Love Ride to continue in 2010 as a ‘half’ event

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In the 25 years it was functioning, the Love Ride raised $22 million for various charities. Now the annual motorcycle rally that began in 1983, drawing as many as 18,000 riders and raising as much as $1.7 million per event, may be holding a charity event for itself.

Today, Love Ride founder Oliver Shokouh announced Love Ride 26-1/2 – a no-ride replacement event for the longstanding local motorcycle to-do that went on an economy-induced hiatus last year. In 2009, the annual biker pilgrimage was scaled back from a group ride and three-day rally at the Pomona Fairplex to a more sedate and stationary event in the Harley-Davidson of Glendale parking lot.

Instead of thundering through the streets on two wheels, the 2010 Love Ride 26-1/2 is again being downsized – this time to a one-day Biker’s Carnival that will feature what Shokouh is calling ‘mature games’ and a barbecue.

‘A lot of people are questioning whether the Love Ride is going to go on, and we’re really delighted and flattered by the fact that people want it to come back. We thought if we did this and promoted it as a half-ride or as an interim Band-Aid to the real ride, it would maybe be a springboard for the return of the Love Ride,’ said Shokouh, who hasn’t yet determined what a 2011 Love Ride 27 will look like.

The one-day Biker’s Carnival that will serve as Love Ride 26-1/2 is a ‘retro’ version of the ride, which began as a two-wheeled carnie event in 1981 before evolving into the fundraiser that, for years, took ever-growing numbers of riders out to Castaic Lake and put ever larger amounts of cash into the pockets of charities such as Autism Speaks and the Muscular Dystrophy Assn. until 2007, when the event changed venues and the economy crashed.

The Biker’s Carnival is an effort ‘to play it real safe,’ Shokouh said. ‘The fact that we didn’t have the Love Ride last year was a real drain on us emotionally and also financially,’ said Shokouh, who canceled last year’s ride just a few weeks before it was supposed to take place, having struggled to recruit vendors, sponsors and attendees, all of which were down at least 50% from previous years.

The 2009 parking-lot version of the Love Ride didn’t raise any funds for charity. Instead, it lost money, despite many participating riders’ donations of their registration monies. About 3,000 people showed up for Love Ride 26, and just 35% of the merchandise that had been created for the event was sold. Attendees of Love Ride 26-1/2 can expect the same T-shirts they saw last year, only re-silkscreened with a ‘1/2’ after the ’26.’

Like last year, Shokouh doesn’t anticipate raising funds for charity with this year’s event. But, he said, if 26-1/2 draws the 1,500 riders he’s hoping and raises enough seed money for a true Love Ride 27, anything extra will be donated.

‘Two wrongs doesn’t always make a right,’ said Shokouh, ‘but maybe two no-rides will make a ride.’

-- Susan Carpenter