All right How About a Report

[highrider]

Ok, it is keeping us in suspense, lets have some feedback on how the past 10days were.
Size of crowd, bike shows, events , celebrities and a general what did I miss this year!

Inquiring Jealous SOBs want to kow!

[ginger]

a very small rally to say the least. traffic was not bad at all, and never did get backed up on the two main roads. as far as i know, so far only 4 offical rally deaths, one was caused by a deer. but very small. we went down town several times, one of them being the last saturday night and it was dead. you could walk up and down main street with out elbow to elbow and it was pretty much like that all week

[lionsm13]

Yep; It was very tolerable for a change. Nice weather mostly; Best day was on this past saturday. Very pleasant, and great for cruising. I suppose that the crowds are/were down to due to the gas prices, but definately seen some high rollers there. Lots of $$$ to be sure.

[compressor#v]

Laughlin River Run was reported the same, year after the shootings between the clubs. Don't know if that had anything to do with it.

[KBOlsen]

Weather was 90's during the day but BEAUTIFUL at night. We had one hour of rain in between Sioux Falls and Mitchell on Friday afternoon. Were chased by a couple of storms on the way back but stayed dry. Hit Sturgis, Hill City, Lead and Deadwood (what a waste!), Custer SP, Needles, and up/down Spearfish Canyon (my favorite). Managed to avoid Rapid City entirely. Stayed in Spearfish in a house with 15 other people and only 2 bathrooms... hell, it was cheap and we were gone most of the time anyway. Took a few days out to see Little Big Horn and soak up the local history. Next year, we'll get our souvenir shopping done on the first day and then do MT/WY and points west. Other than that, the terrain was just as beautiful as I remembered and I can't wait to go back!

[jlloyd]

Stayed in hill city got wet on the ride out, did everthing but devils tower, picked girlfriend up at rapid city airport tuesday night she flew in on the same plan with the guys from velvet revolver got a good pic of her with slash, saw paul tuttle and the boys in hill city twice last week,weather was great never got wet all in all it was an awsome experience, best tee shirts seen " nice trailer *****" "my I.Q. test came back negative" i highly recomend the black hills area it was outstanding riding!! good trip all in all

[highrider]

What was the reaction at the Harley Exhibit in Rapid City with the 3 new models? Good, bad? Where the Teutals riding their new supposedly "Production" bikes? Lots of " Vacancy signs" posted?

[PR3VS56]

One-Eyed Jack's was a hit! Anyone else hit the Longhorn Saloon in Scenic (on the way to Badlands)?

For sure there were fewer in attendance which was great from a rider's perspective, but I felt bad for the exhibitors. Weather was near perfect with the exception of one bad rain storm leaving Yellowstone on Sunday (on the was to Sturgis). Actually there was on HUGE (golfball size hail) storm on I think Tuesday, but we were in Badlands & missed it.

The crowd at the Convention Center looking at new bikes was s-p-a-r-c-e. It was like, nobody cared. Picture a weekday visit to a weekend event.

Hullet was cool, Wall Drug was interesting (once was enough).

[Texas Tom]

Have nothing to go by as far as crowds since this was my first (wont be last) visit,did notice campgrounds had very few tents,expected more,also I would love to talk to the jerk who thought it would be great to ride the excursion suv on needles highway,you know who you are the one with the harley logo`s all over it,nice move jamming up everthing where was your bike?...OK rant over anyone who hasn`t done sturgis make plans it was awesome..Tom.

[Big MAK]

Sorry to hear about the rally shrinking. I hope to get there next year; was there in '80 as a teenager (lived in that area). Was pretty old-school biker rally then.

I hear now that the price gouging by the city of sturgis is driving eveyone out. I'd also think that with all the activities at the campgrounds the downtown crowd would get sparse. Add to that all the good vendors leaving town and setting up in Rapid or elsewhere...

The city needs to lighten up the fees and get some headliner bands in town or the 'rally' part of Stugis is going to die off and it'll just be a biker party at the campgrounds and the rally will fade away.

just my from reading stuff; no first hand experience so could be totally wrong. I'd hate to see it keep fading.

No matter what that's beautiful country to ride.

[Steelhorse]

First time there, 2900 miles in all. Had a great time and even stayed dry (from the rain). It's hard to justify paying $4.00 for a can of beer in Sturgis, good way to stay sober! We stayed in town, about 6 blocks from Main Street. So at night we just walked into town. Plan on going back........

[djdemarce]

A few notes about the trip:

From my trip log:

Total Miles = 2283
Gallons used = 52.692
Avg MPG = 43.33
Cost of gas used = $166.39
Avg cost per gallon = $3.178

About the comments about price gouging:

I bought a round of drinks at the VFW in Deadwood, 3 beers and 2 sodas; Total cost for round = $6.50 ( $1.50 for the beers and $1.00 for the pops) I almost felt like I was stealing from them. They got a nice tip!

DJ

[rc2004]

first timer here , all in all the week was great for us. great weather , great riding and the crowds were bearable.
I must agree that $4.00 a beer no matter where you were at (sturgis, keystone,hewlett, ectt..... ) was a bit much to take day after day. I suppose it kept many from drinking too much. and the streets were a bit safer.
I put a little over 3400 miles on the bike and would make the haul again in a minute.
Most surprising thing for me was the fact that all the little towns around sturgis were just as full of people.

Mike

[tmd11111]

Olny $4.00 for a beer. I got ripped off then cause at the Full Throttle Saloon it was $4.50

[razorsedge]

My first time to Sturgis too. I'm with you bro...one of those aluminum long neck bottle of beers at Full Throttle was $5.50. So...I had ONE. Honest opinion of the Full Throttle is its a freaking dump. Does everyone actually realize that this is an outdoor saloon? Its made up of multi-level wood decks and has a big stage up front with vendors all around it. I expected so much more. Anyway..... Total miles on my bike was right at 2600. The actual "city" of STRUGIS is over rated, at least thats my opinion. Its really just a bunch of vendors selling their normal biker apperal. The best part of downtown Sturgis was checking out all the bikes and people watching.

My favorite things you ask? Spearfish Canyon is cooler than chit! Riding the Black Hills in the early morning will give you the goosebumps and I loved the road leading to Mount Rushmore, those tunnels (roadway) carved thru the rocks (mountain) was way cool! I thought Deadwood had so much more to offer than Sturgis, hell, even Hill city was better than Sturgis in my opinion.

Weather was bearable, but hot. The evenings were awesome. Babes? Yeah there were quite a few. I put them in 2 catagories....Biker Chicks and Harley Babes...to each his own. I did not visit the Buffalo Chip or Glencoe, I heard that those place got pretty wild. So I think that what the other peep said about the party moving from Sturgis to the campgrounds is spot on. There was at least 2 if not 4 Sturgis police officers at every intersection. No wonder attendence was down and things were much clamer than what I have heard about in the past in Sturgis.

South Dakota is a beautiful place to ride, no question about it. If you haven't done it, don't be a wanna be, or a shoulda done it person. Do it once and experience it. I can now say I have been there and I rode mine. I won't be back anytime soon. There are more rallies to my liking down south.

Favorite t-shirt... "I rode mine to trailer week"

peace--