Worldwide circumstances have conspired to ensure that this year’s 80th anniversary Sturgis Rally won’t be the stellar celebration once planned. That said, once August 7th rolls around, the eight-decade occasion will most certainly be marked, if with less fanfare.

As bike riders, we appreciate the significance of an 80-year milestone in motorcycling, especially one celebrated in western South Dakota where the aura of wild west rebellion and revelry so synergistically dovetails with biking. I’d wager that’s part of the rally’s allure for us cowboys and cowgirls on iron horses. But even the most fervent rider would agree: the relative longevity of this motorcycle rally pales quickly compared to the much longer and far more dramatic American pioneer heritage that’s rife in these parts.

On my annual treks to the Black Hills to cover the rally over several decades, I barely caught a glimpse of the region’s frontier history. It was all about the here and now. But in more recent years, as I started arriving early, staying later and finally moving to South Dakota, my inner history nerd won out. Women’s letters on the westward journey, soldiers’ diaries recounting military campaigns, even cowboy poetry became my reading of choice. Each year, when rally work was wrapped up, the western horizon beckoned. Yes, I went to Yellowstone, Cody and Little Big Horn, of course. But there were also gold mines, ghost towns, sacred sites, buffalo jumps and rock formations both natural and man-carved. So much to see!





I soon went full-on geek, sifting through the Historical Marker Data Base and Waymarking.com before trips. I’d alter my route when I spied small brown road signs reading “Lewis & Clark Trail.” I hated when circumstances demanded I leave a roadside “point of interest” unexplored. One October I happened upon scenery so stunning along Highway 20 south of Thermopolis, Wyoming, that I did a U-turn at the bottom of the canyon just to ride it the other direction and back again.

So, imagine my delight when I learned of a memorial commemorating the little-known Battle of Slim Buttes so close to home; a mere 90 miles north of Sturgis, near Reva, SD. The story goes like this:





In the late 1860’s Jonathan White was one of many former Civil War soldiers seeking fortune and adventure in the West. Sharp scouting skills and an affable nature earned him work as a civilian scout with the Army. By the 1870s he’d met and become a devotee of Buffalo Bill Cody, emulating Cody’s mode of dress and literally following him around. General Philip Sheridan once said White followed Cody too closely, mockingly nicknaming Buffalo Bill’s ardent admirer “Buffalo Chips White”

By the autumn of 1876, White was scouting for General George Crook, whose troops were combing western South Dakota for bands of Native Americans in the months after the Battle of Little Big Horn. On September 9th, Crook got word that Captain Anson Mills, who’d been sent to Deadwood for supplies, had captured a Lakota Sioux village near the Slim Buttes, an area so named for its rocky formations. A counter assault was expected and Mills wanted help.

When Crook, White and three cavalry companies arrived, Mills and his men were under attack by Crazy Horse’s warriors, led by Chief American Horse. Thanks to the reinforcements, the Army ultimately took control. Though there were heavy casualties among the Natives, only three on the Army side were lost, one of them civilian scout Jonathan “Buffalo Chips” White.

Based on remaining accounts, the good-natured scout was sorely missed. Among the stories that persisted is one claiming he was so steadfast a friend that he once saved Buffalo Bill Cody’s life. Friends like that come along but rarely.




Bike riders know about prized friendships, the ones we make on the road, the ones that persist over decades. Riding together has a way of turning strangers into friends. That’s why naming his campground after “Buffalo Chips” White made sense to Sturgis Buffalo Chip owner Rod “Woody” Woodruff. Woody’s witnessed quite a few friendships made, molded and multiplied over the Chip’s 39 years. I’d wager he’s also made a few friends himself.

So, when you’re next in the Black Hills, why not make new friends or travel with old ones on your social-distance machines to pay respects to the grit and fidelity of “Buffalo Chips” White? It’s an ideal destination ride for celebrating the steadfast courage of those who tamed the wild west and the staunch friends they made in the process. Comforting thoughts in these turbulent times.


* The Battle of Slim Buttes monument is located off SD Highway 20, ¼ mile west of the intersection with SD Highway 79, about one mile west of Reva, SD.

–Marilyn

by Daniel Patrascu from https://www.autoevolution.com

“Probably the most radical Softail who saw the light of day” – this is how the Germans from Thunderbike describe one of their builds from two years ago. And just by looking at the two-wheeler, you can tell they’re not far from it.

Thunderbike has been in the business of customizing Harleys for more than two decades now. The shop seems to be determined to break some record or something, as they now have in their portfolio several hundred bikes customized in one way or another.

For its work, Thunderbike uses both stock Harleys, which it modifies, or custom frames built in-house, which they generally gift with Harley hardware.

The one in the gallery above is called GP-Style, and it is somehow related to the Grand Prix we talked about earlier this week – that bike, in turn, is an evolution of another build by Thunderbike, the Outerlimit.

The GP-Style was completed back in 2018, and believed it or not, it used to be a stock Harley-Davidson Breakout from that year. According to the shop, “except for the last screw, the Breakout was disassembled; frames and attachments scanned and were taken as a base for our new parts.” And that shows, as this is nothing like what the American bike maker lets loose in Milwaukee.

The motorcycle comes with more custom parts that we can count. The wheels – both sized 21-inches – are from the Digger series and come with many spokes – that allowed for the installation of a “huge” perimeter brake from Brembo.

The engine is a Milwaukee Eight 114 from the Breakout series, sitting inside a custom frame drawing its fuel from a Thunderbike tank. The entire frame, so different from what Softails are over at Harley, rides on an air suspension system.

As usual, Thunderbike does not say how much the entire conversion cost. If you have the stomach for it, you can head over to the shop’s website, where most of the parts used on this are listed and available for others to purchase, and get an idea.

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Actors who make the jump from racing movie to race track aren’t as uncommon as you might think. It’s more than a silver-screen ruse, too; some actors invest their own off-camera hours in motorsports. Here are 11 stars who did just that, some with impressive amounts of success.

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I did stop in 2019 to see friends and enjoy the party on Main Street.

 

 The city is also well known for a place named the Corn Palace which attracts some 500,000 tourists every year to see the uniquely designed corn murals that cover the outside and the interesting historic information in the palace.

 

To motorcyclist it is often to visit Klock Werks motorcycle shop at 915 S Kimball St. Home of the original and patented FLARE Windshield for your motorcycle. They have been saying, if you are in the area stop by, we would like to give you a tour, a catalogue and free decal.

 Well, I did that years ago and continued to do so as did a lot of people. The shop started a Pre- Sturgis party before part of the staff headed off to Black Hills Harley-Davidson in Rapid City for the Black Hills Classic.

 To find out more about their business check out https://getklocked.com/

Well as you can imagine with all the friends and satisfied customers, they had this turned into quite a party, and it continued to grow year after year until it got so large it had to be moved to Main Street.

 The event is now named The Palace City Pre-Sturgis Party and will take place on Mitchell’s Main Street from 5-10 PM on Thursday, August 6,2020.

North Main Street from 4^th Ave. to 7^th Ave will be closed for the evening’s events.

 

 During the 2019 event, there were plenty of food and places to have an adult beverage, local shops and temporary vendors are spread out around the area.

 

 

In the area in front of the Corn Palace was set up for the Ives Brothers to do their Ball Of Death demonstration.

 

Daredevil “High Flyin” Cole Freeman did a jump in front of the palace.

 

 There were also plenty of other entertaining demonstrations going on as well.

 The city of Mitchell wants to let everyone know it is a biker-friendly city and has provided Bike Only Parking at the south end of 4^th Avenue and Main Street.

So, if your schedule allows you might want to include a stop in Mitchell on your way to Sturgis this year. Hope to see you there. Looking forward to having a good time there again this year.

–Rogue

 

 

by Daniel Patrascu from https://www.autoevolution.com

Over the past few months, as part of our various special coverages, we’ve talked at length about certain custom motorcycles coming from Germany. As you can see, we’re not quite done yet, because the number of extreme builds a certain shop there is responsible for is huge.

The shop is called Thunderbike, and this weekend we’re showing you a machine it unveiled at the 2016 Custombike show in Bad Salzuflen, Germany. It’s called Grand Prix, and it’s an even more radical interpretation of another build that goes by the name Outerlimit.

The Outerlimit was made for one of the shop’s customers specifically to mirror the design and colors of a Lamborghini Aventador. Built on a custom frame, it sports a Harley-Davidson twin cam 120R engine linked to a 6-speed manual transmission, which gives the bike a power output of 140 ps and 190 Nm of torque.

Likewise, the Grand Prix too uses the same Screamin’ Eagle, packed in a frame that offers a 1,780 mm (70 inches) wheelbase, 132 mm (5 inches) caster, a steering head angle of 36 degrees.

That makes the overall design of the bike pretty similar to the Outerlimit, only there are exceptions, too. The most visible one is the color. Instead of the white used on the Lambo-mimicking bike, this one comes in racing red, hence the name Grand Prix.

The wheels on the build are a tad different, too. The custom shop went for a new design, more aggressive, for the rims (they are sized 23 inches at the front and 21 inches at the rear) to give the motorcycle a more racing-like look.

We are not being told how much the Grand Prix cost to put together, but we do know that a lot of CNC-machining, CAD design and man hours went into making it look like an extreme interpretation of the Outerlimit.

 

The Master Leather Worker Supports KidsRide

by Bandit with photos by Howard Knight

The 6th annual Flying Piston Benefit Breakfast, is set to kick off the 80th Anniversary Sturgis Rally. This celebrity-strewn Meet & Greet held Sunday, August 9, brings together custom builders and industry influencers to support veterans and new rider initiatives through Motorcycle Missions and AllKidsBike. It also features the unveiling of the 2020 Tiny Strider Customs.

I was in the process of moving to Deadwood and didn’t have time for a major metal sculpture, but I was inspired by my Howard Knight handmade belt with its intricate leather details. I could make a belt buckle and perhaps he could make a leather engraved belt to match. I could hope. I reached out to Howard and he agreed.

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by Andrew Wheeler from https://www.engineering.com

The Giaguaro motorcycles come with a three-speed manual gearbox and 15 or 20kWh battery packs.

Most electric vehicles (EVs) propel themselves with electric motors that use energy from battery-stored electricity collected from a charging station.

And electric automobiles are steadily gaining in popularity among mainstream automotive manufacturers and automobile customers. In 2020, you can buy the Chrysler Fiat 500e, which has an all-electric powertrain, the Chevrolet Bolt EV, the Hyundai Kona, the Honda Clarity Electric, the Nissan Leaf, the Tesla Model X and so on.

But what about electric motorcycles?

There are more than a few to choose from, and that list now includes the V1-R, V1-S and V1-Gara series motorcycle from Soriano Motori Corp. The company was founded in 2020 and was spun off from its parent company Soriano Motori Factory SpA, which was founded in Madrid in 1939.

The Giaguaro (Italian for Jaguar) V1 Gara goes from 0-60 mph in 3.5 seconds and runs from a 75kW electric motor with 100 horsepower. Propulsion engineers from the United States and the European Union worked together to create the series. With a 72kW motor and 96 horsepower, the Giaguaro V1S is still powerful, but accelerates a bit more slowly than the V1 Gara. With 96 horsepower, the V1S accelerates from 0-60 mph in 4.4 seconds, as does the third new model, the Giaguaro V1R, though it has a less powerful motor (60kW) with less horsepower (80).

Bottom Line

Each Soriano Giaguaro comes with a manual three-speed gearbox. They range in price from $28,000-$34,000, which is expensive for motorcycles. Part of the increased cost is due to the limited number of units available. The current plan, according to Soriano, is for a production run of 100 units. The company is currently taking preorders.

by Daniel Patrascu from https://www.autoevolution.com

Just like garages specializing in tuning or rebuilding cars, custom motorcycle shops are a dime a dozen. Nowhere in the world are there as many in the U.S., though, and over the years some incredible two-wheeled machines have been revealed here.

But that doesn’t mean the rest of the world is sitting idle. From Asia to Europe and Australia, shops are doing their best to come up with their own worthwhile designs. Most of the time, they fail, and the number of such high profile organizations outside the U.S. is not that big.

In Europe, the most active Harley-Davidson shop are the Germans from Thunderbike. Over the past 25 years or so, they came up with literally hundreds of builds, both based on stock Harleys, or using custom frames and Harley engines.

Being so active means Thunderbike was quickly noticed by the big names from across the Ocean, and the shop has been a constant presence in the H-D build-off competitions over the years. At times, some collaborations were born.

So is the case with this bike here, one the shop calls Vancy. Based on a Harley-Davidson Iron, it came to be as a product that uses parts made by Roland Sands, the American motorcycle racer turned designer of custom motorcycles.

Built as “the perfect example for the fact that you can get a new custom Harley with relatively small money,” it features a new suspension system, a new exhaust and a new air filter, but also parts meant to make it look better than stock, such as a new seat, new grips, and of course a custom paint job on the rear fender and fuel tank.

We are not being told exactly how much this customization work is worth, but the Germans are know for coming up with great designs for prices that are often under $10,000, not including the base motorcycle, of course.