I went through there last year on my way back from a loop out West. It's not really a zoo but I'm just not much on standing in, waiting in and riding in large, slow-moving lines nor price gouging. Every open flat spot in the area is a motorcycle parking lot and the roads are clogged with bikes. The local cages get tired of waiting at an intersection for a break in the bike flow so they tend to make their own hole in traffic. In a matter of the 6 hours I was in the area, two times, I sat in dead traffic for over an hour waiting on a ambulance to come scoop up a downed rider due to local cages. There are many seasoned riders in the area but there are almost as many that have no business on a bike in a heavily congested area.
For me, it involves everything about motorcycling...but riding. I just don't get much out of standing around reminiscing with people I've never met before or will ever see again. Once you've seen one tire burn-out, you've seen them all. I'm happy for those that love it and wait all year for it but I'd rather be rolling. Of my buddies that are die-hard Sturgis guys, they seem to get as much out of the trip up there and back as they do the actual event. Typically, that is the only long trip they make in a year's time and the balance of the year, they are talking about the last trip and getting ready for the next trip...to Harley Mecca. These middle-aged and older people are going through what I went through in the 70's.
Coming into Sturgis from the West, it was unbelievable the number of bikes on the road going to or returning from Sturgis not to mention the bikes in the immediate area. Also,its amazing how many $450,000 RVs you see towing bike trailers to the neighboring towns and then, riding their bikes the last few miles into Sturgis.
It is a spectacle to see, for sure and is a prime example of a faithful following. Everyone should go at least once.
Z
