105th Celebration – Day 1

I noticed tents, generators, porta-potties, and the usual detritus of a bike “event” in the parking lot of my local H-D dealership this morning. Sure enough, it is Day 1 of the 105th Celebration.

I’ll start out by noting that in many respects, Harley has learned a lot since the 100th Celebration. and not only in terms of hiring an actual American rock star to headline their party. Some things I noticed:

1) Juneau Avenue. Last time thousands of bikers showed up at Harley’s headquarters, which is located in a decidedly downmarket part of the city, and found nothing to do. No chance of getting a peak inside. This time they actually are conducting tours of an annexe building (“Harley-Davidson University”) where they train technicians. Supposedly quite interesting. Still no getting inside the actual headquarters building, but thats not much of a loss, since its really just six floors of cube farm.

2) Signage: Ride around town, and there are actually signs on the freeway pointing you to various Harley-orientated facilities and events.

3) Length: For the 100th, the celebration lasted a whole week. Too much for most vendors, too much for most residents, and too much for most visitors. Four or five days is plenty.

4) Web Info.: Much, much better information available on the web than before.