AP News, June 6th, 2007
Sitting on the second floor of his command center far from the crowd, Bill Dutcher answered his ever-ringing phone and quickly solved another logistical problem in his inimitable, fast-talking way.
"I stay the hell out of the way," Dutcher said. "It's a funny deal, it really is. I'm just old Bill. I'm the same guy I've been all my life, but this week I'm a celebrity. It's a unique experience, and I get this experience for one week every year."
That week started Monday when Americade, the motorcycle rally Dutcher brought to this idyllic lake setting, began its silver anniversary run.
"It doesn't seem like 25 years," Dutcher said. "I can still remember the anxiety of trying to get the first year off the ground. I never expected it to grow like this. I thought it would be a fun, little hobby, a little supplement to my job."
Now, it's his only job, has been for years. What began as a small affair that attracted fewer than 3,000 people to the Lake George region in upstate New York has morphed into the world's largest rally for touring motorcycles.
Upward of 60,000 motorcycle enthusiasts _ most on two wheels, but many now on three _ will ride into town this week and transform this village of fewer than 1,000 full-time residents into a motorcycle heaven.
"You drive into town and your mouth will drop," Dutcher said. "I've often thought that even if we didn't promote at all and just sort of said, 'Hey, it's open again,' we'd probably do just fine."
The rally, which once filled the economic void between Memorial Day and the Fourth of July, is now the mainstay of the whole year. Past estimates of Americade's economic impact have been pegged at anywhere from $20 million to $40 million, though Dutcher hopes to get a more accurate figure this year from research to be conducted by the Technical Assistance Center at Plattsburgh State University.
"It is our largest single week economically," longtime Lake George Mayor Robert M. Blais said. "It takes up every road and byway. People have come to accept it."
And to think it was the brainchild of a guy with a degree in psychology from Harvard.
Dutcher fell in love with motorcycles after being frightened at age 8 by his father.
"My dad gassed an Indian real fast, and I slipped off the back and was holding onto his belt and screaming like hell," Dutcher said. "Once I got over that, motorcycles became my whole life."
Dutcher worked for Spanish motorcycle manufacturer Bultaco for a decade, racing bikes and traveling around the country to demonstrate them at tracks. Then, in 1975, he took a job with AMF Motorcycle Group, which at the time owned Harley-Davidson.
During his six years there, one of his duties was to attend a rally called Aspencade in Ruidoso, N.M. The experience left a lasting impression.
After senior executives at Harley-Davidson purchased the company from AMF in 1981, Dutcher moved to Lake George so his kids could spend more time with their grandparents. He took a job as a marketing services manager with a valve company in nearby Glens Falls.
That's when the idea for a rally struck. The area, on the southern fringe of vast Adirondack Park, had just what he needed: motels, great roads, and a substantial population center in the nearby state capital of Albany. Plus, there had never been anything like it.
Blais was in office when Dutcher originally came to the village board with his idea. The moment remains etched in his mind.
"I thought it was a great idea," Blais said. "I understood fully it was the touring folks that would be coming, but when I brought it to the attention of the village board, they were apprehensive. They didn't want another Sturgis. They were concerned it was going to be loud, troublesome, boisterous."
It wasn't. Americade is about as peaceful as a motorcycle rally can be. And it certainly is no Sturgis, the massive South Dakota rally where 11 of the 300,000 people who showed up at the ride's 50th anniversary in 1990 died. Dutcher said he is aware of only one death among the hundreds of thousands of bikers who have registered for Americade over the years.
Here, it doesn't matter if they come on Harleys, Hondas, Yamahas, Kawasakis, Suzukis, BMWs or a trike, the three-wheeled vehicle that's booming in popularity. The Americade crowd gathers for one reason _ they love to ride. They also come to buy gear, take demo rides (a record 14 manufacturers are offering rides on their new models this year), attend safe-riding seminars, and enjoy the scenery on the several guided tours offered.
People like George Brown, who once rode 3,842 miles from his Alaska home. Or Borden Fawcett, who one year came solo aboard his Honda Gold Wing, riding 3,441 miles from British Columbia at age 82.
"We're the mild ones, not the wild ones," said Dutcher, who celebrated his 65th birthday last summer by riding through the Patagonia region of South America. "We attract people for whom motorcycles are not a form of rebellion."
