Every Thursday night for the past several weeks, Original Mike's Restaurant–the Santa Ana comfort food spot owned by mega-downtown developer Mike Harrah–has hosted a “Bike Night” gathering of sports, touring and cruising motorcycles, their riders and their lovers.
This Thursday's gathering will be a little different, however.
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Fathers Day was Sunday, every day is Youth Day, but June 24 is the Fathers Day and Youth Bike Night at Original Mike's.
The restaurant teams up with Youth Road Racing USA to host the event promoting kids racing motorcycles and being safe while doing so.
Without the kid bent, the event was already drawing a healthy 500 people, but Harrah was apparently looking for a way to make it more family friendly.
Enter Youth Road Racing USA, which promotes up and coming youth riders, proper safety gear for youth road racing and tips for getting all members of a young rider's family involved in the sport.
“We are so excited to work with Original Mike's,” says Josiah Taulbee, Youth Road Racing USA founder and SCminiGP president, in a
statement promoting the event. “The people that organize the event do a great job at taking your traditional bike night and putting a new twist on it to make it more of a real event than just a bunch of sport bikes showing up.
“I can't wait to bring our element to the night and showcase up and coming StepUp riders. We'll have real race bikes on display and be talking about of the gear available for any youth road racer or riding passengers.”
“Our restaurant prides itself on being a great outlet to the community,” Harrah says in the same statement. “This bike night has allowed us to give back and with so many people coming from our local community and from far away, it make us feel good we can provide such a positive environment for motorcycle enthusiast.
“We look forward to this youth focused event, where families can join us in celebrating what it means to ride a motorcycle . . . safely!”
His joint is located at:
100 Main St. (First and Main) in
Santa Ana. Call (714) 550-7764 for more details.
As the kids ogle the bikes, check out the saddles around the bar.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.