By MARGIE TRAX PAGE - Staff Writer - mtrax@starbeacon.com
GENEVA-ON-THE-LAKE — There is something about Lake Road that calls to Dwayne Bennett.
Riding down the ribbon of asphalt perched just above the Lake Erie shoreline, Bennett spends a lot of hours at Geneva-on-the-Lake, greeting old friends and making new acquaintances, and fixing the motorcycles of people just passing through.
Now Bennett’s business, Goblin Custom Cycles, will have a summer home in the village, as Bennett was the high bidder for Old Village Hall at the public auction, Tuesday.
“I’m pretty excited about it,” Bennett said. “I’m looking to put Goblin up there for the summer months — open up a spot on The Strip just for bikes.”
Bennett said he plans to run both shops in the summer, but the Route 20 shop year-round. Bennett said his custom cycle shop on Route 20 in Geneva already gets a lot of business from the village, especially when a biker gets a flat tire or has a small mechanical problem on the road.
“We get calls — a lot of calls — to come up to the lake and trailer bikes to the shop in Geneva for a flat tire or something small. Now, we’ll be right there,” he said.
The shop will include small repairs, tire sales, some parts and a retail store, Bennett said.
“We’ll start out small. I don’t want to get real crazy right off the bat, but there are some cosmetic things that need to be done (to the building) to get it ready. So we’ll start with that,” he said.
Bennett also is an organizer of Thunder on the Strip, a motorcycle rally and “mini Sturgis” on the lake.
Thunder on the Strip will return to Geneva-on-the-Lake Sept. 5, 6 and 7, and the Arts and Entertainment Network will be there to film Rhett “Rotten” Giordano and his Wall of Death, event organizer Anthony Delia II said.
“The Wall of Death is a really unique attraction that has been around for more than 80 years,” Delia said.
In his Wall of Death stunt, Giordano rides a vintage motorcycle around a huge vintage wooden barrel at 50 mph.
A&E; will follow Giordano on his cross-country tour this year and will film his show at Thunder on the Strip, Delia said.
The rally attracted more than 4,000 people last year, even though it rained the entire weekend.
“We are looking to bring even more people to the village this year,” Bennett said. “It wouldn’t surprise me if we reached 20,000 or more, in coming years.”
