Some memmories of the 50th sturgis rally and a few from the earlier days?

[pcombe]

I lived for many years in the small town of Newcastle, Wyoming (about 9 mi. from the border of South Dakota) and one of the advantages to that location, besides having the entire black Hills to roam on my Harley was the fact that I was only about 60miles from the Sturgis rally.

<oI started attending the rally when I wore a much younger mans hair length, (Hippie degenerate motorcycle trash?) and never had TOO much excitement going on at one time.

The whole purpose of my attending was to try to hit a NEW LOW every year!
<oNow, over the years that has became increasingly difficult. Back then you could party pretty hard in just the downtown area without a lot hassle from the cops. Now they roam around in gangs for crying out loud and you best behave as if you were part of the temperance movement.

<oDeadwood was wide open in the early years before they shut down the brothels, and gambling changed the entire attraction of the place.

The hog jam in Hullet, Wy. Was not a stand out destination, as you could cut your wolf loose just about any where within a few miles of the rally, and now the hog jam looks like an ice cream social?

In the early days there was no Hog Jam, in Hullet Just the Rally and the Fantastic Races.

You may be able to raise a little hell in the campgrounds as long as you stay there; DUI has become the states major source of income Near as I can tell.
<oAnd political correctness has tainted, what used to be for BIKERS!
<oBut I'm reminiscing about some earlier days and talking about some of the shining times ok?

<oYou know, You mayhave seen me there?
(I was the guy dressed in blue jeans and a black tee –shirt!)

<oI always made it a point to camp in the Buffalo chip campground so I could always be close to the action and big name concerts.
The sanitary facilities were something way to unsanitary for the conditions, and you better set up your tent along the back fence so you wont get run over by a drunk on his bike at three am.Just in case things ever settled down long enough to get a little shut eye, usually about 3 days into the rally? ( Of course, Electric wine didn’t have anything to do with it?) Ever try to sleep next to a 20’ tall speaker?

That’s about what it was like, and any thing your decadent little heart could desire was in that campground somewhere.

I remember the night some ugliness took place and was shocked by how many of the so called bikers in the crowd turned out to be undercover law and Uzis suddenly appeared in the hands of folks on and close to the stage to protect the band.
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<o
That- (look for me in Sturgis, I will be dressed in blue jeans and black tee shirt) mode of dress turned out to be a boon for whoever decided to rob the bank during the 50^th. Rally. (I am to dumb to think of it and lack the nerve myself)
But think about it?
They robbed the bank in broad daylight and once they stepped out the door they looked like 5,000 other people on the street. To My knowledge they were never seen again.

<oSome of the funny quirks about being on main street , come to mind?
<oMy wife and I were sitting on a window ledge at one of the rallies enjoying an Indian taco when a drunk, flying colors, took it upon himself to stand in front of Susan and mimic her every move, The guy was wasted and I really didn’t want to hurt him, he was just having fun, showing off to his club brothers, making a nuisance of himself,knowing I wouldn’t do any thing about it because of all the back up he had?
Susan was getting scared so I handed her my taco and up-ended the jerk and stuffed him head down in the trash can at the curb.

His buddies mostly laughed at it!
It looked like some thing from laurel and hardy really.
Glad I had my heater.

<oThere where so many people on the streets that you could barely get through the crowd and yet most times,when some one would bump you a might hard they would turn and apologize?
That rarely happens at a rodeo!

The guy who looked most likely to cut your throat turned out to be a dairy farmer from Minnesota.
The only way you could tell the millionaire from trash like me was to see what he rode in on.
Bums didn’t ride the type of bikes I built my garage out of spare parts (although I loved those old choppers) and painted with a spray can. (“Poe folk got Poe ways”) There were folk from Yale, and folk from jail!
<oThe guy you better watch out for was the one that rode in with a rolled up towel for a seat.

<oSpeaking of seats, I was on the main street one day when a guy rode in on a red/white/and blue, Kawasaki ninja.
He was also wearing a matching set of red /white and blue designer leathers, he backed into a parking place not to far from where I was standing and it was hard not to notice that there were clear plastic windows cut out of his pants that showed of his buttocks.
<o
I don’t think both feet touched the curb when a gigantic arm shot out of the crowd and knocked the poor miss- guided soul up against his bike and his clear plastic windows came into contact with the exhaust when he knocked over his star spangled nerdy ninja. (I will let your imagination play out the rest of it) Sure was funny at the time! He left in a hurry, kinda like a calf with his backside branded? That melted plastic must have hurt?

<oThe idiot was lucky he didn’t choose the Buffalo chip to commit his lunacy in ; his rice grinder would have been that year’s choice to burn in effigy to the Harley Gods!

Now a chick would have been applauded for her obvious, feminine, sense of fashion!
<oThe feminine fashion at the rally ranged from the modest to the ever popular pair of chaps with a G string for underwear and set of pasties to barley cover her fun bags more pointy points?
until nightfall and it all fell off.

These were invariably worn by women who could get away with that look and many a roll of film was burned to prove that you had actually been to see the elephant, as we westerners in all our new found political correctness, would say it!

<oInevitably some chick that looked like a berserk-o Barbie model in a leopard skin bikini could be found
Chained to a parking meter in front of the bar.
I don’t know, maybe it was an advertisement?

Maybe someone chained her there to keep her out of trouble while he had a beer?
Or perhaps she was there to shock the sensibilities of the tourist?
<o(The whole place looked like a zoo anyway and I never bothered to ask her.)
I was warned that you didn’t want to try a free her out of some misguided hero complex, she would scratch your eyes out.

<oDuring the rally it seems girls just couldn’t keep their tops on and many woke up the next morning with a tattoo, and have one of those “Gods, what have I done moments?”
<oIt had always surprised me when the little woman was unmarked at the end of the week because the Rally had a power of its own and the whole aura of the place could suck you in.

They sold all kinds of leather halter tops on the main street of Sturgis and I will tell you a story within a story/

Susan and my friend’s wife had their eye on a couple of halter tops and wanted to try them on.
My friend’s wife Kathy just tried it on right there on the sidewalk . But Susan being of the more modest type didn’t even want to do it in the alley behind the booth.

I was distracted by something (perhaps one the aforementioned ladies?) and didn’t see her get escorted to the rest room of a service station across the alley, I turned around and panicked when she wasn’t there at the booth.

One of the sales ladies told me where she went and I thought I better keep an eye on things. She was only about as big as a button and I always kept her within my site at the rally.

(I have never figured out how we got together in the first place? (Try, if you will, to givePolly-Anna a staring roll in west side story?)
<o
Any way there was the biggest man I have ever seen (he looked like the genie from the lamp) standing there with his arms crossed and said “YOU AINT GOIN IN THERE”!

My miss spent youth flashed before my eyes because I knew damn well; I WAS going in there no matter what.(I didn’t know who he was? I assumed her escort would be a female) And the gun in the small of my back didn't feel near big enough.

I was saved by her coming out wearing a leather halter top that looked like a rabid squirrel got to it before she did, but I wisely held my council.

Later in the day our friends went with us to deadwood and heading into the # 10 saloon, there was a couple old men sitting on a bench out front as we passed I heard one of the old boys chuckle in his old mans voice,
“Heh! Heh! Heh! There must be shortage of leather nowadays!”
<oI guess I didn’t mention that Kathy was rather well endowed?
I think I finally used Susan’s top for a chamois.

<oI remember the time a big grudge fight promoter tried to set up a tough bikers match.
Before the end of the week he was complaining in the Rapid City journal journal that he thought bikers were tough?

His big tough mans contest was going broke. You Know? I really can’t remember talking to any:one that said they had saved their money for two years to go to Sturgis, and get the snot kicked out of him?
It tickled me to see him fall on his collective ass.

The bungee jumping booth across the street made a killing!
<oSpeaking of killing: I was there, off main St., on the night, during the 50^th rally when a big old boy from Australia got hopped up on Meth. And tried to take on the police and everyone in the crowd with a Bowie knife.

There sure wasn’t anything about it that is good to remember.
The man really was 6’tall and seemed bullet proof. It sure took enough of them to stop him.

<oYou know, I didn’t go to the rally every year after that, I started going in the other direction and only went back about every five years.
I guess it’s really true?
That old age has mellowed more of us than religion ever did?
<oI went back some years ago now, and noticed that that the place is more of a tourist attraction to my way of thinking; you can’t hit a NEW low without going to jail.

Family's are prowling the streets with there little children dressed like tough guy wanna bee's? buying cut rate tee shirts that will last for one washing?

The accepted ladies attire has changed dramatically and not to my liking, I can see the same attire in a laundry matt. I think I seen a few of the women who, if they weren’t the same half naked girls from 30 years ago, they must have sent their mothers in their places?

<oMaybe, I have just gotten old enough to believe that a guy might visit the ZOO once, a year?
But I no longer wish to sleep with the animals!</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o</o

[Trail Blazer]

Paul I remember those days and now looking back I wonder how I could have thought it was fun. your are wright age does mellow a man out. thinking back , it's only luck the we lived thru it .

[pcombe]

Paul I remember those days and now looking back I wonder how I could have thought it was fun. your are wright age does mellow a man out. thinking back , it's only luck the we lived thru it .

I would rather ride into Gods country than sit on the crowded street in a hundred degree weather nowadays!

Last time I went has been quite a few years ago now.
It took two hours to get from the edge of town to main street and I was lucky if I made it two hours before I got bored with it all?
There's nothing new to see, The animals all look the same on Main Street.
Cyndi Lauper and Madonna has become Classic rock in the Buffalo Chip campground, The Girls from the 70's 80's and even the 90's shouldn't wear what they used to and their tattoos like a diseased corpse.

And believe me Yellowstone park, Chief Joseph highway in Wyoming, Zion's nat. park in Utah, Colorado Rockies, Glacier nat. park in Montana and Idaho's High country, The Canadian Rockies, put your trike on a ferry and tour Vancouver Island its fifty miles across with huge forests of Redwoods and the coast has small fishing villages straight out of the 1900's that should not be missed, They all have Sturgis beat three ways from Sunday!

Highway 1 across Canada leads to such beauty I start driving past 1000' water falls around Jasper because I cant absorb any more. Banff, The Columbia ice fields, The coast and all its attractions, The provinces of Canada above the panhandle of Idaho just begs to be seen by the motorcycle rider.

There is a trike Rally in Deadwood July 16-19 and that promises to be a much better time.

I love riding the Black Hills but not during the Rally, I grew tired of picking up idiots off the roads when they cant understand if the speed limit sign on the pigtail highway says 15 mph. they really aren't kidding. They wind up in a head on with a tour bus, If the sign says 45 miles per hr. anywhere in the hills it just may wind up being a curve with a decreasing radius and 60 mph is going kill you! If a buffalo doesn't gore you because you snapped a flash camera in its eyes? ( looks allot like special Olympics when they try to out run one of em.) But it's hardly fair to the bison?

[Steve on 3]

Excellent write up. You brought that long ago rally to my eyes. I can see what it must have been like. Sturgis is on my bucket list but not this year. I want to ride the Black Hills and Needles and Chief Joseph. I'd like to spend a day or so at the Chip but mostly to ride. Thanks for the nostalgic trip.

[1800 06 Champion Trike]

We have been out there many times with the last trip 3 years ago. I led 3 other couples out there and stayed at Custer State Park Lodge. We arrived of Friday. On Saturday, I took them downtown to show them around and buy t-shirts and other junk. Then got out of there and toured the area for 2 days.
My wife and I are planning on riding out there again this summer and then continuing on to our favorite ride to Cody, Yellowstone, Beartooth, Cooke City, Red Lodge, back to Cody via the Chief Joesph to Cody and back to SD, Mn to Wis.

[stinger608]

That was an awesome post Paul!!!!!!

If you were at the Buffalo Chip on the 50th I probably seen ya. Hell, we may have crossed paths that week.

I had an ole Harley Low Rider silver in color and a pad and sleeping bag............That was my camp.

[Texan]

Ahhhhh, can remember when the rally was in the city park and they blocked off 2 blocks of Main street for bikes. What year was it the 3 guys got shot ?? I know it was in '04 when the Angels and Mongols got into it on Needles Hwy.

This will be my 30th ride to the Black Hills rally and go mostly to see friends I've made over the years there. And ride the hills.......

People use to ask me what we did at Sturgis. I'd tell 'em we'd go down on Mail street, get an ice cream cone and sit on the window ledge and watch the idiots pass by for about an then change places with them. LoL!!!!

8~\o

[pcombe]

We have been out there many times with the last trip 3 years ago. I led 3 other couples out there and stayed at Custer State Park Lodge. We arrived of Friday. On Saturday, I took them downtown to show them around and buy t-shirts and other junk. Then got out of there and toured the area for 2 days.
My wife and I are planning on riding out there again this summer and then continuing on to our favorite ride to Cody, Yellowstone, Beartooth, Cooke City, Red Lodge, back to Cody via the Chief Joesph to Cody and back to SD, Mn to Wis.

("stayed at Custer State Park Lodge")= Perfect place to stay, back at the intersection heading toward the needles highway is a small lake not to far up the road and there exists the black hills playhouse, Google it! it's just a handful of miles from the state game lodge where you stayed.
I have never seen a bad play there, and it's a perfect way to make the little woman trip Highlight.
Throw some wine and cheese etc. in your saddle bag and have a tailgate pick nick during the long intermission and she will begin to wonder what came over you?

You have your travel priorities down just perfect!

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Too much hassle for what amounts to the world's largest T-shirt sale and a saggy boobie contest.

What you don't like Zoo"s?

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That was an awesome post Paul!!!!!!

If you were at the Buffalo Chip on the 50th I probably seen ya. Hell, we may have crossed paths that week.

I had an ole Harley Low Rider silver in color and a pad and sleeping bag............That was my camp.

Sure I remember you!
You were dressed in jeans and black Tee Shirt!

[pcombe]

Ahhhhh, can remember when the rally was in the city park and they blocked off 2 blocks of Main street for bikes. What year was it the 3 guys got shot ?? I know it was in '04 when the Angels and Mongols got into it on Needles Hwy.

This will be my 30th ride to the Black Hills rally and go mostly to see friends I've made over the years there. And ride the hills.......

People use to ask me what we did at Sturgis. I'd tell 'em we'd go down on Mail street, get an ice cream cone and sit on the window ledge and watch the idiots pass by for about an then change places with them. LoL!!!!

8~\o

I remember the days of city park and two blocks on main street.
Most of the real fun was at the races.

I'm thinking the year for the two guys being shot in front of the bar was around 1985 or 86? It's just to hard to remember?
I cant bring the name of the bar to mind right now but it was the one on the first corner of main st. where the chick was chained to the meter?
Was it the Bear Butte bar or something like that?

[1800 06 Champion Trike]

Yes, we did check out the BH Playhouse on one of the rides.
Just love riding around there and like the Spearfish Canyon ride.Went through there about 6 years ago. It was right after a storm came through on Friday. Hail so big , it killed a guy at Buffalo CG.
Going through the canyon, there was still hail plowed on the side of the road from the storm.

[Bikerbozo]

Great write up. The 50th was my 1st year there. Stayed at the Buffalo Chip. I copied a couple of the cleaner pics I will try and post later this week when on a real computer. That week was crazy.

[pcombe]

Yes, we did check out the BH Playhouse on one of the rides.
Just love riding around there and like the Spearfish Canyon ride.Went through there about 6 years ago. It was right after a storm came through on Friday. Hail so big , it killed a guy at Buffalo CG.
Going through the canyon, there was still hail plowed on the side of the road from the storm.

Right up over the top of Bridal Veil falls is where I used to take my horses back in and set up deer and elk camp, used creek water for camping purposes. If you cant get Deer in there your a horrible hunter!



No place I would rather be!



One day nice and the next day freezing! That's the nature of the black Hills.



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Great write up. The 50th was my 1st year there. Stayed at the Buffalo Chip. I copied a couple of the cleaner pics I will try and post later this week when on a real computer. That week was crazy.

I thought I seen you once at the Glenco campground you had a small wading pool set up in camp and was laying in it swilling Beer?

[Bikerbozo]

I thought I seen you once at the Glenco campground you had a small wading pool set up in camp and was laying in it swilling Beer?

Holy crap you have a good memory. That was indeed me. And I called it a Jacuzzi. Bubbles and all. Carried that and 100 ft. garden hose on my bikes all the way out there a couple of years. And yes, at Glencoe sometimes.

[Bikerbozo]

A couple of quick pics from Sturgis '90. Above, me riding towards dirt ranch roads for shortcut to Rapid City .

Me and Peter Fonda (no, we are not best buds. Pic was for charity)

Why, yes, that is a rubber chicken between my speedo & tach.

What people are looking at and taking pics of is next to stage, 2 consenting adults doing what 2 consenting adults do.....in front of 1/2 million people!

Land speed record happened right before Sturgis '90.

Threw in this sticker that I had copies of all over my bike and gear at Sturgis '94.

This profile was written about me for the daily Sturgis Rally newspaper at Sturgis '95. And I rode over 6600 miles with that helmet on (yes, those are real horns. Don't ask about TX police).

[pcombe]

Holy crap you have a good memory. That was indeed me. And I called it a Jacuzzi. Bubbles and all. Carried that and 100 ft. garden hose on my bikes all the way out there a couple of years. And yes, at Glencoe sometimes.

" Bubbles and all"?

I hope Bubbles is the wife's nickname, otherwise it's just too much information!

[Bikerbozo]

" Bubbles and all"?

I hope Bubbles is the wife's nickname, otherwise it's just too much information!

Mr. Bubbles. Squirted out of kids bubble bath bottle. And that is not the current Mrs. Bozo. That's a long ago Ex-girlfriend (who actually looks just like my wife but was about 43% more insane). The wife is aware of the resemblance but swears she wasn't born a twin. The ex lives hundreds of miles away luckily.
Note the wifes only trip to Sturgis was in 2000. For our honeymoon (We did stop at Niagara Falls on the way. It's the law). Total of 8 trips for me. Rally is too Disneyfied for me now.
Laconia rally (in NH. Oldest rally in universe) used to be crazy also. But that's a whole different story.

[Papa Zook]

Holy crap you have a good memory. That was indeed me. And I called it a Jacuzzi. Bubbles and all. Carried that and 100 ft. garden hose on my bikes all the way out there a couple of years. And yes, at Glencoe sometimes.

Wow, that's crazy that he would remember you and that pool!

[pcombe]

Wow, that's crazy that he would remember you and that pool!

I actually camped near him one year and met him, I seen him once again at a later rally, The write up in the paper brought that memory back and I know I have seen it before. I don't know why I remember it?
If I found a suitable trigger I might surprise myself with how many of you I may have encountered at one time or another if you were where I was?

That kind of recall thing used to happen to me fairly regularly, Not so much anymore? I think I went too long without oxygen 3 yrs. ago. during heart attacks and lung problems resulting in a comatose state.

I once had a near photographic memory and now I have trouble with details about things, I struggle with names or formulas I used to use allot and Details are on the edge of my brain and I cant bring them forward.
I have to use the calendar on my phone as a memory quite often if it's a date in the not too distant future. Some things have stuck solid! It's weird and I get de-javoue daily.

Im Harmless but My dreams are shitty and don't make a whole lot of sense in light of day?

[Bikerbozo]

Just stunning to run into someone (even digitally) that I met 25 years ago, 2000 miles from home. One of these days I will transfer all pics to digital for posting of complete albums. If people can not get hurt by there jaws dropping and hitting floors. Or eyes popping out. Might have to have people get their wives permission to look.

[oneup]

well P combe another awsome story ..the only thing it lacked was some pics and now thanks to Bozo we have some . im all for an album/ topic of old sturgis and rally pics.. would be cool to see...