BIKER NEWS: Riders get revved up for BikeFest

BN- Engines growled down Ocean Drive on Saturday, revving as they celebrated the third-annual Corpus Christi BikeFest.

With black leather, rhinestone jeans and unruly beards, motorcycle enthusiasts swarmed the American Bank Center to revel in the tribute to grease and chrome.

Joyce and Horace LeMoine relaxed in the VIP room overlooking the bay, looking forward to the rest of the weekend, especially the Busted Knuckles stunt show.

"I love the smell of burning rubber," Joyce LeMoine said. "But I married a tire man."

The Crockett couple said that of the 50 rallies they've attended, BikeFest measured up as one of the finest.

"It's a long way from home, but the staff is absolutely amazing and the vendors are great," she said.

She wore dangling Harley-Davidson earrings and brought out her skeleton do-rag finds that she purchased from one of the more than 100 vendors in the arena.

The rally also featured live music, celebrity performances, arm wrestling competitions and tattoo artists.

As the third-largest bike rally in the state, BikeFest provides more than just fun entertainment, including a charity course for breast cancer, meetings for bikers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and awareness by Bikers Against Child Abuse, organizer Henry Mendiola said.

The event is dedicated to tearing down stereotypes about bikers and shedding light on the passion they have for the community. This year motorcyclists rode the renamed nearly 9-mile route from Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi to the American Bank Center in remembrance of Corpus Christi Police Chief Floyd Simpson.

An avid motorcyclist, Simpson, 51, was killed May 3 in a crash on state Highway 361 in Port Aransas.

"BikeFest is a great opportunity to see what motorcycle culture is all about. Many of us are professionals — doctors, lawyers, police — we just choose to ride two wheels instead of four," Mendiola said.

Source: http://www.caller.com/entertainment/events/riders-get-revved-up-for-bikefest--219ad064-4313-5719-e053-0100007f0cf0-332368952.html