Sturgis: Who's going?

I'm running low on Sturgis shirts. Only one place to get them, so we will be heading out that way in a couple weeks. It's only one thousand miles from here. Anyone else going?

But I've already got a dentist here in town!

I thought about it, but going to Tennessee, instead. Maybe next year.

It's like a day's ride from Colorado, Keith. Practically local. We used to spend the night in Raton, then on the border of S.D., then into Sturgis. We used to party with a bunch of people from Greeley.

Poserfest...

Dr. Hess wrote: It's like a day's ride from Colorado, Keith. Practically local. We used to spend the night in Raton, then on the border of S.D., then into Sturgis. We used to party with a bunch of people from Greeley.

Only 630 miles! But first, I need a Harley. And probably a motorcycle license. Then some idea on how to ride something that doesn't have pedals.

I might be late.

Wish I had the time, maybe next year

Have fun.

bentwrench wrote: Poserfest...

Oooo, oooo, I'm not going because... posers and E36 M3. Said the wannabe.

Keith Tanner wrote:

Dr. Hess wrote: It's like a day's ride from Colorado, Keith. Practically local. We used to spend the night in Raton, then on the border of S.D., then into Sturgis. We used to party with a bunch of people from Greeley.

Only 630 miles! But first, I need a Harley. And probably a motorcycle license. Then some idea on how to ride something that doesn't have pedals. I might be late.

Just load a bike on a trailer, unload in front of a bar and leave it there all week. Be just like the other 90% that go!

But then I'd have to get a H-D themed F-150 to pull the trailer!

How are Harleys like dogs? They both love riding in the back of pickup trucks! Woo!

You've obviously never been. Yeah, that does happen. I met a cop once in Houston at a locksmith shop. He had pictures of bike, a new softtail. He was showing me the pics, including one of the dash with like 315 miles on it. I said "How many miles do you have on it now?" and he still had 315 miles on it. He showed me pics of the custom enclosed trailer. He would put it in the trailer, drive it somewhere, back it out of the trailer and park it with the other bikes. I mean, it was a nice looking stock softtail and all, but I thought it was a waste.

Now, Sturgis, people mostly ride there. Sure, you'll see some trailers with bikes on them, but you go to the camp grounds and you will see that almost everyone rode there. I did meet a guy at the camp ground once. He trailered his bike in. He told me "I've ridden a thousand miles since I got here." I replied: "I rode a thousand miles to get here." And Dr.Linda can outride just about all of them on her Sportster. Many a time that we pass someone on I90. I blast past. Then she blasts past. They go "Some guy on an old dresser, whatever, but I'll be damned if a woman on a Sportster will out ride me..." and they start keeping up for maybe 10 or 20 miles, then they give up. Not too many twinkie riders can keep up, especially at altitude where most of them run pig rich because Harley didn't put MAP sensors on the bikes and do atmo correction, or even have O2 sensors. I think the new bikes do, but it's fairly recent.

In all sincerity Doc, if I'm not a drinker or a wild party type, what is there for me to do at Sturgis? Not being smart or cute. All I've ever heard about Sturgis is wild stories. Really wild stories, that I'm sure were improved upon in the telling. None the less, is there anything more toned down going on there?

The only Harley show I've gone to was the Gettysburg one, which I suspect is pretty mild. But even there, I don't want to dance with Mongo, I'm not mounting antlers to my helmet or draping dead animals over my shoulders, and I don't need more tats or piercings. Which is about all the Gettysburg show seems to be about. Oh, that and swallowing hotdogs from the back seat of a bike.

I'm not going to Sturgis this year, but maybe some day I will.

Well, I was last there in '09. Things were a whole lot tamer than in the 80's, that's for sure. If you want the "wild" stuff, you have to actively seek it out, and it will be at one or two campgrounds. Sturgis itself is pretty tame today. They kinda ruined it. Back in the 80's, a woman we were camping with rode a buffalo naked down main street. You don't see that anymore. The PoPo put a stop to all that. Oh well. Frankly, in '09 all the half nekid wimmen as seen in "pics of Sturgis" were bar maids. Some wild stuff is said to happen at Buffalo Chip campground, but we don't bother with that.

I go for the ride there, to walk around and look at the bikes and the ride back. It is beautiful country.

It's also kinda neat to ride where there's not a thousand or ten thousand bikes, almost all Harleys, but hundreds of thousands for hundreds of miles in all directions. Every gas stop or restaurant is like a separate bike show.

Last year, the kids and I spent the night in Rapid City the day after the official end of the Sturgis rally (or whatever it's properly called) when driving from MI to CO for vacation. The E46 M3 convertible didn't exactly fit in, but it was cool to see so many bikes everywhere, including out on the roads. I ride a sport bike, so it's not really my kind of hardware, but I liked seeing bikes far outnumber cars. We didn't participate in anything, though, so I can't comment about what all those people do there.

I gotta say, too, that the enormous number of loud pipes got really old. There really is no need for that.

I wouldn't mind going to sturgis... When no one is there. I do not want to go there during the rally.

I know that when you're looking for enclosed trailers that are around 7x14 or 7x16, most of them have been used for motorcycle duty and a high percentage have orange and black detailing. My single car race trailer was a Harley trailer before I bought it.

I can see the appeal in the mass bike show. Not being in to bikes or excessive (tattoo level) brand loyalty, though, it's just not my thing. I'd rather SD were empty when I come through.

Dr. Hess wrote: Not too many twinkie riders can keep up, especially at altitude where most of them run pig rich because Harley didn't put MAP sensors on the bikes and do atmo correction, or even have O2 sensors. I think the new bikes do, but it's fairly recent.

Whoa. Them's fighting words, Doc.

My Twink did just fine, riding up Mt. Evans and over Chief Joseph Scenic Byway a few years ago. Also, they don't run rich. Quite the opposite, in fact. They're lean as hell, from the factory, to meet emissions regulations, and they have O2 sensors.

RealMiniParker wrote: My Twink did just fine, riding up Mt. Evans and over Chief Joseph Scenic Byway a few years ago. Also, they don't run rich. Quite the opposite, in fact. They're lean as hell, from the factory, to meet emissions regulations, and they have O2 sensors.

Don't remember what year the Twin Cams started using O2 sensors, but my 04 year does not have them.

In reply to foxtrapper:

Oh yeah, you're right; not all Twinks have the same EFI system. My bad. Some were even still carbureted, I think.

739,000 attendees in 2015. That's amazing and terrifying. I could have a lot of fun there or it could be a lot of shuffling from place to place with overwhelming crowds in the way. I had no idea it was so big.

Are non-American bikes in attendance and accepted or is it pretty much just American bikes?

Yep, carburetors were there as an option up to 06. The early fuel injections were Magneti-Marelli, 95-01 I think. Then Delph, with multiple variations on that. Mine is an earlier Delph with no O2 sensor, so it's closed loop. Here's the map, and we stay on it based on throttle position, speed, etc. It also uses a throttle cable.

That's open loop, FT. Closed loop uses the O2 sensor. I have Dr.L's Megasquirted Sportster set up to use Alpha-N, (Throttle position and RPM) and the O2 sensor, with MAP for atmo correction. Using the MAP for load on a V twin isn't too good. Too much pulsing.

DC, Sturgis is primarily a HD kind of event, but there are imports there and no one will give you any E36 M3 if you are on one. It's a good time. When we went in '07, it was solid bikes from the S.D. border in. I mean the S.D. border at Iowa, in.

Good lord, three quarters of a million people? I had no idea it was that big.

Hess, maybe you can explain a mystery to me. What's with the big leather whip/tassel/tail hanging off one handlebar of a lot of Harleys? Looks like an accident waiting to happen to me.

Yeah, Sturgis is big. Careful on the numbers, though. We eat breakfast at a bakery on Main Street, when we can get in. In 90, some large newspaper like the NYT called up the bakery and asked how many people were in attendance. The guy answering the phone said something like "107,513", making the number up. Next day, the paper had "107,513 bikers at Sturgis" in a headline. The local rally here, Bikes, Blues and BBQ, appears to me to make it up as they go along as well.

Dunno about the long tassel on the handlebars thing. Looks dangerous to me too. Guess it doesn't result in too many deaths, although I don't see too many of those.