The decade's 1st Friday the 13th motorcycle rally arrives in Port Dover this week

Motorcyclists gathering in Port Dover for an "off season" rally on Friday aren't expecting a large event butNorfolk County Ontario Provincial Police thinks otherwise.

The OPP are warning locals of increased motorcycle traffic in the region and are asking motorists to be extra cautious, especially with signalling turns and checking blind spots.

"As motorcyclist enthusiasts descend on Port Dover, there will be an increase in motorcycle traffic and the OPP is asking all drivers to take those two extra seconds before making a lane change or proceeding through an intersection," inspector Joseph Varga of the Norfolk County OPP said in a press release. "Those two seconds can make the difference between life and death."

According to the official website for the 2020 event, no road closures or organized camping have been planned and there's no special parking requirements in place. A few vendors will set up shop in the Elmer Lewis Parkette on Main Street.

This week's event is the first one of the new decade, but the Port Dover meetup has taken place since 1981 whenever a Friday the 13th arrives. In recent years, thousands of motorcyclists from across Ontario and the United States have joined, with an estimated 200,000 arriving for the July 2018 edition.

This year will see two rallies: one on Friday and another in November. The last rally took place in December 2019 and the next summer rally which tendto see larger turnouts falls in August 2021.

For the upcoming event, motorists can expect a temperature of five degrees and cloud coverage with a chance of rain.