Myrtle Beach City Council made a lot of headlines over its push to end the rallies over the past year, but now that the Spring Harley Rally is here, city leaders are keeping quiet.
The city's spokesman said the mayor and other council members feel it's too early to declare victory.
Plus the city faces at least four lawsuits that stem from measures taken to end the rallies, and City Spokesman Mark Kruea said that prevents leaders from talking.
However, judging by weak attendance during the first four days of the rally, it appears those measures are working -- at least within city limits.
Myrtle Beach Mayor John Rhodes has become the poster child for the end-the-rally push, at least in the eyes of some bikers.
"If the mayor were here, I'd tell him I think what he's doing is ridiculous, because it is," said Myrtle Beach biker Patrick Bubp.
Rhodes and city council passed 15 ordinances, including a mandatory helmet law, aimed at ending the rallies.
Rally promoter Mike Shank was hoping for the best and said he expected attendance to be somewhat down, but he said he's surprised by the "ferocity" with which bikers are avoiding city limits.
"The two questions they ask are, 'How do I get around the city?' and, 'Is that business in the city?'" Shank said on Monday.
Shank says he sold 192 vendor permits last year, and this year he's sold fewer than 70.
He said attendance to his vendors in North Myrtle Beach this past weekend was down 20 percent over last year.
When asked what the city thought of the diminished attendance, Kruea said it's too early to talk about that.
"I don't know that any of the city council members have great deal to add at this point. The city has been sued four separate instances. This is something that's under pending litigation for us. It's not something that we will have a great deal of comment on," Kruea added.
Neither Mayor Rhodes nor City Councilman Mike Chestnut who led the march to end the rallies returned phone calls to NewsChannel 15 Monday.
When asked why Rhodes or others wouldn't at least talk in generalities, Kruea suggested the media wouldn't settle for that.
"While they (the politicians) may be able to talk in generalities, I'm not convinced the news media can ask questions in generalities or will accept answers in generalities."
