A bit of attitudinal adjustment
Preparing for 2023
Now less than two weeks away
Bikers already rolling in... TheEditor
Sturgis 12-days out
Vendors have been busy for weeks
Sturgis expected to be big this year. There is a big uptick in travel all over North America.
On one of the less traveled paths at the rally.
Vendor setup
Much work going on in downtown sturgis where vendors create a mini-city each August.
- Local stores rented out just for the rally. A health food store, for instance, might be emptied and turned into a leather shop.
- Main Street will be blocked off to any traffic except motorcycles. As usual. A few bicycles creep in, too. But no lumbering cars.
- Motorcycle parking along the curb and double rowed down the middle of the street, for as far as you can see.
When hundreds of thousands of biker arrive
Sturgis Police Dept. runs in emergency mode for 10-days
Surge in Police Presence come early August
Sturgis Police expands drastically during the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.
Town explodes from 7,000 population to somewhere between 200,000 and 400,000. Maybe more.
"It's a difference of night and day."
says Geody VanDewater, chief of the Sturgis Police Department
The outskirts are also flooded with South Dakota Highway Patrol troopers who come in from all over the state.
And a motorcycle gang fight broke out one year on Main Street, and that entire area was immediately swamped with lots of armed law enforcement.
SD Public Radio has a story on this
One of the famous 59-second biker videos
Massive consumption of biker life...
In Austria, where there is a history of this sort of thing
Wikipedia.com
Ten Arrested
Grenade launchers, around 35 rifles, 25 submachine guns, 100 pistols, and more than 10,000 rounds of ammunition were taken.
Investiation began after a firearms were found in a car last year. And a rival biker was murdered while riding through the area.