending layout, and the foot traffic and sales reflected this. While the event was still a blast and a valuable networking and marketing opportunity, it definitely got my wheels turning about the feasibility of continuing to vend in OC.
2019 Bike Week designs. Locally designed, locally printed!
Of course we all know what happened in 2020, and OC Bike Fest was one of the events that was officially cancelled that year. While people did still go to the beach, the official vending locations were non-existent. This naturally furthered my focus to driving traffic to our retail store in Salisbury, just 30 minutes west of OC. This change ended up being such a success, and riders showed up in droves to shop at our store, buy our local shirts, and get their last-minute bike services done before heading to the beach.
In 2020 we started driving traffic right to our store in Salisbury through social media, email blasts, and outdoor displays
From 2021 onwards, we continued to grow our Bike Week traffic at our Salisbury store. For our team, this became a more sustainable approach to participating in the event, because we could have our entire team at one location rocking and rolling, versus dividing our team in half between our retail store and vending booth. Bike Week shirts created by our graphic designer and sold at our store became a staple of the local experience, with customers showing up every year to get their new shirt from their local, independent shop instead of just buying the mass-produced tees. We also learned that the weeks leading up to the event were really the key. We starting marketing light kits, handlebar jobs, exhaust upgrades and more in August, one month before the event. Instead of waiting until the last minute, we helped people plan ahead and get their service work done before the event, so when the rally came around, they just could ride and have fun.
Riders would show up by the dozens to Shore Cycles during Bike Week.
All-in-all, OC Bike Fest is one of the highlights of my ten year career as owner of Shore Cycles. We were so lucky to have such a popular, fun, and well-attended motorcycle rally less than an hour from our business, and the event’s reach and marketing no doubt helped us grow our store from a little operation to a full-size motorcycle dealer in just a few years.
The thing I remember the most about working Bike Week is the great times with my coworkers and industry reps, which are now all great friends. The bonds and memories created from working seven to nine days straight together, long hours, selling quality motorcycle provisions to a passionate customer base, is hard to beat. I’m thankful that I was put in a position of leadership to steer the ship of a great brand and team for so long, and participate in one of the nation’s leading motorcycle events.
The Harley I bought during Bike Week 2018