Sturgis Rally — to trailer or not to trailer, 2 tips.

Yeah, it’s a motorcycle rally.  And so most of the photos of the rally are of motorcycles. What you don’t see though is that in some places it looks like a trailer rally.  People who don’t ride to the rally cheat by trailering their bikes. Yeah, the destination is the rally, but the journey is  as much a part of the experience as the rally itself.

Trailers separate the vacationers from the riders. People who ride to the rally are there for the ride, the community of bikers. People who trailer are there for some other reason, a vacation, a party, to be voyeurs of those of us who ride.

Still I have to admit, there are advantages to trailering to the rally and here’s one — inexperience.

In 2006, about a month before the rally, Red bought a Harley-Davidson low rider – and that’s about all the longer she had ridden.  In fact, she hadn’t even been on a motorcycle until that spring when she rode behind me on a long Sunday afternoon ride. That ride hooked her. She wasted no time to dive in to the lifestyle.   She took the rider safety course and bought her first motorcycle.  Today she’s galaxies beyond the world of a new rider. She’s the most accomplished rider I’ve ever ridden with – but it didn’t start that way.  It’s likely she would not be riding today if we had rocketed her in to the Milky Way cluster of motorcycles at the Sturgis Rally. It would have been an unpleasant experience at best and likely would have ruined it for her in later years.

First exposure to Sturgis

That first year of her riding was also her first year at the Sturgis Rally.  She wisely trailered her low rider to Glencoe Campground, about 2 miles east of the city of Sturgis.

Tip: New riders should not attempt to negotiate and navigate the crowd of bikers.

She pulled her Explorer in to the campground pulling an open flatbed trailer with her low rider and camping gear.  She was a jumble of excitement. All her senses were stimulated with the sights, the sounds, the smells of motorcycles everywhere.  Like a pre-schooler at Lego-land she was wound up and ready to handle it all – except the crowd of bikes.

I had gotten to the campground a couple of days earlier and had set up my tent in a shady area of the motorcycle-only area.  It’s fenced off with a gate so narrow that only a motorcycle can ride through.

When she arrived, I directed her to the nearest point where she could drive up with the trailer of camping gear. We tossed it over the fence and packed it to the cottonwood shade where my tent was set up.  Then, we unloaded her bike and she maneuvered it in to the campsite.

For the next week, nearly all the riding we did was on my bike with her as a passenger. Wisely she declined to immerse herself in the flood of bikes.  She was unwilling to be a statistic.  Many years, bike wrecks and fatalities are caused by under-skilled riders.  Red was not about to be one of those stats.

  However, to get her initiated in to the Sturgis Rally riding experience, we took a short ride on our two bikes north past Bear Butte the back road to Belle Fourche and then west to Wyoming toward Devils Tower.

Bear Butte

Again, mindful of her fresh entry in to motorcycle riding, we didn’t go in to the curve near Alladin and beyond, but turned around and hung out at Belle Fourche for a couple hours before heading back to Glencoe where we parked her bike again.

The short ride on her own bike did not overwhelm her, but instead gave her incentive to improve her riding skills so that the next year, she could dive in to the ocean of bikes.  As a passenger on my bike she was still was able to enjoy Wedensday’s Ham Jam at Hulett, cooling off in the misting showers along Main Street.

Tip:  Do not ride more than you can handle. New riders should experience a small nibble of the gourmet of riding, but not overindulge. There’s always next year.

Hauling in the extra camping gear made the week at the campground an easy, well-stocked camping-resort. We had food, stoves, gear, chairs, two tents and even a table at our site.

The week was safely enjoyed from the confines of the campground with only a couple of forays in to the sea of bikes.   Without risking the chance of a crash, we were still able to enjoy the regular routine of the Sturgis Rally such as shopping.

Shopping for Chaps

We enjoyed good viewing of the concerts held that year at Rockin’ the Rally such as the Fabulous Thunderbirds.  (Rockin the Rally was an event never to be repeated at Glencoe. For such entertainment in following years, the Buffalo Chip remains the place to go.)

Kim Wilson of the Fabulous Thunderbirds

So while I’ve never trailed my bike anywhere unless it’s because it broke down along the highway, I can understand the creature comfort and safety reasons for trailering to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.  To ride to the rally like the scooter trash I am is a stretching and growing adventure that trailer trash will never experience.

Now it’s your turn. Tell me what other reasons there are to trailer your bike, other than to protect the innocent?