The Myrtle Beach Harley-Davidson rally has long been known for its crowds, fun, and great location along the beach in South Carolina. More recently however; there have been complaints about stricter rules. Sonny Copeland, promoter of the rally, is planning a new event in Florence being called the Myrtle Beach Bike Week West.

Copeland of Sonny Productions will be organizing the event and owns MyrtleBeachBikeWeek.com. The event is scheduled to run from March 2-3 at the Florence Civic Center. There will be 100 vendors present and officials are estimating roughly 3,000 to 5,000 motorcyclists to attend, (Myrtle Beach Bike Week West in the works for Florence, Dawn Bryant, Myrtle Beach Online-from The Sun News,

http://www.thesunnews.com/2011/12/12/2546958/myrtle-beach-bike-week-west-in.html).

The idea is that the event will attract bikers from Interstate 95 coming down for the Daytona Beach rally which is the week after from March 9-18. The location will be at the Florence Civic Center, which is 50,000 square feet and includes outdoor space as well. Although this will be the first time the center has held a bike expo like this, officials are excited at the possible economical profits that local hotels, restaurants and businesses could profit from, (Myrtle Beach Bike Week West in the works for Florence, Dawn Bryant, Myrtle Beach Online-from The Sun News).

So why have another rally at a different location other than Myrtle Beach? Copeland believes that the event will provided "a lot of stuff we can't do at the beach. You can't do anything at the beach anymore. Florence has been overwhelmingly welcoming," (Myrtle Beach Bike Week West in the works for Florence, Dawn Bryant, Myrtle Beach Online-from The Sun News). The reason for sticking with the Myrtle Beach name for the event however; Copeland has worked on and built up the current event at the beach, so would like to push and utilize the brand he has created for the Florence event as well; "people relate to Myrtle Beach Bike Week and what I've done there for decades," says Copeland.

The spokesman for the Myrtle Beach rally, Mark Kreua, finds it a bit off to use the Myrtle Beach name for an event that is not taking place right on the beach, "it is a little unusual in that it is 70 miles to our west in a different county. I think it is an indication that the organizers of the massive motorcycle rallies realize that Myrtle Beach is no longer the destination for them," (Myrtle Beach Bike Week West in the works for Florence, Dawn Bryant, Myrtle Beach Online-from The Sun News). As Denise Triece, Marketing Manager for the Myrtle Beach event states, they are not concerned that this Florence event will take away from the beach event.

So if you're looking for warmer weather and an awesome bike event, there are a couple down south to chose from! Start checking out websites and locations now to plan your weekend getaway this winter.