#sturgis

Landspeed Racing Icon & Record-holder Immortalized for Lifetime Achievements

Upcoming Motorcycle Events: July 17 – August 14

Upcoming Motorcycle Events: July 10 – August 7

Here’s our weekly guide to the upcoming motorcycle events and rides that are happening over the next several weeks.

Here’s our weekly guide to the upcoming motorcycle events and rides that are happening over the next several weeks.

This morning, the Veterans Charity Ride (VCR) to Sturgis set out on a nine-day road trip along the healing road to visit communities and other veterans along the way. VCR has gone from nine attendees to 20 in just three years, according to “Indian” Dave Frey, the founder of Veterans Charity Ride. Frey says that 20 is the magic number of participants because it allows them all to connect with each other to deal with their post-traumatic stress and anxiety and the other issues that veterans face upon reassimilation back into civilian society.

The following public motorcycle events and rides are happening in the next four weeks or so.

Anyone who has attended a large-scale rally will tell you that there is a certain point, after the front wheel has turned for home, that a feeling of emptiness can set in, a sensation, as the events of the past few days pass out of sight in your mirrors, that can call into question your very reason for being. OK, not really, but I’ve spent hours reminiscing about a rally as the miles rolled by underneath me on my way home. So, grab your gear and take a virtual ride home with me.

If you’re a motorcyclist, you’ve heard of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. With Sturgis being one of the largest motorcycle gatherings in the world, people think they know what there is to do when attending the event. However, when questioned, they mostly mention shenanigans that take place on Main Street – activities that are so numerous that they’ve long since spilled onto and taken over nearby Lazelle Street. Or perhaps newbies express their desire to attend the events at the famous campground, concert venue, and all around party central, the Buffalo Chip. While these two locations are essential to the Sturgis experience, so much more is available to riders who attend the rally.

Way back in 2013, Moto Guzzi said that the revamped California 1400 was the platform for a line of models, and we watched it grow from the initial pair of the California 1400 Custom and the hard-bagged California 1400 Touring to include in the 2016 model year the Audace and the El Dorado – though both fail to mention their California roots in their names. Into this family, Moto Guzzi lands the formidable MGX-21 Flying Fortress.

Tomorrow being July 4th, which if you don’t know, is Independence Day here in America, where the MO staff is based. In celebration of this holiday today’s Church feature is all-American. And it doesn’t get much more all-American than a story about a Harley-Davidson and a trip to Sturgis. Today, we have a review of the 2009 Harley-Davidson Electra Glide Standard that George “Longride” Obradovich piloted 2500 miles to Sturgis. Obradovich, owner of a 2001 Electra Glide, notes the many changes between his old bike and this new one, and gives his (probably biased) opinion about how it all works. In short, he gives it a thumbs up. Read on to find out.

An intensive care unit (ICU) is a great place to think – there is so much time on your hands at all hours of the day and night, and you get to meet all these really nice people. The problem is you really can’t focus on much, the shadows dance against the wall and change. I blame it on the Dilaudid, or Plato, or life itself. Much of my waking hours early on were filled with a kaleidoscope of images from the past, in some cases the distant past: people, places, and bikes for the most part, and questions.

The motorcycling public has long associated  Harley-Davidson with the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, but Sturgis and the Motor Company are in the process of making it official. The Milwaukee-based manufacturer and the City of Sturgis, SD are ringing in the year of the 75th Sturgis Motorcycle Rally by looking forward to the next 75 years.

While it’s difficult to say which is the top rally in the popular consciousness of American motorcycling, both Daytona Bike Week and Sturgis feature prominently in biker mythology. If you break down both events into their most basic components, they look something like this: Bikers arrive from all over the country and other parts of the world, take over the main venues of several local cities/towns, make lots of noise, consume tons of food and drink, go for rides around the local area, consume more and make more noise, spend tons of money, and go home happy, already talking about next year. Daytona has a little more racing (to this crowd) and Sturgis has a lot more riding. Both are considered must-do motorcycle events.

If you’re at the Sturgis Rally in South Dakota or the National Bikers Roundup in Tulsa, Oklahoma, you’re in luck! If not, you’re probably reading this and wishing you were at one of these two rallies. Why? Because Harley-Davidson is revealing, and offering test rides on, the new 2015 Road Glide and Road Glide Special at each rally weeks in advance of announcing the company’s complete 2015 model lineup.