If your staying in town, don't plan on getting too much sleep.

 

This year was my very first year of attending the Sturgis Bike Rally. Go at least once to see it and experience it and to say that you did it. I plan to go again next year in 2010. I have been going to the Laughlin River Run almost every year since it first started back in 1982 so I know what it’s like to be around a sea of bikes and riders everywhere you look. You can’t compare the two though. Apples and Oranges! Anyone traveling anywhere on a motorcycle should plan on riding in bad weather at some point. The Hail was a BITCH! To me, it is more the journey than the destination, although the destination was a BLAST! Oh Yeah! I met and made some new friends and I am grateful for that. As with most rally’s, there are a million venders trying to sell you t-shirts and sun glasses and food and motorcycle parts. If you have been to Daytona, then you know what Sturgis is like. Same stuff, different location! Hell, in many cases, it is the very same people too! I am very glad that I went and I will continue to go as often as I can. Watch out for deer and other wild animals while riding, especially at night. The one thing that blew my mind was that I must have asked over 30 different people all over Sturgis "This is the 69th anniversary of what? What started to bring everyone here in the beginning?” and NOBODY knew the answer. Sturgis and Daytona and Laconia are just part of the motorcycle racing circuit. Flat track, short track and Hill climbs are so much fun to watch. The motorcycle racing is what brought all of the bikes and their riders to those cities in the first place. Hagerstown, MD and Sacramento, CA and Pomona, CA and Springfield, Illinois and so many other places that host some of the most exciting racing that you can see and yet I could not find anyone that even knew about it. The rally seems to have a life of its own now, completely independent of the races that started everything in the first place. What a shame!

 

The older we get the less we care about the huge crowds.We spent the first 20 or so years when we first got married on our Harley almost continously,got burnt out.

 

Never felt the need to do the motorcycle mecca, but husband wants to go. He was looking at hotels for us, and they were in the 200-300 the days of the rally, in Rapid City. That's a rip. But whatever. I'd love to go off season for the riding of the places around there, but being around half a million drunks on bikes is not my thing. I partied for 15 years....that was enough.

 

I'm in for 2010 ! Will scratch another one off my bucket list....

 

Last trip we took we stayed in a motel in Rapid City and just went into Sturgis when we felt like it. We mostly enjoyed riding the area.

I'm finished with it during the rally. I'll go back because the country is so beautiful and fun to see, but during the off season. I guess I'm getting old.

 

Planning my first trip in 2010. Going up the week before and will probably head out just as the rally starts. Staying in Keystone because they have an active downtown area with resturants and bars that are within walking distance. Being my first year, going to check everything out and so I know what to do next time.

 

Pretty much the way I feel about it. Probably my glass half full frame of reference but when I think of Sturgis first things that pop into my mind are crowds, traffic, drunks, lines to ****, lines to eat. The gouging by the hotels doesn't help.

We have a roadtrip to the area planned for September after the crowds leave. Did I mention I hate crowds

Just an old fart I guess. Maybe by 2011 I'll grow out of it.

 

I used to watch the bikes headed to Sturgis on I90 and felt like a dog tied up on a porch with other dogs going by. Finally the wife said yes in '05. We rode from Rochester, MN on back roads, overnighted in Pierre, SD, did the Badlands loop and stayed with a friend in Rapid City. I went solo next year and with my wife in '07. Didn't make it out last year.

It's one of those bucket list things that you need to check off. It's amazing to see all the bikes headed out/back. Lot's of crowds and lines, but fun. This year, I'm trying to convince my wife to go out to Yellowstone, thru the Big Horns (3 buds and I did the Big Horns/Beartooth/Sturgis in '08 - BEAUTIFUL!) and hit Sturgis for a day on the way back.
Wish me luck!!

Go, have fun, you won't regret it. It does give you a charge and you may never do it again, but will have a good memory. I recall the first time I rode out... I felt like "God you can take me now... I've done Sturgis".

 

I went out for the first time this year. My 18 yr old son and I rode from Michigan. We stayed at the Buffalo Chip. Had a great time and I'm planning on going again in '10.

Price isn't too bad. Tent camping is $200 for the week and included all the concerts. They already have ZZTop scheduled for Monday night.