Biker Nation Shocked: Bruce Rossmeyer Dies..

Rock Springs Wyoming:

Owner of the most Harley-Davidson dealerships in the USA, Bruce Rossmeyer of Daytona Beach, Florida, was involved in an an accident about 20 miles east of Farson, Wyoming, when another vehicle allegedly made a left turn as Rossmeyer & four other bikes were attempting to pass. Word is, the first three in line made it by, when Rossmeyer, fourth line, either swerved & hit roadside gravel, or hit the vehicle he was attempting to pass, & was thrown under the trailer. The fifth biker, last in line, was able to swerve & avoid a collision. Rossmeyer's death was the only fatality.

The group was headed west, en route from a Harley dealers meeting, toward Sturgis for bike week, at the time of this unfortunate accident.

Rossmeyer, well known for his philantrophic effort, raised over two million dollars for Camp Boggy Creek, a kid's retreat. He will be sorely missed by his wife Sandy, and their five kids.

ABM wishes to express our most sincere sympathy to the Rossmeyer family. We've done business with them for years, and wish them all, especially daughter Shelly, the strength to carry on, as they cope with this unforseen tragedy.

Black Hills Ice!

In July?

Thursday Morning, July 30, 2009, Hill City, Black Hills, SD:

ABM is no stranger to the summertime coldies, having survived Sturgis 2004 as snowflakes shrouded the old time blue ceramic coffee pot brewing some fresh joe at 7am. It was really cold that August. Upper forties in the hills around Sturgis this morning, while Hill City, farther up in elevation, had residents freaking on their ice-covered windshields. Whip out the credit card start scraping, and remember, the brothers & sisters of Seattle would trade places with you in a NY minute!

Scooter Trampin? Broke? A retro-retrend?

Ridin' in with just enough money to cover the cost of gas. What you ride ain't too fancy, but it's e-z to fix. You bring an extra set of socks, underwear, one sleeping bag, and maybe, if there's room, a tarp or a one man tent. You feast on the milk of human kindness, (and maybe a little pity), as a full man's leftovers are devoured by those less fortunate (that would be you). Sure, when it rains, gets cold, or hot to 100+ degrees, it sucks, but there's always the shower stalls overhang in which to curl up in at 3am if the wx gets a little rough. Life is made of memories, and the memory of a 4,000 mile road trip on a few hundred bucks will last ya all the way to the old age home. We're seeing more scooter tramps this Sturgis, maybe owing to the 401k having been shaved down to a 201..

Old ladies confirm ABM's belief:

Wanna find out what's goin' on? Find ya a couple elderly citizens, & tune in to their conversation. The yakky old ladies confirmed that a lot of bikers came into the area way early this year. Why this is, we have no idea, except the ridin' is a lot better early in the rally, not so much traffic, & you might even find a great deal on a crash pad. Once things get going, figure on $275/nite for the average (and below average) motel. One more reason to accomodate, cook, & clean up for yourself.

Speed limits posted:

Blacktop leading out to the big campgrounds was posted 65mph. By yesterday, the signs were changed to 35mph. Big difference, & there ain't enough bikes around to take off the heat, so earlybirds, we would suggest you follow the limit, or maybe the man will follow you to the nearest parking spot. As in last year's rally, new sections of I90 are being unveiled, just in time for bike week.


Dollar Happy Hour Draws Eclectic Imbibe-Cross-Section of Bikers:

Each morning at 9am, the Chip's homeless shelter bar opens for biz, the prize is a one dollar draft beer. The dollar hot dog (tube steak) shack is right next door. Sure, sometimes they're a little on the green side, maybe left over from last night, so get there a little later, or just have a cold one while the Sturgis virgins soak up the doggies laden with age spots. Just think of it! If you barely had enough cash to make it up here, your stately dinner awaits! ABM is no stranger to this heaven-sent array of ground cow knees, lips, & who knows what else, washed down with a double helping of malt & hops. For just a buck, you can't beat it w/a stick. While the better half is munching on broccoli sprouts, ABM is havin' some real fun! And speaking of buck this an' that, among the incredible grocery store bargains to be found between Rapid & Spearfish, are Washington Cherries.. buck a pound.. that's two big bags of 'em for three somoleans. Could live offa 'em, and probably unlike beer & dogs, they're actually good for ya..
(although beer is more fun).

Soundcheck....can you hear me now?

Yesterday at the Chip..they let some Pink Floyd rip after setting up a sound system. Rode by the stage this morning, couldn't believe that sound was comming from what little was mounted on the stage. The acoustic response was very good, and loud. Nothing is worse than a crappy, overdriven system that only dogs can hear. Bodes well for the first night's entertainment. It's the best sounding outdoor system ABM has heard in this area.

Now, bring on the dancing girls!

55 Lunchtime Degrees?

Cold Wx Grips Rapid City!

30 min, woulda 'fridged up a 12 pak of suds. Rollin' down the 90, coulda swore the temp sign said 55 degrees..11:30am? Last time that cold, back in March, before Daytona Bike Week. In Sturgis, it was raining cold, real cold, & nasty. Still, they're out there! It came down pretty steady last night, but no hail, or electric light show. No complaint, Black Hills wx gets better, dryer, warmer from here on, that's what they say.

Nitros Fever!

Got a little down time, few minutes to kill? Why not fill up your nitros oxide tank(s), so you'll be all set to rip up the next skin, & blow your drive belt/chain to shreds? "The Rev Limit", shop, located just off the easternmost I90 exit, and about halfway to Main Street, will fill it for ya while you wait.

Vale's "Last Call"

Each year, we take a ride out to Vale, a little town out in the country, about 10-12 miles (remember, i don't have a working odometer), past Bear Butte. Hang a right, go down a mile to town. Ranchers frequent this place, and the five of 'em seated inside the very rustic old one room schoolhouse, (or it may have been a church), looked just like the five dudes who where there last year, on the first Wednesday before Sturgis. ....hmmm..

$2.50 longnecks, 16 buck prime rib special. The beef out here is very good.

Two extra wheels, please?

More motorcycle-pulled trailers seen so far this year than ever before, & little mc trailer vendors are popping up around town. Cash is hard to come by, so bikers are downsizing.
Pulling a limited amount of stuff with your scooter leaves just enough extra cash to make the dif between going & staying home for a lot of bikers.

Sturgis-Bound & Proud Of It?

Seen everywhere.. Shoe polish slogans hand painted onto the side of trailers, vanagons, cars, trucks...something like..."Sturgis or Bust"..."We're Going to Sturgis", etc. I think when you barely have enough cash to make the trip, but you wake up one morning & say, "We're goin' anyway!", it makes the trip special. Aye?

Classic Rock, Pelt Fever!

Hot Classic Rock Friday:

Buffalo Chip rocks! Former lead singers for Grand Funk RR, Sugarloaf, Blues Image & Rare Earth all in one evening, doin' the songs we grew up with. Can't wait.

Wx Report:

Rain came in around 3pm yesterday afternoon, on into the night time. Dry this morning, low 50. Tomorrow's high in the sixties at Sturgis, with much colder temps in Deadwod through Custer, where they might sample 40 degrees. And this is August? Much warmer by weekend.
Looks like we're getting the cold wx out of the way before everyone arrives.

Deadwood Does Well:

Each year for the past 87, Deadwood has it's annual "Rodeo Days". This year was a screaming success. Bodes well for better crowds for the Sturgis Rally, we think.

Grasshoppers eat clover?

'Hopper population explosion? They love clover, and this year, clover is everywhere. Little green bushes, with purple flowers.. smell great, but grasshoppers love eating the stuff, so they're in the air, as ABM's better half found out yesterday on a ride out through the country.. came back with so many yellow splats, thought she had the Harley pinstriped! Cottontails love that green stuff too. You should see how succulently corpulent they are this year.. I can tell you from experience that they DO taste a little bit like chicken thighs, but is that a valid reason for eating them?

Free Food, but at what cost?

Good people from Lousiana dropped by with plate of McDonalds pancakes...
The very last tv commercial seen by ABM before leaving for Sturgis was the now venerable, and still crappy anit-biker mc-latte spot, where the biker is a total a-hole, hassling the dad & little kids in an suv.. Big corporation, little bikers... but if enough of us swear off what passes for food at this greasy, fatty, sugary, salty spoon, maybe they'll get it. Bikers have enough of a problem with cagers treating us like our lives aren't worth a dime. McDonalds, we don't need your help. ABM did Hardee's for breakfast on the way up, & better half swears it was the best breakfast bisquit she ever ate. The egg was actually yellow, and tasted like something other than a mickey d carboard box, and yes, the pancakes are still in the ice chest. Considering using 'em for target practice.

Nothing Gets Done?

Third full day in Sturgis, & so far all did was to get drunk twice. Got to break that trend, this is almost like being home! We got plenty of company doin' the same thing. Man, it's quiet at night. 3am, no noise. This too, will change. Think it was last year, middle of an electrical storm, crazy dudes jumpin' on their hogs & doin' turf burnouts, all the while, lightning strikes & driving rain. Hold it! (i think that was me..?)

What's the Point?

The chopper got points to go with the plugs. So far, so good. Amazing how snappy the throttle response. Instant power, at the snap of the slightest twist of the grip, & she starts so quickly, I'm learning to just hit the starter & let go before hearing the engine come to life. If there's a thermo-nuculear event, & I'm still around, it'll be the only vehicle on the road...
ABM-Madmax!

There's a rumor that Chuck Berry will be at the Chip, with his band, the "Pelt Patrol"..
haha..! Bathroom mini-cam, anyone...? anyone...?

The Eagle Has Landed..!

Surgis Headline-The rally has legs?

ABM's Top Five Reasons why this year may be bigger than #68:

1). Vendors are optimistic. Never seen this many so early. There are a hundred thousand tees 4sale already. West on I-90 so many bikes on the road, it looked like the rally had just ended.

2). Rentals are up: 10-20% over last year, depending on who you talk to.

3). Gasoline, average 2.40/regular gallon, cheap compared to last year's 4 bucks. Ouch.

4). America's Economy, at least for now, seems to have bottomed out.

5). The weather is great! (except for Custer, where it's cold-cold-cold) 91 in Rapid yesterday, the rest of this week, party sunny & a bit on the cool side, 70's 80's daytime, 50'a 60's night. Perfect. The exception is out in the hills toward Custer, where they'll see some nightime forties, & daytime highs barely reaching 60..for a 24-48 hrs period.

And there you have it, race fans, the top five reasons why ABM thinks the 69th Sturgis MC rally will be a little larger than last year, at least in the number of the motorcycle-faithful arriving for a week or two of so much fun, their mamma would slap 'em upside the head..!

There is nowhere we would rather be during the first two weeks of August than in the Black Hills of South Dakota, and finally, finally, we're here..Last nite, got me some ground pork at the Dakota Market, threw it together with a nice chopped fresh green pepper, an' onion, some homemade bread crumbs, one egg, & spash of Corona, pan-fried the patties up til they were nice an'crispy on both sides.. bro, that is a good burger.

Sturgis Virgins.. Beware!

How Can I get me some fun?

ABM coverage of Sturgis Bike Week begins Monday, July 27. Two big weeks of special Sturgis shows, & a personal blog each day, warm wifi allowing. Try hard as we may to hit all the displays and biker blowouts, it's the people that bring us back to this place in the Black Hills, year after year. You bet we'll catch music at the Buffalo Chip, some of the downtown spots, & ride-ride-ride. The real attraction is being immersed in hundreds of thousands of people who think just like us. Of course, it's you, our valued radio listener, we love to interview. Look for the little Harley girl with the big mike & warm smile.

Don't be a virgin!

For Sturgis Virgins, the little town at the top of Deadwood's hill, is Lead, but not Lead as in bullets, rather Lead as in "take me to your leader." The little town of Belle Forouche, just west of Sturgis, and off the innerstate by a few miles, is pronounced "Bell Foooche", as in fooseball, a table game which seemed to be in the rec hall of every Army joint where I was ever stationed. Those who incorrectly pronounce either will be immediatly be recognized as Sturgis Virgins, and be subject to castigation, and the possible hanging of their motorcycle from the nearest treetop!

If you can't make it up to the Black Hills, live the experience vicariously through your ABM friends, on America's best radio stations, on demand at 360.282.5400, or via podcast & blog at www.AmericanBikerMinute.com, or www.twitter.com/abmrocks.

What? Got 'ta be there by Monday? We'd better get going... C-ya there?

Dollar Beers, Dollar Dogs..& Some Aerosmith, Please?

Wednesday August 5, 2009: Aerosmith. Buffalo Chip campground, Sturgis, SD.

Dollar Hot Dogs, Dollar Beer Buzz the morning after.

Is this a great country, or what?

Mickey D's Stock Takes A Beating!

Bikers, enraged over motorcycle-hate commercial dumped holdings?

Why not? McDonalds stock was way down, on a day when the dow was up nearly 200 points. Making a motorcycle-hater commercial (refer to youtube), is simply bad karma. You pretty much get what you give, especially if you deny an obvious slam against bikers. There are two Ronald outlets near the ABM compound, but we passed them, & had some Hardee's. That stupid commercial left a bad taste in my mouth, not unlike when you try to get some sugar from honey after eating a quarter pounder with cheese..talk about birth control!

Harder Than Finding A Redhead In Iraq!

Leaving for Sturgis?

With less than one week to go, the chopper died while doing a rim-scraper at pretty much full throttle. Bikes sometimes have a way of teleporting you to the future if you ride 'em hard enough. Problems which might not occur for months, even years, can bite ya quick. Such was the case when she died at the beginning of an on ramp. Scary Larry, (no doubt the best tech who has ever wrenched on our bikes), came to my rescue, with not a trailer, opting to instead, use tools from my bag, eventually restarting the S&S 111 by shorting from the positive batt terminal to a handlebar switch wire hidden underneath the seat. Dude knows his stuff. Back at the shop, the problem was diagnosed as a combo of (1) a couple loose wires, a-n-d.. can you believe this...? Daytona had installed a Twin-Cam 88 (Harley-Davidson) engine ignition module in my S&S powered chopper. I'm not even sure how it ran as well as it did, and please don't try to tell me a module with TC-88 stamped on the box is suitable for an S&S 111.

Why so nervous?

As you may have heard on previous shows, Scary Larry is prone to high blood pressure, has survived 8 heart attacks, a couple this year alone, and yesterday his blood pressure was high enough to kill a horse. Sure, the other dudes in the shop are good, but Larry has the golden touch. This morning, his b/p is down, he feels better, and my chop gets done. Barring unforseen circumstances, the big girl will be back at the ABM compound w/the right ignition module. If you've never timed an ignition without a crank sensor, it's a lot of fun..you point a strobe light thru a tiny hole in the crankcase, as oil shoots out all over ya. Oh yeah.

For ABM, getting outta Florida is proving to be harder than finding a redhead in Iraq!

69th vs 70th Sturgis Rally: David & Goliath?

Marking a Decade..

Plenty of bikers think that being at the 50th 60th or 70th marks a milestone, not just another year. It's our guess quite a few will hold out for big number 70, choosing next year as a way to spend more time crawling through intersections than blasting around the Badlands. It's all good.

The Crush of Humanity..

Vendors, the biz people who travel coast to coast, their trucks, vans & trailers stuffed full of biker impulse items, are harboring feelings of slight optimism, to outright dread. The more optimistic are seasoned veterans, having sold through past recessions. Newer sellers, with little equity, are worried their shoestring will break under the weight of expenses outweighing scant biker dollars. Some describe their biz as being down 50% over the glory years. ABM's noticed fewer bikers each year as the unemployment rate rose, but by the first of August, the hills will be far from empty. Don't believe it? Try booking a room.

Should any of this matter?

Not if you came out to RIDE the Black Hills. The glory days were great for vendors, towns, businesses, & renters, but frankly, popping your clutch just to advance 10 feet, & stop again, no matter how hot, cold, or wet, sucks. Those who come to the hills for the thrills, and not to make money will be pleasantly suprised with e-z riding access to Rushmore, Custer, & some of the best scenery anywhere, beginning in a week or so. If it's the crush of humanity you seek, see ya next year!

Don't Eat Grey Meat! McDonald's Brain-Dead Ad Sucks

Mickey lovingly responds to our critique of their biker-negative commercial:

"...never intended it to offend anyone"

B.S. I'll bet you had a real good laugh inside the viewing room.

"...we take pride in producing commercials that will be enjoyed.."

By the neantrathal who approved the spot?

Ronald's new biker-negative ad may be seen on youtube. Altho the dude appears to be riding a Big Dog K-9, he could be any biker. With our rights constantly under attack, our lives in danger each time we ride, due to negative, non-caring attitudes of cagers, this ad is a breeding ground for further anti-rider angst.

McDonalds, are you risking biker lives in an attempt to sell.. coffee?

Scott, of Ohio has it right.. "I don't eat grey meat"

www.mcdonalds.com ...spank 'em...

McDonalds Cheap Shot At Bikers, Much Like the Food, Sucks

New Mickey D Negative Biker Televison Ad:

Biker at stoplight denigrates car-It rains-Cager laughs & drives away as biker pushes his ride to the curb.

What's up with that? What used to be a positive-message ad campaign suddenly turns hateful toward bikers?

ABM's consumed it's last fat-laden, sodium-impregnated, sugar-packed grease-stuffed wrapper of what the neighbors lovingly refer to as.. Emergency Food". Gimme Jack in the Box anyday. They know how to keep personal politics out of the commercial of a publicly traded corporation.

Hey McDonalds, your new commercial sucks as bad as your food!

Warning! DANGER Will Robinson

Wild Dakota Wx Can Kill!

Hail covered the streets of nearby Spearfish, during 08's annual MC rally. Sturgis cops were out, clutching bullhorns, screaming at bikers to rush for cover ahead of 60 mph wind & baseball sized hail. Too bad Lazelle & Main Streets were so packed with rolling iron, you could have walked away faster. Black Hills storms are capable of bearing down on unsuspecting bikers, inflicting maximum damage in a very short period of time. Tomato growers in this area have been known to build iron boxes in which to house the plants, just in case, so one would guess summertime ice is a fairly common occurance from Rapid City on out west and into Wyoming.

Solution? Buy a NOAA weather radio. The best 30 bucks you'll ever spend.

American Biker Minute's Sturgis coverage runs daily, July 27 - August 9th, nationwide on America's best radio stations, on demand at 360.282.5400, & at twitter via blogs & podcast!

RV Rental: Save Big Bucks-Ride One Way

Pick up in Ca, Nv, drop off east of Mississippi.

Dude next door says he'll save elephant bucks--Fly out to Vegas, drive back to Florida.
(He swapped his '02 Heritage Softail for solar panels..weirdest barter trade of the year!)
We think he really misses the old Harley.

Beat the high cost of summer vacation by being creative. Anything you can do to reduce the cost of lodging, meals, & gas gives you 2-10x the miles of a full service trip.

It's not how much you spend, it's how much you save!