Cape Breton Bike Rally roars
The event drew people from all over to see the bikes and riders who push them to extremes
Membertou was filled with large crowds and loud engines as the annual Cape Breton Bike Rally continued to pick up speed on Saturday.
The event drew people from all over to see the bikes and riders who push them to extremes.
Myrron Gertman, 10, from Montreal was visiting family for a wedding but couldn’t wait to see the motorcycles on display.
“I really like the big bikes,” said Gertman.
His younger brother, Aviv Gertman, was excited to sit on one.
“I love being on the motorcycles,” he said.
The event featured a vendor village filled with different products, guided tours across the island, live music and five motorcycle freestyle stunt shows that included riders from Halifax-based team Stunt 902.
The stunt shows were a favourite of the crowd and featured six riders doing different stunts and tricks for close to an hour at a time.
“There’s a lot of safety issues with barricades and stuff like that and schedule issues,” said Mike Morrison, who is one of the riders and an organizer of the show.
Sam Dube, another member of Stunt 902, said doing events in communities in Nova Scotia are his favourite because of the people.
“I love the hospitality here. We do shows as far as Toronto and every place we go has a different atmosphere, but definitely when we come back to Nova Scotia — number-wise, the shows aren’t as big as some that we’ve done — but when you hear people and kids over the roar of the bikes and in through the helmet, you really know they enjoy what we do for fun.”
Theshow involved dozens of different tricks and concluded with fire and a burnout, which impressed fans like Chuck Ivy.
“The burnout at the end that blew out the tire and flames coming out of the exhaust was amazing,” said Ivy.
He added that the whole bike rally was great for Cape Breton.
“This brings people to our area and money. It’s a great thing.”
There were activities continuing on throughout the weekend, with the rally closing Monday with a farewell ride to the Canso Causeway.