11 th Annual Kanawha Valley Bike Rally

By: Lincoln Infield

estled into the

mountains of southern Virginia is the biker haven that you have been looking for. The Kanawha Valley Arena is home to year-round events like mud bogs, karaoke competitions, live music festivals, biker appreciation days, and once a year, they throw a little party called the Kanawha Valley Bike Rally. This year was the 11th Annual Kanawha Valley Bike Rally and was dedicated to the memory of Tommy Brown, the owner of Kanawha Valley Arena, who passed away late last year. Brooke, one of Tommy’s daughters, also an owner of KVA continued the tradition and threw one helluva party!

As motorcyclists, we all know half the fun is the ride to the destination. The ride up to Dugspur, VA where the KVA is located is no exception to this unwritten rule. Riding up from Thomasville was great. I wanted

to get there fast and then take it slow, so I headed up 52 which doesn’t suck after you get out of Winston-Salem. I passed by the always beautiful Pilot Mountain, NC Hwy 52 gives you a great view for miles. I hit the GPS once I crossed the VA state line and hit the ‘avoid highways’ option. I rode on the Blue Ridge Parkway and several other interstate highways before I popped out on Kanawha Ride Rd. I came around a corner and the landscape opened up to reveal the Arena.

It was a beautiful site. You ride in through a covered bridge over Burks Fork that had a few ladies in bikinis taking a leisurely float down the creek. There was tent and RV camping to the right and the 2 story, 12 room hotel on the right. Camping seems to be the best bet as I hear the hotel is booked way in advance! The main congregation area was in front of the Carriage House Saloon. Now with everything with the “pandemic,” the Carriage House and other attractions were not open, but business carried on out on the porches, with social distancing being advised. The bike show was going on in front of the Carriage House Saloon and it was a sweet group of bikes. Bobbers, big wheel baggers, and choppers all up for people’s choice voting, or one helluva cool photo op! Across from Carriage House was the Carriage House Saloon, also closed to entry, but with ice cold beer and a good-looking gal slingin’ it , so there was no loss of love there! It was a hot day, even in the mountains, but there was a big canopy set up outside the saloon with tables and tall boys set up for patrons to sit around and enjoy the constant stream of bikes rolling in and out, folks strolling the property and jacked up four wheelers that were a site as well!

I grabbed an ice-cold drink and headed to the Arena that

was currently hosting the bike games. The Arena is at least 100 yards long with bleachers on either side and the live music stage at the far end. John and Tina Luther of Wolf Mountain Biker Entertainment were running the bike/people games and are by far the best in the Carolinas. You can find them at most of the big-name rallies running the games in their neon green shirts. They also handled the bike show judging and awards. In between people and bike games they announced the winners. Bike Show winners were invited to ride down to the Arena so that spectators could get a gander at em! Paula Rose won the Cruiser Class with her 2011 Heritage Deluxe, Jamie Morris took the Custom Class with a killer 1981 Ironhead chopper, the Bagger Class was dominated by Jamie Harts 2001 Street Glide and Joseph Wilson’s 2011 Honda CBR 1100 took home the Metric Class trophy. Alan Ingram took hom the Best In Show honor with a 2016 Road Glide with more tricks that can be listed!

Once the Bike Show Winners cleared out, it was time for some bike games. John got the crowd stirred up, called out the real bikers to come down and participate and started off with the slow race. They were having so much fun that even myself and another photographer, Adam Scott, put down our cameras to join the games. Zak Gibbons (featured in the May 2020 issue) even had his foot clutch shovelhead chopper in the games showing off his skills. The games moved along to the balloon toss and then to the Weenie Bite, which had some surprise participation, but it was one of those what happens in Kanawha (should) Stays in Kanawha items. But if you check out the pictures on our website, you’ll know what I mean! Brooke Bright took some time out of her busy day hosting this rally to win both the balloon toss and the weenie bite contests. If you are gonna put on a good show, you gotta know how to play the games!

The bike games gave way to the wet t-shirt contest and just as the 10 lovely participants took the stage it began to rain, giving a head start to the viewing process! No lie though, it was a hot day and that little rain shower didn’t hurt a thing! The crowd gathered to watch as the girls strutted their stuff and were cheered on for their efforts. It took 3 rounds of voting on the final contestants before Crystal took home the cash, trophy and bragging rights! Just as soon as the contest ended the live music resumed. The band line up for Saturday was fantastic with Dani Kerr opening up the stage, followed by Flat Black Cadillac and Whey Jennings (Waylon Jennings’ Grandson) bringing it all home in the evening. Dani Kerr even won the title of Ms. Kanawha Valley! The last of the scheduled activities for each night was the firing of the cannon. Yep, you read that right. Each night they fired off a Revolutionary War looking cannon in Memory of Tommy Brown. It was quite a sendoff for the evening.

I strongly recommend checking out the Kanawha Valley Bike Rally when it rolls around next year. It is a great southern bike rally and you will enjoy it! Keep your eye on the Carolinas’ Full Throttle Magazine Cruisin’ Calendar for announcements of the 12th Annual Rally!