Helmet Bias?

Irritating? Yes.

South Dakota does not require motorcycle riders to wear a helmet while riding, so why does the local newspaper always mention whether or not a rider was wearing a lid? Unless the rider dies of head injuries, how does the mention of a helmet add credibility to the news story? Is someone near the top of a news gathering organization biased in favor of new legislation requiring riders to wear helmets? Sure looks that way, when a helmet is mentioned as a tag to each biker accident story. Why aren't car accident victims mentioned as not wearing a helmet? After all, they're not required to wear one either. Hey Rapid City Journal...GET IT?

Sunday morning arrived as a 55 degree, cold, cloudy, drizzly, and generally clammy morning in Sturgis. From our mountainside retreat, the entire Sturgis valley looked like mom was steaming up a pot of cabbage & carrots. Seemed like a good time to leave, so we did. A 5th m/c accident victim died yesterday, as a result of a trike mishap on I-90 last Thursday. His lady passed away at the scene. People always want a semi-final count, so here it is: Deaths-5 DUI's-over 300 Misdemeanor Drug Arrests-250 Felony Drug-55 Between 1600-2000 tickets issued, and to the cops credit, around 3500 warnings..

Annual Sturgis Rally: South Dakota's Biggest Tourist Attraction..
Killing the Goose?

What we found during the ride through Wyoming.. A grocery store with almost bare shelves, and lots & lots of bikers tooling around. Could be lots of Sturgis riders are only staying a day or two, then moving on to remote locations free of high prices and cavity searches. The Disney World analogy is becomming an apt description. When NASCAR began it's push to go "family values", longtime fans deserted the ticket booths in droves. Is this happening to what used to be the world's biggest m/c rally? NASCAR makes tons of money on television rights, and they race every week. For Sturgis, there's only one golden goose. Chop off her head, and she's..gone...forever. ABM complains about this every year, but every year, it gets a little worse, and 50,000 fewer bikers show up. Is this the plan?

Stories we've heard..

Same dude get hit twice in 3 days: Out of state, he brought his chopper, and loaned his hog to a bro. Last Monday, they're leaving Deadwood, and get tailed by a cop, who pulls over his bro. Knowing there will be a multi-hundred dollar fine for not having a regisration, he turns around, gives up the paperwork, and next thing he knows, the cop has him lay everything in the saddlebags out on the ground. Two days later, the pair are riding hard on the way back from No Panty Wednesday at Hulett, Wyoming. Near the border (we ALWAYS tell you to take it easy 20 miles away from or comming up on any state border), the Wyoming highway patrol, silently waiting in a median dip, roars out & nails the lead bike in a pack of 9. After the Deadwood experience, the other eight bros decide to make a run for the SD border, waiting for the unlucky dude at an exit. He got a ticket for 90 in a 75. Cop told him that if the pack had stayed together, he would have simply "tailed" them to the border to keep their speed down. Somehow, they ain't gettin' the "ring of truth" out of that statement, ya know?

Wanderings..

Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, California, Arizona. No particular place to go, but ghost towns, abondoned mines, the great salt desert, including Bonneville, which is already packed for the BUB/Speedliner trials is a possiblity. The local Motel 6 is asking 79/nite, most others are booked, but after 12 straight days of occupying dirt, we're flush with motel cash!

Click back from time to time. If it's worth reading, you'll see it here. If it's worth talking about, you'll hear it on your local ABM affiliate!