2013 Hammer Run! Nov 2/3 2013

[phoo]

One of the people running it said they had 720 people running on Sunday.

I was extremely glad I left right at the beginning and ended up hooking up with a fairly fast group. We hit the gas stop early and rode right up to the pump to get gas. Then we did the second stage, which looped around to the same gas stop where the line to get to the gas pumps was literally hundreds of bikes deep. We got there so early (11a), they wouldn't let us onto the last section because there were still people coming the other way as part of an earlier section.

Jay, too bad you couldn't do Sunday instead of Saturday. Saturday's ride was also fun, but Sunday's ride had a lot more single track and very little pavement. Plus, it included my favorite parts of the Hammer Run -- railing through the fire cuts like little roller coasters rolling from side to side on the berms and the sandy hill climbs.

This year's Hammer Run was good overall. I'm pretty sure earlier years had more single track and longer days, but I'm also quite certain that I'm a much better and faster rider now so it would seem shorter. They've also been having a lot of problems with the State government and with the locals starting to complain. The latter part could be an unfortunate downside to the event's success. But I know that gas station will never complain about the event. There was so much money flowing out of those pumps.

They had some pre-printed letters and other petitions including a sheet of how much money your visit was pumping into the local economy to fill out. I filled out all I saw. Hopefully, it'll help some to keep events like this alive.


Thanks,

~Patrick

[Boom Boom]

720 riders
Bet the jiffy johns were in tip top shape
I am happy for their turnout but as mentioned I don't see this as being a positive things to the locals if they are not happy in the first place.

[BigBird]

Mike I have no real knowledge of the situation but a couple of the organizer folks I talked to gave me the impression that the LOCALs (community, citizens, businesses) love them and that their problem is with some new area state "DNR or whatever it is in NJ" administrator. So it MAY (if my info was correct) be better to have the bigger turnout???

Again I'm NOT knowledgeable just sort of repeating what one of the key organizers told me.

[Firebolter]

it is always a double edged sword. Lots of numbers, the vendors and service providers around the area love it!

Locals, i.e. non motorcycle folks or those that don't directly benefit from it, HATE it cause it makes long lines, noise etc. and they see their wonderful Jersey woods getting raped by dirty bikers from out of state!

Sadly, tree huggers could care less how much money you spend in their local economy, doesn't support the narrative they want to force on PUBLIC LANDS.