Thousands of bikers roll into Port Dover for Friday the 13th

Thousands of bikers and motorcycle enthusiasts descended on the small Lake Erie town of Port Dover for the traditional Friday the 13th Gathering.

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Lori and Ken Heroux of Embro rode in on their 2014 Victory Vision Tour.

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“We haven’t been for a couple of years, and we picked up this bike last week,” said Lori. “I just sit on the back and look pretty.”

Ken, age 60, said he’s been riding all his life and has probably had 15 different motorcycles.

“We bought this because my wife told me the Gold Wing is an old man’s motorcycle,” he quipped. “This is the first time we’ve had a bike here since 2018.”

Bikes streamed into town on Main Street and lined many side streets in town, while people strolled stores and vendor tents in the downtown on the final Friday the 13th for 2023.

Norah Spades and her partner Jitterbug James – a duo performing as the Vaudevillians – charmed the crowd with their 1930s ragtime, jug band blues and pre-war Americana inspired music.

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“My washboard is from 1936 and I use metal thimbles to play it,” said Spades while James strummed his resonator guitar. “We love coming here. We love the bikers. The Sportster 1200 is our favorite type of bike.”

Visitors had a wide variety of T-shirts, caps, hoodies, and other memorabilia to purchase from vendors.

Margit Wamsley of Dover Thunder Apparel had a half-dozen staff helping customers choose from a wide variety of designs.

Gauging sales from the last October event, which was in 2017, she anticipated selling about 600 T-shirts.

“The weather rules the day. If it’s pouring rain and it’s windy and you can’t keep stuff on your tables, it doesn’t work out too good,” she observed. “I’ve been watching the forecast all week.”

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Blue skies and sunshine ruled the morning in Port Dover on Friday, but clouds moved in by 1:30 pm as temperatures remained a cool 13 C.

Mary Lollar perched atop a concrete road barrier at the base of Main Street, steadied by her husband Peter, to take a photo of the crowd.

Mary wore a leather vest adorned with hundreds of pins and crests from events they have attended over the years.

“We’ve been coming to Friday the 13th for over 30 years, and she has a patch on her vest from each visit,” noted Peter. “That’s one heavy, expensive vest.”

The couple had just returned from six weeks riding across the American Midwest to Montana, Wyoming and Colorado but didn’t want to miss Friday the 13th in Port Dover.

In 2019 they rode from Toronto to British Columbia, Yukon, and Alaska before returning home after 14,165 kilometers.

“If your marriage can survive that it can survive anything,” chuckled Mary.

Asked what kind of motorcycle they own; Peter’s response was firm.

“There’s only one bike. Harley Davidson. End of story.”

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