Crowds attending this year’s event are way down. The consensus is from 30% to 50%, which make it a better rally for participants to be able to move around…but not good for vendors. Only McCain & Kiss were able to create huge traffic jams on Monday evening. Yesterday was judgment day at OWC (Official World Championship) of Bike Building. 70 bikes are competing and are judged by the participants and a selection of VIP’s of the industry. The winners will be announced this Wednesday afternoon at 3 PM. Yesterday evening very nasty weather threatened Sturgis with 60 mph and hail in some areas. The new hot spot restaurant in Sturgis is Italian food “What’s Cooking Mama” on the 1st block of Main Street. Custom bikes are setup at the Horse Backstreet Choppers and at the Metzeler V-Twin Custom Bike shows at Thunderoad. Deadwood continues to be the main destination at night for gambling, some good restaurants and music. Slow start this Wednesday morning. At 9AM local time, alleys are empty. To follow…
7 Responses to “Sturgis Rally Flash News (Part 1)”
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Cyril,
I can attest to the low volume of riders we saw along the roads.
But in Sturgis the bikes were packed in tight as usual. We could hardly move.
Some of the out lying areas were pretty dead though. Not much busines in the smaller bars.
But driving home we saw a lot more bikes.
I saw an accident that was pretty bad and I don’t know how the kids are doing. We were up by Rapid City area. Two of the kids had head injuries and were out cold. Scary. One young girl and guy.
They were flown out by helicoptor. There were 2 or maybe three guys also injured.
I would like to know how those kids are. We were right behind them and and stayed with them until a nurse and others reached them.
Very sad.
Take care and give each other plenty of room to stop.
Stephen
Maybe we’re getting back to the basics or reality of true motorcycling. People renting houses kept upping their rent in the past but many are now empty and others have had to reduce their rates, likewise for some motels. Vender spaces have always been over priced and quite a few venders have changed locations with reduced rates. It seems like good quality people all having fun which is what it’s all about.
Mike’s 100% right ..Everybody is tired of the goughing both vendor and rider…wise up Sturgis!
However that being said the only folks to put up their vender rates about a 1/3rd and stick to it was the city i front of the convention center. Since the city revenues probably won’t be as high as previous years watch for vender license fees and their permit increases next year.
Cyril,
Thanks for the up-dates for us that could not make it this year! I think it is more of the struggling times people are having with the rising gas prices and food prices. I myself was to busy with my business to make up there this year. I have awards for some car shows to finish that will be held at the end of the month. I had some other orders to finish for people to take up to Sturgis which caused me to get behind on my other awards. Well, it is still all good but I do miss the fact that I could not be up at Sturgis. I hope you will keep us up to date each step of the way. Have lots of fun for me and take some wet t-shirt pictures for your blog will ya!
G-WIZARD
I spoke with the city manager at the Sturgis Sponosrship Party and mentioned to him that the night before I was having dinner with about 6 engineers from HD and we watched the police at exit 30 and 90 pull bikes over literally every 5 minutes…they towed an Indian and were pulling people over for the most ridiculas crap…..we watched about 15 people within the hour get issued tickets…no one was driving fasty nor crazy that we saw.
I mentioned to the city manager – David Boone that perhaps Sturgis did not want to become another Daytona Bike Week. So regardless of the revenue that the imported cops generate for Sturgis during the week, that maybe in the long run the result would not be what they were looking for.
Like Mike (Kiwi) and others that were vendors this year at Sturgis, we at Guilty Customs did see some changes in attendance, and have to say we’re not surprised….it’s been a long time in coming. Granted the gas and economy may have had something to do with it, however one interesting observations was that people were buying. And not just small items either. We personally sold one bike, and took 4 orders for builds. So for us, it was a good event.
On the last saturday of Sturgis, myself and few others ventured downtown to Main Street, and you couldn’t stir the crowd with a stick. What we found were more enthusiast and riders and less “pretenders”.
Yes the cops were out in force too….and giving out their quota of tickets. We got two of them, thank you very much. What was frustrating from our perspective was that the tickets were minor infractions (rolling stops, 2-4 miles over speed limit, warnings about glasses etc) that set you back hundreds of dollars. Gina (above) was right in comments to city manager Boone that Sturgis should look out and not become another Daytona. If you hit us enough times with stupid stuff, we will find someplace else to spend our money and time.