The Panhandlers Motorcycle Club’s two big summer events are coming up this weekend.
The rodeo begins at noon Saturday at the Panhandlers’ Club House on Engineers Cutoff Road, where riders will demonstrate their skills with a series of competitions. Anyone with a Harley-Davidson motorcycle can participate in the competition.
With the exception of children and dogs, everyone is welcome to watch.
The events test a variety of skills. There’s Lancelot, a fresh take on medieval jousting that is intended to test a rider’s ability to control their motorcycle with one hand and a locked throttle. The slow race tests balance. In the keg push, riders try to push a beer keg straight ahead with their front wheel. The pub crawl is a medley of multiple events that include riding, shooting, ax throwing and a little beer. The event is intended to test a rider’s ability to quickly get off their motorcycle, help a fellow rider with a problem and get back on the road.
Panhandlers at the 2015 rodeo demonstrate some of the events in this video:
“We like to test our individual skills,” said Craig Fowler, president of the Panhandlers. “Because if you can master the skills that we have here when you’re on the road and someone pulls out in front of you, you don’t run into them.”
The rodeo will be followed the next day with the annual toy run to round up stuffed animals for children at Bartlett Regional Hospital, Juneau.
“People around the community have helped us so much. With open arms, they welcome the toy run,” Fowler said. “If you have a kid that goes into the hospital or in an ambulance and has any kind of fear, they say ‘What do you like? You like Barney? You like dinosaurs?’ We always stockpile them every year.”
The toy run begins at 1 p.m. Sunday with the motorcycle lineup at Donna’s Restaurant parking lot, 9131 Glacier Highway, in the Mendenhall Valley.
Riders will likely proceed to downtown Juneau before ending at the Douglas Fire Hall. There, ribs and pulled pork sandwiches will be served up from 2 to 4 p.m. The public can join in with a $10 cash donation, or a new stuffed toy worth at least $10.
Stuffed toys can also be dropped off at Louie’s Douglas Inn, 915 3rd St., Douglas, or the Triangle Club Bar, 251 Front St., downtown Juneau.
