According to a city official numbers are definitely up on the past few years of the Rally though at this stage he could not quote actual figures. However, long time vendors along Lazelle report the same thing; crowds are up though not near the figures of the peak years.
The judging for the AMD World Championship of Custom Bike Building took place today and as a judge over the past few years I can report that the standard of some of the entries is absolutely amazing. Style-wise, the long, fat-tired choppers of yesteryear have almost vanished except of a couple of over the top examples and the current trend is toward both bobbers and rideable, canyon-carving bikes.
Victory Motorcycles have their new Boardwalk model on display and it is creating considerable attention with its cool wide beach bars and some retro-styling such as the tail dragger style rear fender. Speaking with Victory staff members it seems that big things are in the pipeline for their upcoming revival of the Indian marquee. Meanwhile they are selling Kings Mountain bikes albeit with mechanical improvements I understand.
World Famous biker photographer held his annual celebration of biking “Come Together, The Spirit of Born-Free which featured bikes built by dozens of grass roots fabricators along with some “names” of the industry. In a word, stunning.
Baggers, baggers, baggers – if you didn’t think that these had become the “next big thing” you only had to walk around Sturgis with your eyes half open to be bombarded from all sides by baggers of all shapes and sizes, from mild to incredibly wild.
Even that venerable organization of yellow t-shirt wearers, the Hamsters, featured a bagger on this year’s shirt. And boy, do they have some of the coolest baggers around! Unbelievable comes to mind when eyeballing some of them.
The aging demographic of American V-Twin riders is very apparent, not only from the gray beards in the streets, but also when one views the various parking lots, which feature a veritable sea of windshields. But we should never forget that we don’t stop riding because we grow old; we grow old because we stop riding. Go graybeards!
