Inside Daytona s Legendary Bike Week Bars : With the Daytona 500 behind us, the rumble of Harley-Davidsons will take to the roads of Daytona Beach and other Volusia-Flagler destinations as Bike Week returns to the World’s Most Famous Beach.Bike Week 2025 will take place Feb. 28-March 9, and will provide the annual influx of an estimated 300,000-400,000 riders and fans throughout a wide swath of Central Florida that also includes Volusia, Flagler, St. Johns, Duval, Orange, Seminole and Brevard counties, among others.
Daytona Beach, of course, is where it’s always been — the beachside area along Main Street is perhaps the best place to watch the parade of characters and machines.Among the attractions that are mandatory for Bike Week riders to visit, three establishments always find their way to the top of most list of the mustsee watering holes.Here’s a glimpse inside the enduring appeal of the Boot Hill Saloon in Daytona Beach, the Iron Horse Saloon in Ormond Beach and Sopotnick’s Cabbage Patch Bar in Samsula.
The Boot Hill Saloon: ‘better off here than across the street’
The big sign out front boasts the “Boot Hill Saloon and Museum,” but you’d be hard pressed to find evidence of the second half of that statement, unless you think a bra once worn by the serial killer Aileen Wuornos is a historical artifact.It’s posted behind the bar at the landmark watering hole memorably situated on the opposite side of Main Street from the Pinewood Cemetery, a fact that inspired the bar’s motto:
“You’re better than you are here than over there.”
The Wuornos memento is hung up next to dozens of less-well-known under-garments, which are also ceremoniously strung from the rafters and on the walls. Walls are cluttered with ancient business cards, faded snapshots that map the bar’s history, almost every scrap of space filled. So maybe it is a museum? At the Boot Hill, which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2023, the music
comes alive during Bike Week, along with parking lot vendors hawking grilled chicken and other treats to supplement the bar’s also highly regarded lineup of burgers and other staples.The bar’s gift shop inside is expected to be busy, selling commemorative T-shirts, ball caps, doo rags and other souvenirs, a list that has sometimes also included scented candles.
Visit boothillsaloon. com for more information.Steak tips flavor scene at Iron Horse Saloon in Ormond BeachIn Ormond Beach, Bike Week preparations are also underway at the landmark Iron Horse Saloon on U.S. Highway 1, another old-school Bike Week hangout that also has opened since 1980. Among the Iron Horse’s lineup of Bike Week music performances, which include
nationally known country acts such as Montgomery Gentry and Whey Jennings (Waylon’s grandson) as well as tribute and cover bands saluting the works of AC/DC and other classic rockers, is set beneath oak trees’ shade and among rows of vendor booths.Those performers may have to compete with another of the famed Iron Horse’s offerings: the Saloon’s legendary Craiger’s sirloin steak tips.
Other diversions include daredevil motorcycle stunts on the Wall of Death, where spectators can watch at point blank range as motorcyclists roar at high speeds up and down the inside of a cylindrical vertical wall. Visit ironhorsesaloon. com for more information.Cabbage Patch in Samsula coeds coleslaw wrestling rules
it would not be Bike Week without the most odoriferous tradition of the event, signature coleslaw wrestling matches in the 5-acre field behind Sopotnick’s Cabbage Patch Bar in Samsula. The bar claims the event is by far the highest-attended of its kind for Bike Week, a reflection of the tradition surroung the bar, a well-visited wood-frame watering hole that has anchored a corner at State Road 415 and Pioneer Trail in Samsula for nearly 100 years.
When will Bike Week coleslaw wrestling take place at Cabbage Patch? The event will take place during Bike Week’s 10-day run (Feb. 28-March 9) with two opportunities to see the matches, at noon Wednesday, March 5, and Saturday, March 8. If you do, get ready to be righteously crowded, with sweaty fans predicted to be shoulder to shoulder in the sprawling field behind the bar.
Sopotnick’s Cabbage Patch Bar is located at 549 Tomoka Farms Road in Samsula. Hours: 10 a.m.-2 a.m. daily. Information: 386-427-8969. How long has Bike Week been happening? What’s it all about? Bike Week, now in its 84th year, is a 10-day party fueled by an assortment of vendors selling everything from custom sunglasses to exhaust systems, live music and opportunities to cruise from congested city streets to picturesque rural roads.
Here are some must-do experiences:
Crack Open Main Street: It’s true that the event has outgrown its original footprint, but Main Street is still bucket-list worthy, particularly for first-timers. It will be elbow-to-elbow, tailpipe-to-tailpipe with motorcycles, gawkers, street vendors, bands and kooks from the Main Street bridge to State Road A1A.
Shop the Swap: Looking for a part or accessory? A complete engine? Browse the thousands of items for sale or trade at the annual Daytona Bike Week Swap Meet, a rite of spring for decades that will take place daily at the Volusia County Fairgrounds in DeLand.
Rumble in DeLand: Don’t miss the annual DeLand Bike Rally, where thousands of motorcycles line Woodland Boulevard. There’s a midway with motorcycle-related merchandise, and there will be music, beer and food. Past years have included a group biker wedding ceremony. The rally is scheduled for March 1.
Ride the Ormond Loop: This 23-mile stretch from Birthplace of Speed Park (each flier gets its name from the park’s locale) to the Tomoka River basin features dense canopies of live oaks and magnificent views of the ocean, river and marshland. The trek, which is part of a 30-plus mile double loop, guides riders down a mix of oceanfront beach parks on State Road A1A, as well as North Peninsula State Park, Highbridge Park, Bulow Creek State Park and the Fairchild Oak, Tomoka State Park, Tomoka Outpost and the Ormond Beach Historical Society.
Will there be bands at Bike Week?
Of course!
On Main Street in Daytona Beach, the motorcycle exhaust systems will battle the rattle of an all-day lineup of rock bands on outdoor stages at Main Street Station, Dirty Harry’s Pub, Full Moon Saloon and other venues on the crowded thoroughfare.There also will be a full slate of vendors and entertainment each day in Ormond at Destination Daytona, the 150-acre complex featuring Teddy Morse’s Daytona Harley-Davidson at the corner of U.S. 1 and Interstate 95.Its big draw Bike Week concert will be a free show by Southern Rock favorite Black Stone Cherry at 8 p.m. Saturday, March 8, at a new outdoor pavilion at Destination Daytona.Visit officialbikeweek. Bike Week events, promotions and concerts can be found at www.bikeweek.com