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RideWolf · Biker World
The rallies that come back every year like the seasons — when each one actually lands, and how to find the rides happening near you this weekend.
Five of the majors have already put 2027 on the calendar. These come straight from the organizers, and they’re the ones you can book flights and hotels around right now.
| Event | 2027 dates | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Rolling to Remember | May 30 | Washington, DC |
| Americade | June 1–5 | Lake George, NY |
| Laconia Motorcycle Week | June 12–20 (104th) | Laconia, NH |
| Sturgis Motorcycle Rally | August 6–15 (87th) | Sturgis, SD |
| Daytona Bike Week | March 5–14 (86th) | Daytona Beach, FL |
Sturgis goes further than anyone: it has published dates all the way out to 2030 (August 2–11 that year). If you’re the kind of person who plans a trip four years out, they’ve already handed you the calendar.
Dates shift a little year to year. The pattern underneath them mostly doesn’t. Here’s where each one lands and how long it runs.
| Month | Event | Where | When it lands | The draw |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| March | Daytona Bike Week | Daytona Beach, FL | Ten days ending the second Sunday in March — so it can start in February | The season opener; the whole riding world thaws out at once |
| April | Arizona Bike Week | Scottsdale, AZ | Five days, Wednesday to Sunday, in early April — see the note below on Easter | Nightly concerts in the RockYard; the vendor expo is free to enter until 5 PM, and so is bike parking |
| May | Myrtle Beach Spring Rally | Myrtle Beach, SC | Ten days from the second Friday in May | Running since 1940, the length of the Grand Strand |
| May | Rolling to Remember | Washington, DC | The Sunday of Memorial Day weekend — stated by the organizers | A demonstration ride, not a rally: POW/MIA accounting and veteran suicide |
| May–June | Americade | Lake George, NY | The week after Memorial Day, Tuesday through Saturday | The big touring rally; Adirondack roads and a calmer crowd |
| June | Laconia Motorcycle Week | Laconia, NH | Nine days ending on Father’s Day | The oldest rally in America, and the math backs it up |
| June | Born-Free Show | Silverado, CA | Check the official site | The custom and chopper show, hand-built bikes under the SoCal oaks |
| July | Hollister Rally | Hollister, CA | Every Fourth of July weekend | Free and open; San Benito Street closes to cars and becomes motorcycle-only parking. Running since 1947 |
| July | AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days | Lexington, OH | The fourth weekend of July, Friday to Sunday | North America’s largest motorcycle swap meet — 80 acres, 800+ vendors — alongside vintage national racing |
| August | Sturgis Motorcycle Rally | Sturgis, SD | Ten days from the first Friday in August | The one everything else gets measured against |
| August | Sturgis Buffalo Chip | Sturgis, SD | The same ten days as the Sturgis rally | A 600-acre private campground with its own concert amphitheatre. First event 1982 |
| September | Four Corners Motorcycle Rally | Durango, CO | Labor Day weekend, Thursday to Sunday | Nightly arena events — dirt drags, flat track, rough-stock rodeo — and the Million Dollar Highway out the door |
| October | Myrtle Beach Fall Rally | Myrtle Beach, SC | “The first week of October every year” — stated by the organizers | The spring rally’s quieter, cooler sibling |
| October | Biketoberfest | Daytona Beach, FL | The third Thursday through Sunday of October | Daytona’s fall encore; smaller, cooler, arguably better |
| October | Barber Vintage Festival | Birmingham, AL | Check the official site | AHRMA racing on the 2.38-mile course plus a 400-vendor swap meet, at the museum Guinness recognised in 2014 as the world’s largest motorcycle collection |
| November | Lone Star Rally | Galveston, TX | The first Thursday through Sunday in November | The season closer, on the Gulf where it’s still warm |
On Arizona Bike Week and Easter. The organizers say it is “always held as close to the first week of April as possible” and that the dates “fluctuate slightly so as not to coincide with Easter weekend.” That is their wording, and it is the only rally here that schedules around a moving holiday. It bit in 2026: Easter landed on April 5, so the rally shifted to April 8–12 instead of opening the first Wednesday.
Two rows say “check the official site” instead of a pattern. That’s deliberate. I worked out the timing for the others by lining up several years of published official dates and confirming the pattern held every time. Born-Free has only one official date on record and Barber’s editions don’t settle on any ordinal, so there is nothing honest to publish for either. A gap beats a guess.
Two of these events actually publish their rule in writing. Rolling to Remember states plainly that the ride happens on the “Sunday of Memorial Day Weekend.” Myrtle Beach says its Fall Rally is “held in the first week of October every year.” Those you can take to the bank.
The rest don’t publish a rule at all. They just post dates. So I lined up several years of official dates for each one and found the pattern myself, which is what the “when it lands” column above is. It holds for every year the organizers have published, but it’s an observed pattern, not a promise from them. Check the official site before you book.
Two of those patterns are worth knowing because almost every article online gets them wrong:
Book on either of those wrong assumptions and you’ll arrive a week late to an empty town.
Rally attendance numbers are the most abused statistic in motorcycling. Most of the huge figures you’ve read trace back to nobody in particular. So here’s only what an official source actually publishes, and what each number really counts.
| Event | The published figure | Who says so, and what it counts |
|---|---|---|
| Sturgis | 537,459 vehicles (2025) | South Dakota DOT counters. Vehicles entering town, not people — see below. |
| Lone Star Rally | ~400,000 visitors, 150,000+ motorcycles | Visit Galveston’s estimate. No year or method given. |
| Myrtle Beach Spring Rally | “more than 300,000 visitors” | The rally’s own claim. No year or method given. |
| Americade | ~2,000 (1983) → nearly 10,000 (1986) | Americade’s own history page. Its homepage separately claims 100,000 today. |
| Daytona, Biketoberfest, Laconia | Not published | No official figure exists. The “500,000” you’ve seen has no city, county or chamber behind it. |
Laconia calls itself “The World’s Oldest Motorcycle Rally,” and the City of Laconia backs it: “the oldest national bike rally in the United States.” Big claims. This one survives a poke.
Riders first gathered at Weirs Beach in 1916, and the first official Gypsy Tour ran there in 1917. From 1917 to 2026 there are 110 annual slots. The rally states that seven years were lost to national and world events. Take seven from 110 and you get 103 — which is exactly the number Laconia put on its 2026 event. The arithmetic closes, which is more than most heritage claims manage.
Sturgis, for its part, doesn’t compete on age. It says only “since 1938” — the year the Jackpine Gypsies hosted the first AMA-sanctioned race in town, with riders camping in Pappy and Pearl Hoel’s backyard. Daytona goes back further still, to the first Daytona 200 on January 24, 1937, won by Ed Kretz on an Indian at 73.34 mph.
The rallies are the pilgrimage. The local stuff is the lifeblood, and it’s everywhere once you know where to look.
Bike nights. Almost every riding town has one — a diner, a dealership, a parking lot that fills with bikes on a set night of the week. Ours is the Friday night meet at Bob’s Big Boy in Burbank, a tradition older than most of the bikes in it. Ask at your local dealership or gear shop; somebody there knows where everyone goes.
Charity and poker runs. Weekend group rides for a cause, usually open to everyone and usually the friendliest crowd in riding. Dealerships and riding clubs post these on their boards and social pages.
Demo days and shows. Manufacturers tour demo fleets through dealerships all riding season, which is a free way to ride bikes you’re curious about. Follow your local dealers and you’ll catch them.
And the rides themselves. Event calendars go stale. The freshest list of what’s happening near you is riders posting rides right now, which is exactly what the RideWolf app shows you. Group rides near you, posted by the people riding them, updating in real time. No calendar to maintain, no listings from last year.
RideWolf is a free iOS app for finding group rides near you and building your own routes. The events section that never goes out of date.
You’re on the list — we’ll be in touch. Now go ride.
Sturgis, by the only figure anyone actually measures. South Dakota’s DOT counted 537,459 vehicles entering Sturgis across the ten days of the 2025 rally. That counts vehicles at nine monitoring points rather than people, so it is not an attendance number, but it is the best-documented figure in rallying.
August 6–15, 2027, the 87th rally. Sturgis has published its dates through 2030: August 4–13 in 2028, August 3–12 in 2029, and August 2–11 in 2030. The rally consistently opens on the first Friday in August and runs ten days.
March 5–14, 2027, the 86th running. Note that Bike Week does not always fall in the first week of March: it runs ten days ending on the second Sunday of the month, so it can start in February. In 2026 it opened on February 27.
Laconia Motorcycle Week in New Hampshire, which calls itself the world’s oldest. Riders first gathered at Weirs Beach in 1916 and the first official Gypsy Tour ran in 1917. The rally reports seven years lost to national and world events, which is why 2026 was the 103rd rather than the 110th.
As early as you can for lodging, because rally towns sell out months ahead and rates climb. Five majors have already confirmed 2027 dates, and Sturgis has published through 2030, so there is nothing stopping you booking a year or more out.
Start with your local dealership or gear shop, which will know the weekly bike night and any charity or poker runs. Manufacturer demo days tour dealerships through the riding season. For rides happening this weekend, the RideWolf app shows group rides posted by the riders running them.
My first big gathering was pulling up to Neptune’s Net and seeing a hundred bikes I didn’t know. Intimidating for about four minutes — then somebody asked about the Night Train and that was that. I haven’t made most of the rallies on this page yet. They’re on the list, same as they’re probably on yours. Events are just group rides with more parking. Go to one.
— Johnny, founder of RideWolf
