Tens of thousands of people will eat, drink, and look at bikes this weekend for Cape Coral's last bike night of the season.
Vendors, like Soul Rebel Cycles, are revving up their engines for another year at bike night in Cape Coral.
"We've been going since, I think, 2011," said Soul Rebels Cycle co-owner Chad Maltby.
Maltby and his co-owner, Erik Abraham, said the first couple of years were a heck of a ride, but the fun has slowed down recently.
"We used to be on the street," Abraham said. "It wasn't in the parking lot. We'd have a booth that was like the length of our building."
This year, the event is restricted to the parking lot along SE 47th Terrace and bikers aren’t allowed to line the street anymore. Instead, they have to park off of SE 46th Lane, in an area known as the “thunder zone."
"I wish they would allow bike night to be more bike-friendly," Abraham said.
Cape Coral Police Chief Anthony Sizemore said the only way for bikers and pedestrians to stay friendly is by evolving.
"The main thing is to keep people and pedestrians on foot from intermixing with moving vehicles," Sizemore said. "That's really where the damage or danger could come in."
The SE 47th terrace streetscape project made the road more narrow. so there’s less space for both bikes and pedestrians.
"These changes were implemented even before the New Year's Day tragedy in New Orleans, but it really highlighted the fact that we have to have control over access vehicular access to large events where there's a lot of people," he said.
While the changes aren’t Maltby's favorite, he still plans to be a vendor for many years to come.
"It's changed a lot among the years, but we still enjoy it," he said. "There's a lot of people that come down there."
Chief Sizemore said they will continue making tweaks as the city grows. They have doubled their police presence from 10 to 20 officers. Bike night is Saturday from 5-10 p.m.