Thursday marked the 20th annual Bike Bash at Gilly's Pub 44, and the Bike Week event was expected to draw as many of 35,000 people into the pub throughout the day. Each year, Aguiar buys the bike and revs the engine all day until it blows up.
Patrons can then purchase tickets to take aim at the machine with a sledgehammer.
Proceeds raised go to charity. But for many people in town to celebrate Bike Week, the event also brings back memories of their own bashes and crashes on motorcycles. Interviews with patrons at Pub 44 Thursday revealed some of their stories. In fact, he knows precisely when it happened. I laid it down almost under a train once.