Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

This Herley rider came pecked end reedy for anything. big one, but the charity side is growing fast. The Senior Citizens Center served breakfast every morning during the event as do several churches. The morning I stopped in the Senior Cits had already served over 600 cyclists. Outside. the HillbiUy Band was enter· taining the cyclists with a few musical numbers on tlie washtub, kazoo and accordion. The Lions Club sold tickets on three Yamahoppers to raise money for their sight program and the band and choir of Brown High raised enough money with a Chevette to pay for their trip to the San Diego Music Festival. The Cub Scouts pulled down over a $1,000 for their projects with an intensive clean up and can recycling drive at the race tracks and the city park. The scouts would have raised much more had not some greedy local adults rushed into the park first thing Sunday morning and scooped up five truck loads of beer and pop cans. For days after the end of the rally local residents armed with metal detectors could be seen silently trolling their way through the city park picking up loose money, pelry, tools, any· thing with a metal content. On Main Street a high school teacher charged 50~ to take pictures from the top of his ladder. 22 If you have read this far about Sturgis you are probably wondering where the race coverage is. For that 1 refer you to the results section which is probably printed in the back of this issue. The reason being the races get a short sheet is simple. They are the least important aspect of the Black Hills Rally. Although race attendance was up this year (even with the bad weather that caused schedules to be juggled around and the Saturday half mile to be run Sunday morning), the races or the hillclimb never attract the numbers one would think, or that the promoters, the Jackpine Gypsies and the Black Hills Motor Classic board, would need for a real first claas show. There has been talk for several years of trying to get, at the least, a national short track race during the rally. But the cost of promotion and sanctioning such an event is simply prohibitive. The races are really caught in an economic squeeze. Sturgis is far away from any major dirt track centers. Although it has a superb short track and an adequate half mile. the tracks are used less than a dozen times throughout the year and the crowds have been terrible for any events other than those during Classic week. Oddly, although Sturgis has an active group of stock car racers it has only one or two motorcycle racers and they are primarily motocross riders. The cost to racers in traveling money has grown by leaps and bounds in the last few years to the point where it is almost worthless for them to come to Sturgis. That is unless they are able to dominate the week's events like Mickey Fay and Jeff Haney did last year and Pete Hames of Simi Valley, CA did this year in the Amateur and Novice races. Honda, which has supported the Sturgis races solidly for several years with its team and has attracted quality riders to compete against it to Sturgis, passed up the Black Hills week this year due to heavy commitments in its road race and dirt track programs. They were missed. The race prOltram that is really taking off at the rally is the AMA/Dragbikel Bikernationals, now in its second year at Black Hills Dragway in Belle Fourche, 30 miles from Sturgis. After riding up and down Main Street all week, the Bikernationals give cyclists a chance to do legal bum outs and holeshots with the possibility of taking home atrophy. Several class winners only had to make one pass to gather up an impressive dust collector for the mantel piece, or more likely, the corner of a garage. Unfortunately, rain forced the cancellation of the Saturday night finals until Sunday afternoon and nobodJ stays around that long as they have to get on the road for work Monday morning. Even so, over 1,500 fans showed up for the rained out and rescheduled races. That's 1,500 fans that could have stayed in Sturgis at the half mile races, but more and more bikers are attracted to the drag races instead of the ovals. The popularity of drag racing can be seen in the number of signs that appeared in froDt orbars on Main Street asking riders to "Light'em Up," "Smoke 'em," or "Hole Shot." Action in the city park was not so much sex, drugs and rock and roll, as in years previous, bu t in wa tching the impromptu drag races that went on. At any time the "races" were going, a crowd of several hundred would line the road going through the campsites. The possibility for disaster in the park . was evident as several minor and at least one major accident occurred which required the use of an ambulance and police cars. Next year will proba bly find the road going through the park criss·crossed with speed bumps to prevent any further racing. The park and the goings on in it during the week could very well deter· mine the fate of the Black Hills Motor· cycle Rally and Races. Although incidents of public nudity, sex acts both individually and in groups, the firing of guns or the recreational use of dynamite at two in the ayem, were less than last year, the park and its inhabitants remain a slowly growing cancer that will not go away. After last year's incidents, which were widely publicized by some "chopper" type publications, the Sturgis City Council with the advice of the Black Hills Classic board, passed several ordinances. One was a public decency law which came as close as anyone can these days to banning public nudity. In the park itself all four wheel vehicles were required to park on the far side of Bear Butte Creek, well away from local eyes and in the wooded area of the park. The reason for this was that all the exhibitionists used the tops of vans, trucks, motor homes, old school buses, cars, whatever, as a stage to attract viewers. This year, if you wanted to see the free shows you at least had to go looking for them. What was new this year was the growth of the number of T-shirts that locals found offensive and the number of sign painters imploring every female to display herself. One was even brazen enough to set up a huge sign in a neighborhood. On the road to Deadwood the sign paints were especially active which IS most unfortunate as some of the most powerful and vocal residents live in Boulder Canyon or have membership in the Boulder Canyon Country Club. In any case they couldn't help but see what was going on. This is an unfortunate situation because not only are some of the canyon's residents highly regarded locally, but carry considerable weight on a state level politically, and a few are not strangers to the Reagan administration either politically or personally. The fallout from the actions of a few may be a while in coming, but the effect could be much more widespread and damaginK than the sign painters could ever imaltine. Not to put too fine a point on the issue, but the things that most offend residents have to do with the human body. If outsiders would use a bit of common sense and a thimble full of discretion, the Black Hills Rally would be assured of being a yearly eve!'t from now until the end of time. It is widely held among residents that whatever trouble comes ·to the event will come from the city park. Despite the apparent good fortune the --event- briBgs to the residents, visitors should forget the idea that locals will tolerate anything as long as they make money. Outsiders never take into account that the money from the event comes in only one week of the year and the other 51 might be spent defending the money from critical neighbors, relatives, competitors. or even from people who simply think the thing has gone on too long. Most rally visitors come from large metropolitan areas and have very little idea of the enormous peer pressure that can be put on someone by his fellow citizens. A case in point is the local theater, the Scoop City Cinema, which for the last two years or more had been undergoing continual remodeling and updating of its program by the independent theater owner and managers. All of this was at steadily rising costs, competition from theater chains and interest rates, but they kept trying. To try and boost income they leased the theater lobby out to a vendor last year which had as one of its attractions a body painter. This year the theater closed its doors for good due in no small part the manager felt because he had rented to someone who offended local standards. The pressure on him was subtle, fewer residents patronized the theater, and not so subtle, he was verbally attacked in public by a city councilman among others. The theater has since been reo modeled into a roller skating rink. It was rented out again this year primarily because of the heavy expenses incurred by the remodeling and by the fact that, although not open, expenses continued. What outsiders never think about is the trouble they cause the supporters of the event who constantly have to battle criticisms. To be perfectly honest, Sturg;s really has very little to offer anyone accustomed to the broad spectrum of entertainment available in any reasonably sized city. Rapid City has far more to offer the visitor than any place else in the Black Hills. The only attractions in Sturgis. other than getting ~ut of town for a nice long ride through the hills, a cool brew in a bar, is the Main Street motorcycle show. If you really like motorcycles, and especially if you count yourself among the die-hard Harley and nothing else fan club, then Main Street is reason enough to come to the rally. At one time or another you can see an ex· ample of just about every motorcycle that has ever rolled on wheels. Among some of the bikes this year was a hard tail SR 500 chopper that actually didn't look as bad as it sounds; a 10-wheel trike powered by a '302 c.L Ford that featured a pop up camper; a Rudge single cylinder racer; an Indian Four in showroom condi· tion; two 1926 Harley-Davidsons with sidecars, one of which was a Flxi; a stone stock Honda 305 Dream; Trident Hurricanes; Ariel Square Fours; all manner of Milwaukee V-twins; two water-cooled Yamahas from Canada; a Mike Hailwood Replica Ducati 900; a brace of Moto-Guzzi Le Mans models that displayed more than stock equipment; a newly minted MotoGuzzi 500 MoOla; V-S engined trikes and cycles; a turbo-charged trike designed by an astrophysicist; a scattering of turbo bikes; a Norton Atlas with a chrome plated race frame; lots and lots of Harley Classics; lots and lots of Honda Gold Wings with the Interstate package; an almost complete lack of dirt bikes; and, good grief, that was just one pass down Main Street! Yes, if you love motorcycles you really should make it to Sturgis at least once before the geeks and greaseballs get the show shut down. Just remember to stay mellow, don't be holding any· thing and keep your clothes on. You'll still have a good time. •

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