River Run riders return

Jen Lawson

Thursday, April 24, 2003 | 11:14 a.m.

LAUGHLIN -- When Jim Hartnett of Illinois rolled up to a vending booth on his $60,000 custom-built motorcycle, a small crowd gathered.

"That's a bike and a half!" a man shouted as he stared at Hartnett's purple and yellow, 900-horsepower bike.

Hartnett and seven friends decided to come to the 21st annual Laughlin River Run, a five-day motorcycle rally, after hearing about last year's brawl between motorcycle gangs that left three people dead on Harrah's casino floor.

"It made us want to come more," Hartnett said after paying $20 to have a woman in an animal-print bikini pose next to his bike. "We thought there will be action and excitement, and we wanted to check it out."

After the violence last year, Metro Police have stepped up police presence at the River Run, sending about 300 uniformed officers and 200 undercover officers to the event, with most working swing shift.

On Wednesday afternoon, the first day, Officer Jose Montoya said the only thing officers had encountered was a stolen motorcycle.

Sobriety checkpoints were set up and officers were checking driver's licenses and vehicle registrations. Hartnett said he didn't mind.

"It's like a 9-11 thing," he said. "You have to do it."

His friend, John Dodson, 52, said "A handful of people screwed up last year. The idea is just for us to have a good time and be with our friends."

Some attendees noted that in past years, hordes of motorcyclists rumbled into Laughlin on the first day. This year dozens of Metro cruisers were seen heading into town Wednesday evening.

"Usually you see all these motorcycles coming down the street," Billie Jones of Bullhead City said, gesturing toward Casino Drive, the town's main drag. Attendance on the streets and at the vending areas set up in the casino parking lots seemed lighter than last year, he said.

Even so, the air was filled with the smell of exhaust fumes and a constant sound of rumbling motorcycle engines could be heard all afternoon.

His friend, Kristen Moeller of Bullhead City, said people might be staying away because of last year's melee, even though she didn't think any major violence would occur this year.

"I hope not, but you can never predict what will happen," she said.

Jones, wearing a tangle of Mardi Gras beads, a cowboy hat and no shirt, held up his videocamera and said: "I'm armed and ready in case anything happens. I don't think anything will."

Men wearing leather vests and motorcycle T-shirts and women in short shorts milled around the vending area outside the Riverside Casino, sipping beer from plastic cups and checking out vending booths selling fringed lambskin halter tops, Harley-Davidson toilet seat covers and River Run souvenirs.

Joe Say, owner of Mistress Motorcycle Kits, was displaying his customized motorcycles at a vending booth. He said he has attended the River Run for several years and wasn't worried about violence this year. "People get murdered in our neighborhood every night," the Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., resident said. "This is just average, everyday people having a good time.

"Biking is a lifestyle. It's about freedom. Riding from L.A. to here, you can clear your whole mind."

A customized motorcycle at Say's booth was attracting a lot of attention: It was designed to look like a lingerie-clad blond woman leaning forward on a motorcycle, with her head on the front of the bike and the seat where her back would be.

"I've always seen beautiful women on the backs of bikes, so I thought, why not make a bike that's a woman?" Say said. "She's the mistress. She likes to go fast."