2Wheel Tuner and Cycle Shoe International came together to present the East Coast Custom Motorcycle Show during Myrtle Beach Black Bike Week. Black Bike Week is already an event in itself, but 2WT brought everything together at the convention center. There were builders, retailers, manufacturers, and more. And the bikes: completely unlike your average west coast bike night crowd, the machines that folks rode in on covered the whole range from stock to cover-worthy.
 Several things stand out in my memory. One, almost no one wears gear. No helmets, no jackets, sometimes even less. It's funny to see a whole bunch of folks ride out with J.B. and you can find Jason in the crowd real easy…just look for the helmet! I was thinking it was going to be super humid, but the weather was a peach, so no excuses there! Since we're talking about Britton, give the man some room every once in a while! It's amazing the mobs that can't wait to meet him.
But barring that, it's amazing to see the levels to which each rider takes their bike. A few years ago, it was enough to do some paint and chrome, but this year there were some wild customs to be seen before you even got out of the parking lot. Whether we're leading the industry, or whether we simply have our fingers closest to the pulse is secondary. 2Wheel Tuner was out in force among the riders and readers of our aftermarket sportbike world. It's a big ego boost when I saw first-hand the bikes that have appeared in our pages. I could walk around just pointing to cover bikes, "there's January, there's April, isn't that last November?"
 The other major point I took home was the overwhelming club presence. Nowhere else have I seen the community aspect of our sport represented as strongly than at Myrtle Beach. Back home, there is often a divisive attitude: you don't ride mytype of bike, you don't get the type of riding I do, so on and so forth. At Myrtle, everyone stopped to check out what rolled in. It didn't matter what type of bike it was or who was riding it. It was amazing to see. That being said, I did find at least one bad apple. Waiting in line at Dre's BBQ (stellar, by the way), some douche splattered ketchup all over me, and then denied doing it. Quality, that is. Anyway, it was good to hang out with Orji for the weekend and talk shop. If you have the chance to meet up with our club columnist at an event or wherever, stop and chat.
 Just because the land's a bit flat compared to the relatively mountainous west coast doesn't mean that folks don't have fun back east. Drag race-worthy machines were everywhere. The long swingarm may be stylish, but bolt on a turbo and inject some N2O, and the landscape starts to blur! Judging by the bikes ripping down the roads, there was some seriously quick machinery present. But what's with the noise? At one point, I'm watching the hotel TV as it describes the city noise regs of Myrtle Beach while every single one of them was being violated (brutally) just outside the windows. Myrtle Beach is like the snuff film of noise abatement law. Going back to the gear issue, apparently the blurred scenery caused a few "incidents." I know S.C. has no helmet law, but it'd be nice to see more protective apparel out there all the same. Wear gear people!
 And, of course, since the whole bike week is one big party, we had to represent when the sun went down. I'd never call names out, but let's just say that people got to know people, and that a few folks did their part to support Russian foreign exchange "students." Don't think anyone involved had a bad time, though.
East and west are entirely different environments for riders, but it doesn't make either side stand out as better or worse. It just depends on what you like and how you ride. And it was awesome to be able to get and see how the other half rolls. More importantly, I got to see yet another part of the world that our sport comprises. Good times!
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