Bike Week

Headline Surfer® celebrating 5th anniversary by recognizing outstanding individuals

Photo for Headline Surfer® /

DAYTONA BEACH -- Bike Week starts Friday and what better way to introduce the nation's largest motorcycle rally than recognizing Michael Politis, selected as one of the Headline Surfer® recipients of a lifetime achievement award for service to greater Daytona Beach for his motorcycle safety advocacy and biker rights.

DAYTONA BEACH -- More proof that the online digital payment requirement of the Daytona Beach News-Journal is not the cash cow for the print newspaper: Access was free during Bike Week as it was during Speedweeks.

Here's wondering if those subscribers paying the $9.95 monthly fee get a rebate cedit towards the next month's subscription? The way it works is you get five fee clicks per month and then id you want more access you have to pay the $9.95 monthly fee, unless of course,  have a full seven-day home delivery pribnt subscription, then digital access is free.

NSBNews.net photo by Henry Frederick / Is she for real? That's what the Bike Week crowd kept asking at the Cabbage Patch.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Those who walked by a vendor tent for helmet art work at the Cabbage Patch in Samsula during Bike Week wondered if the life-like figure in body paint was the real thing at the Cabbage Patch. Few dared to ask and those who did didn't get an answer.

Only with a sharp eye or a strong camera lens could see that this was a living, breathing creature, whose beauty was accentuated by the flourescent green paint. With little in the way of actual clothes and a lot to be left to the imagination, 38-year-old Sophia Smith was a head turner.

ORLANDO -- A 27-year-old motorcyclist was struck and killed Saturday night while riding north on Alafala Trail on his 2001 Suzuki by a motorist turning left while southbound on the roadway and into the biker's path, the Florida Highway Patrol said.

Kevin Anderson of Orlando was pronounced dead at the scene of the 7:30 p.m. accident near Pasteur Drive. He was not wearing a helmet. James Miron, 23, was wearing his seatbelt and was not injured in his 4-door 2008 Toyota. The accident remains under investigation, the FHP said.

ORMOND BEACH -- A 56-year-old motorcyclist was run over and killed Friday morning on US 1 near Airport Road by a 76-year-old motorist in a Lincoln Town Car, the Florida Highway Patrol said. 

David Holup saw the northbound car turning into his southbound lane and layed down his 1993 Harley-Davidson in an attempt to avoid a collision, but the car ran over him and his bike, witnesses told the highway patrol. He is the sixth Bike Week fatality.

DAYTONA BEACH -- A 63-year-old Palm Coast motorcyclist died at Halifax Medical Center shortly after another biker turned into his lane Wednesday night on International Speedway Boulevard and made contact with his Kawasaki, Daytona Beach police said. This was the fifth Bike Week fatality.

Bruce Wynne was riding west on ISB near Williamson Boulevard when his rear tire was clipped by Thomas Castaldo, 57, of Kernersville, N.C, when he turned into the victim's lne, police said, resulting in Wynne's bike going down.

PORT ORANGE -- A Winter Springs motorcyclist became the fourth Bike Week traffic fatality Monday night in a collision with a car on Dunlawton Avenue at the intersection with North Swallowtail Drive, Port Orange police said.

The biker, Thomas J. Niedziejka, 63, died early this morning, less than eight hours after the crash. The victim was riding his 2012 Harley-Davidson without a helmet westbound on Dunlawton in the center lane when Ruthann K. Mscisz, 68, of Daytona Beach Shores, was turning her 1999 Infiniti 4-door onto Dunlawton after stopping at the intersection and onto Dunlawton, police said.

PIERSON -- A 61-year-old Concord, N.C. man killed Sunday on Bunnell Road just east of Seville when he crashed his Harley-Davidson into a fence, has been identified as Jack Norman, the Florida Highway Patrol said.

Norman may have been speeding when he lost control of his 2005 Harley on a curve and left the roadway, the FHP said this morning. After striking the fence, Norman, who was not wearing a helmet, was thrown from the bike, which then caught fire. He was pronounced dead at the scene of the 4:35 p.m. accident. Alcohol may have been a factor, according to an initial highway patrol report This was the first motorcycle fatality in Volusia County since the start of Bike Week 2012, which got under way Friday.

DAYTONA BEACH -- Ed Schmidt of Pittsburgh is the first to admit he should be wearing a helmet. But he's not. Then again, some revelers aren't wearing much in the way of clothing either.