Sturgis Bound!
A motorcycle enthusiast and South Dakota native returns to her home state for the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.
By: Elinor Nauen | Source: AARP.org | Date Posted: 2008-07-31
AARP sent New York-based writer Elinor Nauen back to her homeland of South Dakota to follow the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally with daily reports and photos. Check back each day to see what wild and wonderful things she and Sturgis attendees are up to at this annual event! And be sure to visit Elinor in the Online Community.
Are you a motorcycle rider? Are you attending Sturgis, or have you attended in the past? Share your stories and photos in the Riders USA group in our Online Community.
Born to Ride?
I love the Black Hills. I grew up in eastern South Dakota (“East River,” we call it) and like all South Dakotans, my family vacationed in the Hills. We went to Deadwood’s Mt. Moriah Cemetery, where Wild Bill Hickock and Calamity Jane are buried. I’ve hiked in Spearfish Canyon, spotted mountain goats and bison in Custer State Park, climbed Bear Butte.
I’ve even been to Sturgis.
But I haven’t gone to Sturgis.
That is, I’ve been through the town of about 6,500 souls, but not to the motorcycle mecca it becomes when about half a million riders roll into town during the week of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally (this year, August 4–10), and swell the population of the entire state by 50 percent or more.
This year I’m going. And you’re coming with me.
I’m thrilled that I’ll be sharing the fun, the parties, the concerts (John Fogerty! KISS!), the Fake Orgasm Contest (Heaven, help me!). I’m maybe a little less thrilled to face the noise, dust, drunks, scary biker dudes, and Extreme Sport Fighting at the Knuckle Saloon.
Then again, I’ll probably be too busy to care. Among the dozens of daily activities, I plan to attend a veterans tribute led by John McCain, visit the Sturgis Motorcycle Museum and Hall of Fame, and check out the Cowboy Red-Horseback quick draw shooting exhibition.
I’m hoping to find out why these hundreds of thousands of people go. I’m particularly interested in why people over 50—who might seem like they should know better—are still growling down the road. Aren’t motorcycles, like drugs and casual sex, a young person’s game, best indulged when we still think we’re immortal? What spurs so many of us over 50 to take up riding—in fact, the median age of new Harley owners is right around 47, according to Harley-Davidson. And around half the people who’ll be at Sturgis are AARP age, the mayor tells me.
Is Sturgis “spring break for 50-year-olds”—partying and admiring bikes, tattoos, and vistas? Or is it in some way a pilgrimage, with people hoping for transcendence a la Robert Pirsig’s huge best seller of 1974, "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" (described as “the most widely read philosophy book ever”)? Will someone who’s ambivalent about motorcycles enjoy the Rally or is it only for the hard-core?
I’m wondering if the economy or the price of gas will affect attendance. Is that most American of pursuits, the road trip, endangered? Or will even more people turn to biking when they calculate the difference between 15 or 20 miles to the gallon in a car versus up to 60, 70, or more on a bike?
I want to find out how the rally developed from its beginnings in 1938 with a handful of attendees to its vast numbers today. By the way, last year, those half-million people spent nearly $12 million, took out 79 marriage licenses, made 289 emergency room visits, and left behind 615.9 tons of garbage.
Will I find anything to eat besides fried food, served shoulder to shoulder? Will I really track down my cousin, my high-school girlfriend, my brother-in-law’s brother—all of whom plan to roar into the area that week?
“It’s a global event, a family reunion, two weeks of compacted activity, and guests come to our town to enjoy what we enjoy all year round,” says Sturgis Mayor Maury LaRue, who has been involved with the Rally since 1976. “And when can a town of 6,500 get KISS?” A rider since high school, LaRue will be leading the Mayor’s Ride (despite a hip replacement) on his Yamaha 400 cc motorscooter. “We get great help from the state Department of Transportation, to make sure traffic flows as smoothly as possible. Get to events safely and get home safely—those are our concerns.”
I expect joyous, chaotic, colorful fun as I head out on the highway. But perhaps it’s what I don’t anticipate that will turn out to be the real adventure.
I’ve even been to Sturgis.
But I haven’t gone to Sturgis.
That is, I’ve been through the town of about 6,500 souls, but not to the motorcycle mecca it becomes when about half a million riders roll into town during the week of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally (this year, August 4–10), and swell the population of the entire state by 50 percent or more.
This year I’m going. And you’re coming with me.
I’m thrilled that I’ll be sharing the fun, the parties, the concerts (John Fogerty! KISS!), the Fake Orgasm Contest (Heaven, help me!). I’m maybe a little less thrilled to face the noise, dust, drunks, scary biker dudes, and Extreme Sport Fighting at the Knuckle Saloon.
Then again, I’ll probably be too busy to care. Among the dozens of daily activities, I plan to attend a veterans tribute led by John McCain, visit the Sturgis Motorcycle Museum and Hall of Fame, and check out the Cowboy Red-Horseback quick draw shooting exhibition.
I’m hoping to find out why these hundreds of thousands of people go. I’m particularly interested in why people over 50—who might seem like they should know better—are still growling down the road. Aren’t motorcycles, like drugs and casual sex, a young person’s game, best indulged when we still think we’re immortal? What spurs so many of us over 50 to take up riding—in fact, the median age of new Harley owners is right around 47, according to Harley-Davidson. And around half the people who’ll be at Sturgis are AARP age, the mayor tells me.
Is Sturgis “spring break for 50-year-olds”—partying and admiring bikes, tattoos, and vistas? Or is it in some way a pilgrimage, with people hoping for transcendence a la Robert Pirsig’s huge best seller of 1974, "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" (described as “the most widely read philosophy book ever”)? Will someone who’s ambivalent about motorcycles enjoy the Rally or is it only for the hard-core?
I’m wondering if the economy or the price of gas will affect attendance. Is that most American of pursuits, the road trip, endangered? Or will even more people turn to biking when they calculate the difference between 15 or 20 miles to the gallon in a car versus up to 60, 70, or more on a bike?
I want to find out how the rally developed from its beginnings in 1938 with a handful of attendees to its vast numbers today. By the way, last year, those half-million people spent nearly $12 million, took out 79 marriage licenses, made 289 emergency room visits, and left behind 615.9 tons of garbage.
Will I find anything to eat besides fried food, served shoulder to shoulder? Will I really track down my cousin, my high-school girlfriend, my brother-in-law’s brother—all of whom plan to roar into the area that week?
“It’s a global event, a family reunion, two weeks of compacted activity, and guests come to our town to enjoy what we enjoy all year round,” says Sturgis Mayor Maury LaRue, who has been involved with the Rally since 1976. “And when can a town of 6,500 get KISS?” A rider since high school, LaRue will be leading the Mayor’s Ride (despite a hip replacement) on his Yamaha 400 cc motorscooter. “We get great help from the state Department of Transportation, to make sure traffic flows as smoothly as possible. Get to events safely and get home safely—those are our concerns.”
I expect joyous, chaotic, colorful fun as I head out on the highway. But perhaps it’s what I don’t anticipate that will turn out to be the real adventure.
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