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Posted on 06/25/2004 1:30:07 AM PDT by leadpenny
Boycott call not hurting rally interest
By Bill Cissell, Journal Staff Writer
STURGIS - A call by some motorcycle riders for a boycott of the annual Sturgis motorcycle rally doesn't seem to have hurt interest, and this year's event may be one of the largest in the 64-year history of the August gathering, local and state officials say.
This year's rally officially runs Aug. 9-15, but the weeks immediately before and after the rally typically are only a little less hectic.
The calls for the boycott came in protest of the sentencing of former Rep. Bill Janklow, R-S.D., for the Aug. 16 death of Randy Scott, 55, of Hardwick, Minn.
Scott was killed when his motorcycle collided with a Cadillac driven by Janklow, who was convicted of driving through a stop sign at a rural intersection in eastern South Dakota.
The former four-time South Dakota governor was found guilty Dec. 8 of several charges, the most serious being second-degree manslaughter.
Some motorcycle riders said they were outraged that Janklow was sentenced to only 100 days in jail. He could have been sentenced to 10 years in prison for the manslaughter conviction.
A number of bikers from across the country sent e-mails to the city's rally department, saying they would not attend this year's event.
The American Motorcyclist Association also criticized the sentence but said a boycott would only hurt motorcycle enthusiasts and supporters.
But anger over the Janklow sentencing hasn't slowed interest in the event, which generally draws hundreds of thousands of participants and spectators from around the world to this small northern Black Hills community.
For most of the year, the town claims about 6,500 residents, but for the rally, the population has been estimated at as much as 500,000 visitors.
Local and state officials gathered in Sturgis on Thursday to talk about the upcoming event.
"It looks to be an even larger event than last year," Sturgis Mayor Mark Zeigler told representatives from a variety of state and local agencies involved in the biker event.
He said he had had reports that campground reservations were steady and that higher gas prices didn't seem to be having an effect on interest.
Zeigler also noted that he would attempt to make a parachute jump with the Army's Golden Knights skydiving team on Sunday, Aug. 8. His planned jump last year was called off at the last minute by high winds.
Zeigler said his second annual motorcycle ride is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Monday, Aug. 9. Participants pay $100, and the proceeds are donated to the Sturgis Volunteer Fire Department.
Zeigler is declaring Tuesday, Aug. 10, as Military Services Day and said that at 2:30 p.m. a B-1B Lancer long-range bomber from Ellsworth Air Force Base will fly over Main Street.
"When the pilot reaches the spot just above the west photo tower, at the corner of 4th and Main, he will go straight up using the jet's afterburners. That should be quite a sight," Zeigler said.
The city's Rally Department director, Lisa Weyer, said inquiries at her office are up and that office staffers are hearing from a lot of people who plan to attend the event for the first time.
She said there would be rally information centers in many Hills communities and as far away as Sioux Falls and Gillette, Wyo.
"Hopefully, these centers will bring more motorcycle enthusiasts to those communities as well," Weyer said.
Weyer said representatives from the bike rallies in Laconia, N.H., and Daytona, Fla., plan to visit this year's local event.
"We're trying to do some cross-promoting for all of our events," Weyer said.
Due to its continuing success and growth, the annual event attracts major sponsors, including such companies as Jack Daniels, Snap-On Tools and Harley-Davidson. New major sponsors this year include Coca-Cola, Weyer said.
Charting attendance at the rally has been difficult at best over the years because there isn't a requirement to sign in. In the past, there have been registration books at the armory on Main Street and at the Sturgis Community Center. Estimated attendance last year topped 400,000.
"We've generally had around 20,000 people signing in and putting a pin in a world map to show where they are from. This year, we are going to be using computer stations supplied by Snap-On Tools," Weyer said. There will be four terminals at the armory, two at the community center, three at the Snap-On Tools display area outside the community center and one in the hospitality tent next to the community center.
"I think we'll probably get about the same number this first year, but I think it will grow after that," Weyer said. She said she hoped to use the information gathered through registration to give sponsors and vendors a better idea about who attends the event.
Dan Statton, South Dakota Department of Transportation, said that ongoing work on the eastbound lane of Interstate 90 from east of Exit 55 (Deadwood Avenue) almost to Black Hawk should be done by rally time. He said work on the westbound lanes wouldn't start until after this year's rally.
Closer to rally central, Statton said that although some work on the outlying portions of the Exit 32 realignment and reconstruction project could be under way during the rally, the exit would remain open for the event. Over the next two years, the exit will be relocated several hundred yards to the south.
"There is an effort within the department to do projects West River so they don't affect the rally. It's more expensive to do it that way, but it minimizes accidents and fatalities," Statton said.
Reports from other officials, including the state Health Department, Highway Patrol, Revenue Department, local law enforcement and emergency services, indicated that they were all prepared for a larger event.
According to Bill McDonald of the federal Bureau of Land Management, the camp sites at Horse Camp and Alkali Creek Trail Head on the BLM cut-across road from I-90 to state Highways 34 and 79 east of Sturgis will be closed again this year.
McDonald said BLM has been closing them for almost a decade.
"The residents of Blucksburg, east of I-90, were concerned about the potential of fire from those campgrounds, and we were getting hundreds of people camping there on a campground designed for just six sites," McDonald said. "We lacked the ability to control the areas."
Contact Bill Cissell at 394-8412 or bill.cissell@rapidcityjournal.com
A B-1B fly-by is awesome. I got an email awhile back, a 3rd-party "friend of a friend" of unknown authenticity that talked about one:
So we're up in the mountains at about 0100 hours looking for a bad guy that we thought was in the area. There are ten of us, it's a pitch black, crystal clear night, about 25 degrees. We know there are bad guys in the area, a few shots have been fired but no big deal. We decide that we need air cover and the only thing in the area is a solo B-1 bomber.He flies around at about 20,000' and tells us there is nothing in the area. He then asks if we would like a low-level show of force.
Stupid question. Of course we do, we tell him yes.
The controller who is attached to the team then is heard talking to the pilot. The pilot asks if we want it subsonic or supersonic.
Very stupid question.
Pilot advises he is 20 miles out and to stand by. The controller gets us all sitting down in a line and points out the proper location. You have to picture this. Pitch black, ten killers sitting down, dead quiet and overlooking this about 30-mile-long valley. All of a sudden, way out (below our level) you see a set of four, 200-foot white flames coming at us. The controller says, "Ah--guys--you might want to plug your ears." Faster than you can think, a B-1, supersonic, 1000' over our heads, blasts the sound barrier and it feels like God has just hit you in the head with a hammer.
He then stands it straight up with four white trails of flame coming out and disappears.
Cost of gas for that: Probably $50,000
Hearing damage: For certain.
Bunch of terrorist scum thinking twice about shooting at us: Priceless.
That's a great story. Thanks.
Any freepers going to be there.
I wonder if one of our resident bards (Mudboy Slim? Doug from Upland?) could come up with a suitable ode to Jerklow, to be freeped out at the Rally.
ping the hooligan list
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FReeper Motorcycle Hooligan |
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Typical capitolism at work. The first half of the article tells us how upset the biker community is at Janklow(The scum sucking piece of dog crap killer above the law freak no good sob puke), the rest of the article is a hit piece of the vertues of Sturgis.
IOW, we feel your pain, but come join us in spending money because as posers go, we can't be bothered by morals, principles and above all else, POLITICAL FAVORS.
The international biker community can kiss my ass. And South Dakota is now a brown stain on the shorts of baby boomer mid life crisis'd moron's with huge pockets.
Sturgis, it was nice knowin' ya. Drop Dead.
ATTENTION STURGIS: joesixpack1 has TRANSCENDED you! <|:)~
I get a fresh one everyday. <|:-)~~
No Black Hills honeymoon for you & the new better half?
New better half???
Did I miss my wedding again?
I just got back from a short ride and I'm drenched from my do-rag to my socks. The rain beat me so hard I needed scuba gear. Gotta go dry off. BBL.
Nevermind . . .
(insert sound of palm clubbing forehead here)
Sometimes I am the King of Misinterpretation. Holy Wah. My head must have been in Connecticut (or was it Utah?).
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