Havre's Tip-It Bar hosts Burning Bike Rally Saturday

Warrior Creed Veteran’s Motorcycle Club will be having its annual Burning Bike Rally Saturday, July 24, hosted by Tip-It Bar in Havre with all proceeds benefiting K-9 Care Montana Inc.

Club member and event organizer Ron Fanning said K-9 Care Montana provides service dogs for wounded veterans, kids with autism, and now includes first responders.

Fanning said he served in the U.S. Army for 38 years and he and other club members went to Iraq together. He said originally the club would donate to help send World War II veterans on Honor Flights.

Fanning said the club transitioned to donating to K-9 Care Montana because there weren’t enough surviving World War II veterans for Honor Flights.

The motorcycle club’s website says the club is a non-profit fraternal organization providing a continued brotherhood and support for all military veterans who have served honorably or are currently serving in the Armed Forces of any NATO force country.

The site says club membership is comprised of “active duty, retired, reservists, National Guard or Coast Guard veterans who have served their respective country.”

Fanning said the rally has taken place each year for about five years, with the exception of last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He said the event was started in conjunction with Roadhouse Bar in Chester before being moved to Havre.

The event includes a free-will donation breakfast provided by Tip-It Bar. Registration for a poker run will be at Tip-It Bar at 9 a.m. with a flyer saying the run starts at 10 a.m. Fanning said riders will have a police escort through town between 10:15 and 10:30 a.m.

The poker run route includes Spencer’s Hi-Way Bar in Hingham and Roadhouse Bar in Chester. Riders will stop for lunch at Sugar Shack in Rudyard before moving on to Fresno Tavern and Havre’s Old Station Brewing Company before riders head back to Tip-It Bar.

Once back at Tip-It Bar, winners of poker hands will be announced. There will also be a Hi/Low 50/50 Drawing and a live auction. A bike rodeo will be held at 2 p.m.

“We got bike rodeo, which consists of different events on motorcycles—a balance beam ride where you have like two by sixes, and they have to stay on the two by six the whole way and then if they fall off, then you eliminate them and you add another plank and you do it again until you’re down to one person,” Fanning said.

“Then there’s washer jousting. You have a partner on your bike and you have to poke a pool cue through a big washer. It’s kind of funny,” he added.

As far as the main attraction goes, Fanning said there will be a wooden bike but it cannot actually be burned this year due to ongoing fire restrictions.

“They won’t let us burn a bike this year. So we’ll still have a bike and we’re gonna come up with some way, like lights or an effect, so It looks like it’s burning, but it’s not really burning,” Fanning said.

Tip-It Bar is located at 1315 Third St. North in Havre.