 lot of motorcycle events have come and gone through the years. Three that date back before World War II that stand out as the grand daddies of the sport are Daytona, Laconia and the Sturgis Rally, held annually in the Black Hills of South Dakota. This past August, it was time for the 66th Sturgis Rally with over 500,000 motorcycle riders expected to attend. I was more than happy to accept an invitation from Bill Gikling, owner of Black Hills Powersports and former owner of Black Hills Harley-Davidson, to be his guest for the week.
Bill didn’t want to just put a roof over my head for the week either…he wanted me to see first-hand why he considers Sturgis the premier motorcycle rally in the world. Yes, a good rally needs to have things for people to do when they are off their bikes. People like to check out the latest custom bikes, buy a souvenir t-shirt or two, listen to top name rock bands at night and chow down a pancake breakfast in the morning. And Sturgis has all that. But what really sets the Sturgis Rally apart is the riding.
“The key to a successful rally,” says Bill, “is that you have to keep the wheels turning. When people come to Sturgis, some of them will log over a thousand miles for the week.” And he wasn’t kidding. Even with all the events I needed to cover for the magazine, I rode 600 miles following Bill around on his usual routes.
It was a great week. A little hot a times, and a little wet at times. But nothing ever seemed to dampen the spirits of the riders. Some people estimated that the crowds were down a bit this year, but I don’t know how you could tell. The streets and highways were jammed up all week, and vendors didn’t look like they could handle many more people.
In our next issue we’ll have more photos rolling in from others who were there this year, but here’s my report of an event the motorcycle sport and industry should be very proud of.
A great 200+ mile ride took us from Rapid City west over to the Devils Tower National Park in Wyoming. We then looped back through Sturgis to check out some of the motorcycle displays.
|
Mount Rushmore is a must-stop when you are in the Black Hills. Instead of just riding back down the way you came up, if you continue around on the Highway 244 you get this unique profile view of the famous carvings.
|
If you get there early you can park your bike along Main Street. Once it’s filled, though, you can cruise up and down for a long time finding an empty spot. Those lucky enough to find one like to hang around and talk to their “neighbors.”
|
Another fun ride was riding east over to Wall, South Dakota via the Badlands National Park. The Wall Drug store is a great destination. It includes many gift shops and exhibitions dating back through the store’s early days.
|
The Full Throttle Saloon is just one of the many biker hangouts that had the “whole package” of popular entertainment features. Others included the Thunder Road, Buffalo Chip campground, Top 50 Rally Park and the Glencoe Campground and amphitheater.
|
Rapid City is approximately 20 miles south of Sturgis, but Black Hills Harley-Davidson is one of the key stops for all Sturgis Rally attendees. Drag Specialties was one of many aftermarket companies invited to set up a display in the parking lot.
|
Tim Festerer (left) and Bob Cashwell of Drag Specialties manned the Drag exhibit at Black Hills Harley-Davidson. Tim is the builder of the great FatBook Dresser project bike featured on page 38 of this issue. Check it out.
|
Nobody works motorcycle rallies any harder than the guys at Memphis Shades. They love to show riders of any bike how easy it is to install a Memphis Shades windshield.
|
Drag Specialties had a second exhibit truck and crew working on the lot of J&P Cycles on Lazelle Street. People love to check out the FatBook project bikes on display.
|
Down on Lazelle Street in Sturgis, Drag Specialties vendors such as Samson Exhaust and Baker Drive Train show off their wares.
|
The AMD World Championship of Custom Bike Building was held at the Strokers Sturgis Thunderdome on Highway 34. It was previously held in Las Vegas, but AMD announced that Sturgis will be the event’s new permanent home.
|
A Rick Fairless custom bike is not too hard to recognize. It was just one of many great looking customs on display for the enjoyment of attendees to the AMD competition.
|
Builders went all out in the AMD World Championship of Custom Bike Building. This has to be one of most unique “V-8s” you’ll ever see.
|
Young custom builder Roland Sands (middle group on the right) shows off one of his latest creations, a 1920s-looking racer built around a modern 5-cylinder Team Roberts MotoGP engine. It drew quite a crowd when he started it up.
|
Another one of the young guns of custom building on hand at Sturgis was Jesse Rooke. One of his trademark designs is the bicycle-looking front ends on his custom projects.
|
A new feature at this year’s Sturgis Rally was Jesse Jurrens’ Top 50 Rally Park in between Sturgis and Rapid City. His exhibits included both motorcycles and Hot Rod cars. Jurrens is well known for his Legend Air line of custom motorcycle products.
|
The Hamsters Motorcycle Club had a reserved parking location at the Top 50 Rally park which almost was a show of its own.
|
Jurrens (middle) poses with two of the top custom builder in the business after the taping of a Discovery Channel Biker Build-off competition. On the left is Dave Perewitz and on the right is Paul Yaffe.
|
Metzeler Tires moved its annual custom bike show and competition to Thunder Road. There were many classes to be won, but the overall prize includes the builder being featured in a Metzeler ad for 2007.
|
More than one custom bike seen in the competitions at Sturgis included televisions mounted on the gas tank. But where are the popcorn and soda holders?
|
After raising $500,000 last year, the 2nd annual Kids & Chrome banquet in nearby Spearfish was one of the highpoints of the 2006 Sturgis Rally. Proceeds benefit the Children’s Care Hospital & School as well as the Sturgis Motorcycle Museum and Hall of Fame.
|
Builder Billy Lane (right) held his own fundraiser breakfast a few days before the event and then presented a check at the banquet for over $11,000 to Kids & Chrome.
|
Grady Pfiefer of the Hamsters Motorcycle Club announces their generous $40,000 donation to Kids & Chrome following a fundraiser auction at this year’s Hamsters annual meeting.
|
A large number of motorcycle collectibles were for sale at the banquet to raise funds. Some were sold in the pre-banquet reception silent auction and others, like this Scott Jacobs painting of Jay Springsteen, were auctioned during the banquet. The framed 52x36 Jacobs’ canvas giclée went for $10,500.
|
Kids & Chrome emcee Ted Sands of Performance Machine accepts the winning ticket for one of the two raffle bikes from one of the kids in the care of Children’s Care Hospital & School.
|
Editor’s note: at press time, we did not yet have the total amount raised from the banquet. We will report any further details in our next issue. For additional information on the 2006 Kids & Chrome and/or next year’s banquet, go online to: http://www.kidsandchrome.com. |
