MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. --

The Horry County Chapter of ABATE has responded to the Myrtle Beach Harley-Davidson dealership's decision to change the dates of the spring bike rally.

ABATE has been a longtime supporter of the rally. They released this official statement to News13 this afternoon.

"We feel that the decision to extend the dates of the spring rally to overlap with Memorial weekend is a bad decision on the part of Phil Schoonover. The Horry County Chapter of ABATE is officially calling for a boycott of all the dealerships and clothing outlets that are owned by Phil Schoonover, and we hope that the biker community as a whole will come together with us on this boycott until such time as Mr. Schoonover retracts his plan of the over lapping dates he has proposed for this year.

We feel that this is just a slap in the face towards the county council, and that this is one mans decision!! This is not the general opinion of the larger part of the biker community. Because of this one man's decision, we have heard that the county council is considering pulling all permits for this year. We respectfully ask the council to reconsider this action. It would be very detrimental to the business community and may very well force some of the smaller mom & pop business's to close their doors due to the lack of income that they depend on during the bike rally.

Read more: http://www2.scnow.com/news/grand-strand/2012/feb/02/horry-county-ab...