Last April, Chris Williams opened a bar and grill geared toward bikers in Myrtle Beach, but little did he know that wouldn't be a good idea.
"We moved all the way from Arizona ... knowing how prevalent bike week was around here," Chris Williams said outside of his empty bar on Kings Highway.
Williams opened Knuckleheads Bar and Grill last April, and said without even being established last year, business then was much better than it has been so far this week.
"The overflow we got from next door was way more than what we had last night," Williams said about Saturday night's business.
Just months after Williams opened, the City of Myrtle Beach began talks of eliminating the massive rallies that had become part of the city's heritage.
By February 2009, Myrtle Beach had passed 15 laws aimed at curbing the rallies, including a helmet law, and it wasn't long before Horry County established new ordinances geared toward taming the rallies.
So far, it has worked.
"It just doesn't seem like there's been hardly any bikes around town compared to what there used to be," Williams said.
Comparing numbers from the first weekend of 2008's rally to the first weekend of this year's rally, it's easy to see that numbers of bikers are markedly down.
During the first weekend of 2008, there were 37 accidents with two fatalities.
That's compared to five wrecks with no fatalities during the same period in 2009.
The lower numbers coupled with the far fewer number of bikers on the roads leads some to think Myrtle Beach accomplished its goal.
"Maybe they have. Congratulations. I hope it works out for them. I hope it doesn't become a ghost town," said biker Patrick Bubp.
Bubp stopped by Knuckleheads on Saturday but only to "support Knuckleheads. ... Otherwise, I wouldn't step foot in the city limits of Myrtle Beach."
Both Williams and Bubp think the city's politics are "ridiculous" and only getting worse.
"Now they're talking about raising taxes again to generate revenue for tourism which is ridiculous when they just sent a half million people away," Williams said.
