Originally posted by Parallax After living here for over 40 years I can attest that that is complete bull.
Apparently you've never been here during the Sturgis rally.
The Sturgis rally originally was attended by real bikers.
When Harley Davidson was bought from AMF by some of the employees in 1981 the company changed dramatically. It wasn’t long before the company began aggressively marketing the bikes to wealthier executive types and factory workers earning high union wages.
Of course going to Sturgis, and Daytona for bike week became the popular thing to do. But of course the RUBs couldn’t be bothered to give up their creature comforts, so the pilgrimage was done in the air conditioned comfort of a motor home pulling the bikes along in a trailer.
For five years I passed through South Dakota, and each year around the rally saw hundreds, maybe thousands, of these neophytes and their tow vehicles and trailers, unloading at the rest areas on either side of Sturgis. I stopped one year and took a walk through town. I saw very few real bikers there.
A friend of mine is a member of the Gypsy Jokers chapter in Spokane. He speaks with disdain about how the rally changed when HD was resurrected way back then, and how it has changed what a ‘biker’ is.
He hasn’t gone to Sturgis in over 30 years.
Today it is nothing more than an excuse for a bunch of wealthy upper middle class dopes to gather, get stupid drunk, show off their expensive toys and behave badly.