Myrtle Beach Fall Bike Rally quietly came and went. Is attendance dwindling?
Bikers roared through the Grand Strand at the end of September for the Myrtle Beach Fall Bike Rally, but despite the rally’s reputation, police scanners remained somewhat quiet.
For some Myrtle Beach area residents, bike rallies bring crowds, traffic and boisterous partying. This fall however, police departments and rally organizers alike say the week passed by smoothly.
Some police officials speculate that the quiet Bike Rally week is a symptom of declining attendance.
Determining total attendance for a geographically wide, days-long event like the Fall Bike Rally, as well as its counterpart the Myrtle Beach Spring Bike Rally, may not be possible, and anecdotal evidence from safety officials and rally staff paint competing pictures of which way numbers are trending.
Regardless of whether bike rally popularity is growing or shrinking, the majority of arrests, tickets and warnings issued in Georgetown County — where the majority of rally venues are located — during the rally were not related to motorcyclists.
While “Myrtle Beach” is in the rally’s name, many of the rally crowds and activities do not take place in Myrtle Beach, explained Myrtle Beach Police spokesperson Randolph Angotti. Myrtle Beach Police did not have a breakdown of biker-specific infractions readily available for publication, according to Angotti.
Tallying tickets, citations and arrests
During the fall rally that happened Sept. 26 to Oct. 5, the Georgetown County Sherriff’s Office implemented enhanced traffic enforcement to tackle any increased speeding or unsafe driving, according to department spokesperson Jason Lesley.
A total of 367 tickets were issued in the county during the rally, with 150 speeding tickets. There were also 268 warnings, six drug arrests and one DUI arrest, Lesley shared in an email.
However, Lesley explained that most of these were “non-motorcycle related.”
Horry County Police also upped their presence to accommodate the influx of bikers, setting up a Command Post on the south end, near the old Inlet Square Mall, according to department spokesperson Mikayla Moskov.
“Overall, the fall rally seemed to go smoothly — there were no major incidents associated with the rally itself,” Moskov wrote in an email.
During the rally, the most common charge against a motorcyclist was failure to obey traffic control devices, with three charged in total by the South Carolina Highway Patrol, according to data shared by Sgt. Tyler Tidwell.
SCHP also recorded two charges of violation of a classified drivers license, two charges for driving on or across a median or the wrong way on a divided highway and two charges for unlawful turning or turning from the wrong lane.
There were also single instances of charges recorded by SCHP for permitting or operating a vehicle not registered and licensed, failing to stop for a blue light with no injury or death — first offense, speeding 10 mph or less over the speed limit, speeding 10-15 mph over the speed limit, speeding 15-25 mph over the speed limit, disregarding a stop sign, no brake lights, and failure to maintain proof of insurance in a vehicle.
Does ‘uneventful’ rally mean fewer bikers?
SCHP Cpl. David Jones told The Sun News over the phone that the bike rally was “pretty uneventful” when it came to infractions of the law. He said anecdotally that officers observed the rally appeared to be less heavily attended than years past, which may have contributed to the low number of public safety run-ins.
Moskov did not attribute the lack of major events requiring Horry County Police intervention during the rally to a lower number of attendees, but said that interactions between visitors, residents and law enforcement were positive, with many attendees encouraging one another to stay safe and drive sober.
One rally organizer said that interactions like those noted by Moskov were at the core of this rally’s smooth sailing, rather than fewer rally-goers. In fact, he said he’s noticed attendance numbers on the rise.
Lee “Spider” Webb, the chairperson of the Myrtle Beach Bike Rally promotions committee, said anecdotally that since the fall rally’s inception, he has seen attendance steadily increase year over year. The fall rally has always been less populated than it’s warmer-weather counterpart in the spring, Webb said, but for some, the thinner crowds are a selling point, allowing them to celebrate with “a little more elbow room.”
While the threat of storms brewing over the Atlantic contributed to a slower start to the rally than usual, Webb said blue skies and sunny weather drew bikers out for the remainder of the week, and cooler evenings made for relaxing rides.
Webb noted that all of the bike rally venues he’d spoken to had solid attendance at each of their events and performances, and no business owners reported noticeable downswings in turnout or any major issues.
“All the businesses that we’ve spoken to were up in their sales,” Webb said.
Pulling off large events like the bike rally can bring challenges from time to time, Webb said, but this year’s fall rally went smoothly.
“Our biker visitors are coming here to respect our community, and our community respects them because of the economic boost they bring to the area,” Webb said.
This story was originally published October 8, 2025 at 6:00 AM.
