If you're not doing anything, this weekend, it's not too late for you to hop on your bike and gun down I-90 for 30 hours or so - a straight shot - until you get to Sturgis, South Dakota. Where, from August 7th through the 16th, the 80th annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally is being held. Pandemic, be damned!
While they're not expecting the 750,000 souls who vroomed into town in 2015 for the 75th anniversary event - and I've forgotten: is 75th anniversary leather, rubber, or tailpipe? - they are anticipating a quarter of a million attendees.
The city of Sturgis had considered canceling the Rally, but they figured that the riders would show up anyway. So they voted to hold it in hopes that they could at least keep some control. A couple of events have been canceled, including the opening ceremony when, I believe, everyone rides into town (which must be something to behold, if not to actually have to listen to), and a B1 bomber flyover.
The city will be taking precautions, setting up dispensers for hand-washing, and will be scouring the downtown each evening. (The Rally website itself has little by way of COVID info, other than a link to the South Dakota state tracker, so attendees can figure out just what they're riding into.)
But it looks like most of the show will go on. Including the entertainment, from groups like Hairball, Saliva, and Flaw.
Not that I would ever in a billion years have been drawn to an event that involved 250,000 bikers sharing porta-potties, but I'm sure for those who go every year it's an absolute blast. Hairball! Saliva! Flaw!
And it would have been truly awful for the small businesses of Sturgis who count on the Rally for a good portion of their income to have the week canceled. Still, the idea of 250,000 folks converging on this small town - most of who I suspect (with my coastal elite snobbery) think masks are for pansies - and then shooting back home to all 50 states... Ugh... All those leather-clad disease vectors, heading down the highway, lookin' for adventure.
Closer to home, Laconia, NH will also be hosting their annual Motorcyle Week from August 22nd through August 30th. It's even older than Sturgis. This year will be it's 97th edition.
It doesn't seem like it would have been his thing, but I'm wondering whether my father ever went up their in the 1930's when he was a young single guy with an Indian Motorcyle.
He's not in this picture, but motorcycling racing wouldn't have been outside of his wheelhouse at all. Too bad there's no one left to ask!
Anyway, this year's Laconia was postponed to an August date, but it's going happen. (Didn't get a list of all the bands that are coming, other than Bad Marriage...) There are, of course, COVID caveats in place:
“The emphasis on this year’s Laconia Motorcycle Week will be on safety,” says Deputy Director, Jennifer Anderson. “While we recognize that New Hampshire is faring remarkably better than most in this pandemic, many riders will be coming from out of state and we want to ensure the public we are taking every precaution to protect their safety, such as promoting the use of face masks when not riding, regular sanitization of public surfaces through sanitization experts, Nano Coating Technologies, LLC (NCT NH), and purposely planning for a toned down version of our rally to minimize large gatherings. Expect lots of fun, food and, of course, riding but in a safe environment.”
"A toned down version" of a motorcycle rally is likely to still be fairly raucous. And keep in mind that New Hampshire is the Live Free or Die state. Hope a lot of the bikers don't decide to head into Boston unmasked, unhelmeted, on their way home.
And whether they're heading to Sturgis or Laconia, I hope they remember that final lyric of Steppenwolf's Born to be Wild.
Like a true nature's child
We were born, born to be wild
We can climb so high
I never wanna die
Me neither. At least not now and from COVID that rides into town on the back of a Harley.
Anyway, with America's failure to suck it at all up and do what's needed to do to flatten the curve, it's no wonder that, pandemic-wise, we've achieved third world status.
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