Sturgis 2008

[HD03]

Sturgis 2008 -

Well what can you say about sturgis? Its an awesome ride from the Bay Area out there, once there the rides are amazing. The ride home is always an endurance test.

We left the bay area at 6am heading for Jackpot Nevada for the night, about 600 miles of riding. The nevada Desert is a big place to cross, with names like Pumpernickle valley to think about.



Flat and hot the 80- cuts a path towards Wendover the last town before the salt flats and home of Bonneville raceway. We decided to head to Jackpot Nevada which is a literally a one casino town right on the border of Nevada and Idaho. Good place to spend the night after a long day of riding.





We headed out the next day through Twin Falls Idaho towards Idaho falls and up to West Yellowstone.



Yellowstone is always a great destination and a wonderful place to ride. I had a little mis-hap when I got into West Yellowstone when my bike decided to break its belt right at the west yellowstone sign. Ugh...







This entailed a 90 mile tow to Belgrade to the Harley Davidson dealer to get it fixed. Changing the belt is bit of work, but these guys got me in and out in 3 hours which was really great.

Couple of things I learned: Basic Hog membership only covers $100 in towing, which is enough to get you about 5 miles. Progressive Insurance roadside assistance indicated they would pay for the tow in full - awesome!! Tow Truck driver said - yea thats great but I want to be paid in full now - err ok... I guess I will figure that out with my insurance later. Make sure you have enough cash or credit when you go on a trip like this or you may be left stuck by the side of the road.

Nonetheless I was really happy when the bike was rolling again - walking is a major drag. I rode back up to West Yellowstone up the 191 through Big Sky and the Gallitan national forest - this was a beautiful area which I had never seen before. So all in all that was the silver lining to this breakdown.

I rolled over to Old Faithful to watch the geyser do its thing, pretty cool. The hot water and steaming pots of mud looked way cool in the afternoon light. Re-hooked up with my group there and headed back to west yellowstone for the night.









Next day we headed out towards Cooke City which is in the North Eastern corner of the park. Cooke City is a small mining town with a few places to eat and drink. We rented some small log cabins for the night, I had never slept in a log cabin before.



I learned that log cabins are very very well insulated and that is why they are popular. I had always thought it was an aesthetic and material issue, i.e. they looked good and there are tons of trees to build with. But they they are actually really practical because they stay warm in the winter and cool in the summer, the big logs are great insulation. I always seem to learn something on these trips...



From Cooke city we headed out over the Beartooth Pass which is a road which takes you up close to 11000 feet over some serious switchbacks.



I have always wanted to to do this ride and I finally did it. It was really awesome and well worth it. If you are in the area its a must do ride. It was bit shorter than I had though, only 60 miles.













The highway leads you right to Red Lodge Montana which is a cool little town and a great place to eat some Breakfast, which we did at the Red Lodge Cafe.



From Red Lodge we headed to Billings Montana to meet the parents of one of the guys in our group. Always interesting meeting parents, I think they were glad to see Brad.



From Billings we were planning to make it all the way to Lead, where our motel was, but a localized storm kept up from doing that. As we were heading out of town a sheriff chased our group down with a warning - Ping Pong ball sized hail and torrential rains abpout 30 miles down the road - he suggested that we stay in town for the night, which we did. For those of you who were in Lead and the Glencoe campground you know how strong this storm was.




We were glad that we stayed the night and avoided a potentially painful situation.

Next day we continued towards Sturgis by way of Devils Tower. We came in south from Alzeda off the 212 tot he back side of the tower. This geologic formation is really cool and makes for an awesome side trip.




We did the tour and kept going towards Spearfish, up Spearfish Canyon and to our little motel called the White Tail Court Motel. Finally arrived! That is a long trip east, about 1450 miles from the Bay Area.

Sturgis this was not as crowded as other years but still an impressive show of bikes. Main Street was pretty full, One Eyed Jacks was hopping.



Content producers were hard at work documenting and filming the scene
downtown.



Tons of bikes and women to look at and have your picture taken with. We had a good time checking it all out.














Next day we stopped by the Rapid City HD dealer to chck out who was there. Got to meet Vinny and Cody from Vforce Customs which was pretty cool.






We then took off ad rode the defacto rides in the area. Mount Rushmore, the pig tail, Custer and Needles Highway. The thing about these rides is they are SLOW - 25 to 30 mph for 60+ miles with thousands of bikes to content with, especially at the one lane tunnels.








I am going to plan a trip someday when there is no Rally so I can ride these roads without the crowds.

There is a ton of stuff going on in the black hills so no matter where you go you are going to encounter tons of bikes.

Wanted to get home so the next day we took off pretty early in the morning and rode from sturgis to Wendover NV - 823 miles and then from Wendover NV back home 604 miles - that was an endurance test for sure.







We made it, it was an epic 3450 mile journey on the bike.

I extend a special thanks to my wife who took care of my son while I was away - thanks for letting me go Joan I really owe you one!

Here is a link to my gallery with way more pictures: http://tinyurl.com/6ygonu

Here is a link to a gallery from Brian (Flyin Brian) with even more pictures: Image hosting, free photo sharing & video sharing at Photobucket

[bikerkev]

Thanks John and Gang for the story and those awsome pics.
You all seemed to have a great time.
Again thanks for sharing.

[HeathersWheels]

Those are some great pics! That Welcome Riders pic is really something. So many people.

[CrusherTx3]

Sounds like it was an awesome trip ! I will check out the pics in a few minutes when I get caught up on my emails

[03bagger]

It was a long nice ride... We did it in two days comming from Sacramento,
Ran in to you guys near Reno and again at the gas station near ElKo....

On the way back went from Cheyenne WY to Sacramento non stop about 1100 miles and 16 17 hours of ridding..

Did the guy with the road glide get popped for his bars at all??
They got me in Wyoming and in Sturgis...

here's a link to some of my pictures.....some may not be work safe...jays65/Sturgis2008 - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

[madpuppy]

Thank you for the pics. John. Sounds like y`all had a Great time ! Do you know anything more about the shooting `tween the Red & Whites and the iron pigs ? The cops are trying to sweep it under the rug, so I was just wondering? PS. If those 12 Bikers that stopped at Hi Desert RV and camp ground are " WestCoastBiker" members you forgot to tell Dave "madpuppy sent ya" if you had you would have gotten a discount! Any time a forum member is going east on I -80 and wants to spend the night in Winnemucca NV. the discount is good for any Biker, you don`t even have to be riding your Bike. Y`all take care, and thanks again John!

[flplaytime88]

thanks for sharing.. maybe next year for me

[tireater]

Great pics...Welcome back..!

[84badboy]

Thanks for sharing John, we went 3 years ago and you brought back pleasant memories. Next time go up from Rock Springs to Bill and Wright towards Gillette - national prairie grasslands, beautiful sight. We stayed off the Interstates on the way back and still made good time (going we stayed in Rock Springs the first/only night - tooooooo long) and enjoyed more scenery coming down through Idaho and Oregon.
thanks again,

[jape]

Great pics John! New guy here.... I just joined after searching for some techy info for my Sporty ( yes - I found the info I was looking for ).
I live about 30 miles from Sturgis, so I thought I'd chime in on this thread.
Early estimates show that vendor applications for Sturgis were down by 15% plus & they haven't release official attendance numbers for this rally yet, but most guesses estimate that this years overall numbers will be down ~20% or so. ( that would put the number right around the 400,000 mark ) I'm sure the numbers were down a bit, but I would echo the comment made about how the Black Hills area being busy.
It seems to me - over the last few years more bikers are coming a week early... or staying the week after.... & it also seems like more bikers are spending time in other parts of the region instead of just in Sturgis. I think this makes the 'official' attendance numbers a little low - but that's just me.
If anyone has any questions on the area ( planning for '09 yet? ) - just drop me a line.
Jp