Sturgis 2018

"Pickup_man" (zekeh) 08/07/2018 at 14:18 • Filed to: None

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S o this last year a good friend of mine got himself a newer cruiser and had been wanting to take some longer trips on it. Considering that we just live on the other side of the state and have both never been, we decided to head out to Sturgis for the rally. I have another friend who recently built a house in town and had an open bedroom which made the decision a whole lot easier.

Now I’m not a crowd person at all and the idea of a bunch of rowdy bikers all gathered in the same place doesn’t really appeal to me, but I’ve always been curios to check it out, if anything to just say that I’ve done it, and with a kiddo on the way I figured this would be the year to do it, so we went. I had a lot more fun than I ever thought I would. The crowds really weren’t that terrible, and downtown Sturgis itself was pretty tame, we didn’t make it out to the Buffalo Chip, but I’ve heard it can get a little crazy out there. As for the riding itself, it was incredible, the roads were clean and pretty smooth and the weather held out all weekend, with only a small amount of scattered rain one morning. Of course we ran into quite a bit of slow traffic, but overall the pace was pretty decent, and we even managed to find a few roads with no one ahead of us where we could put on some speed. Day one we put on a little over 200 miles in the Hills, and day two was a bit over 100 because we made more stops at all of the little roadside stands and gatherings.

I’ve had the Warrior for a little over a year now and the more I ride it the more I love it. For a big bike it handles the curves very well and was super fun to toss around. Riding t he mountain of torque out of a curve was intoxicating. We never really hit a pace where we were working the brakes hard, but they were more than capable. On the interstate it ate up the miles, 100 miles at a time (small tank). A better seat would have been nice, along with a few more foot position options, but overall the bike was amazing. Total trip ended up being just over 1100 miles.

Any way, short story long it was a great trip and I had a lot more fun than I expected. Here’s a bunch of potato pics, enjoy.

Downtown Hill City SD, I didn’t get any good pictures of DT Sturgis.

My favorite bike of the rally, classic British Triumph bobber.

This bike was by far the most impressive of the rally, the rally was a sea of you’re typical SOA Dynas/Softtails, and big wheel big bag Street Glides and Road Glides, but then there was this. Built around a punched out Twin Cam it was running two superchargers from a Mercedes model that escapes me , one on each side, each with their own dual Weber carb. The builder said it made somewhere around 200 wheel HP, which for a Harley motor is a lot. The paint and body work on this was immaculate, and the guy was even letting people sit on it. Absolutely stunning build.  

There were a lot of other really cool bikes out, Africa Twins, FZR’s, a Pacific Coast, a Helix, a bunch of KLR’s and a lot of other random interesting bikes that I didn’t get pictures of, but the real heros of the weekend were a couple riding a pair of hopped up Piaggios up in the curves and the big burly bearded man on a hot pink Vino.

jimz > Pickup_man 08/07/2018 at 14:23

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Sturgis is on my “eventual to-do” list.

Turbineguy: Nom de Zoom > Pickup_man 08/07/2018 at 14:26

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M y l a s t b i k e p u r c h a s e w a s a t o s s u p b e t w e e n t h e W a r r i o r a n d t h e V T X 1 8 0 0 C . I e n d e d u p b u y i n g t h e H o n d a b u t s t i l l like t h e b i g Y a m m y . I s e e y o u d i t c h e d t h e h u g e f a c t o r y c a n f o r V & H p i p e s . I h a d t h e s a m e e x h a u s t o n m y V T X , b u t I w r a p p e d t h e b a f f l e s w i t h f i b e r g l a s s cloth t o q u i e t t h e m d o w n .

Pickup_man > jimz 08/07/2018 at 14:44

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I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would, it’s definitely doing at least once I think, but since I’m not super far away, when we go out again, it will probably be outside of rally week. 

Pickup_man > Turbineguy: Nom de Zoom 08/07/2018 at 14:48

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I looked into the VTX as well but felt the Warrior fit my tastes a lot better overall, the aluminum frame and accompanying weight loss was a huge selling point . I absolutely love the bike. I bought it with the V&H pipes and I really like them, they still have baffles in so they’re pretty quiet just putzing around, but make a very nice sound under hard acceleration.

Turbineguy: Nom de Zoom > Pickup_man 08/07/2018 at 15:37

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A n y b o d y a t S t u r g i s g i v e y o u s h i t f o r r i d i n g a m e t r i c ?

Pickup_man > Turbineguy: Nom de Zoom 08/07/2018 at 15:43

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Not at all, there were loads of metrics there, I saw at least a half dozen Warriors, a handfull of Roadliners like my buddies, two dozen VTX’s minimum, loads of Honda Fury’s and Interstates, plus tons of others. It was probably about 75% Harleys, 25% metrics. The thing that surprised me the most was the number of trikes that were there, there were tons of them. 

McMike > Pickup_man 08/07/2018 at 16:42

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I went to Sturgis three years ago . It was my buddy’s bucket list, so we went.

With the wives.

From Washington DC.

Where were you guys coming from that you could crank it out in a weekend?

Pickup_man > McMike 08/07/2018 at 17:12

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I remember you posting about that, looked like a good trip.

We came from Sioux Falls basically , so just the other side of the state, 376 miles one way . We went out Friday morning, came back Monday morning. I have a co-worker who really likes to ride who went out Sunday for a day trip, then back on Monday with his wife to stay for a few days. 

McMike > Pickup_man 08/07/2018 at 17:50

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That’s awesome. We spent a night at one of your fine Comfort Suites on our way there.

This was our route from Sioux Falls to Spearfish.  Very cool.

Pickup_man > McMike 08/07/2018 at 17:57

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That looks like a good route, I haven’t spent a lot of time south of I90, at least in that part of the state, but the badlands area is really cool.

This is the route we took out, we took I90 all the way home.

Edit: Day one we did a lot of riding, we ran up from Sturgis to Spearfish, down Spearfish Canyon road, crossed over to 385, down to Hill City where we went down Needles Highway, took a short loop to connect back to Iron Mountain road where we rode up to Keystone, then back on to 385 to Deadwood, and then 14 back to Sturgis, it was a really fun day. 

gmporschenut also a fan of hondas > Pickup_man 08/08/2018 at 00:23

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Cool trip!