AUG 8, 23 .. VOILA ! A TOPIC APPEARED THANKS TO KIT 57783

Kit 57783 submitted the below comment to yesterday’s Post ..

Thanks for the tip Captain!
All is good here now that the 83rd Sturgis Motorcycle Rally is in full swing. I hear the distant purr of Harleys early until late in the eve. The last few days have been raining, and now the bikes can get to their riding! Estimate attendance this year is 350,000. I always wish for them to ride safely and have a good time.

I replied to Kit ..

The Sturgis, South Dakota Motor Cycle Rally IS REALLY SOMETHING Kit! It began in 1938 and continues to today. It now lasts for 10 days. 739,000 attendees were present in year 2015! It is estimated that it brings approximately 800 million dollars into the South Dakota economy! Thanks Kit for your comment! Will you even go near Sturgis during the Rally? Cap and Patti

VOILA ! Just like that! The below topic appeared for today’s Post.

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Sturgis, South Dakota, the 83rd Sturgis Motorcycle Rally

I am not going to discuss the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in detail except to provide the below Wikipedia link and say a few words about it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturgis_Motorcycle_Rally

The Rally began on August 14th 1938 by Indian Motorcycle Riders. Because of the large predominance of Harley Davidson Motorcycles at the Rally, I had always believed that Harley Davidson Riders set it into motion. Not the case at all. Beginning in October 2016 the Rally became a 10 day event.

The on-line current statistics for the Rally are numerous and unbelievable in their detail. 

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MY PERSONAL MOTORCYCLING EXPERIENCE

On an obscure day back in August or September of 1974, while I was living in, and working full time in, Frankfurt, West Germany, I was standing on the Street Corner of Eschersheimer Landstrasse and Miquel Adickesallee (it just took me 20 minutes to find it on today’s map of Frankfurt!).

Little did I realize that my life was about to change forever.

As I was standing waiting for the traffic light to allow me to walk across Eschersheimer Landstrasse, and go into the PX (Military Post Exchange) to do some shopping, what to my wondering eyes passed in front of me but an elderly white haired man riding a Motorcycle with his white haired wife beside him in a sidecar!

I said quietly to myself : “I MUST have one of those, a sidecar motorcycle.”

It took sometime (keep in mind we are talking 45 or more years ago) but the day arrived when I became proud owner of a 1955 BMW R25 Motorcycle with a Steib Sidecar. The R25 soon became a 1950 BMW R50 with the same Steib Sidecar.

I got the below photo on-line. I have no idea where the plethora of my own photographs are of my motorcycling days. It gives you a good idea of what I am talking about.

Then I began to ride solo (without the sidecar). Then I moved up to a newer BMW R75 and finally ended up with a brand new, still in the crate, 1977 BMW R100RS that, at the time in the late 1970’s, was one of the premier motorcycles of its day.

Again I got the below photo on-line. My BMW R100RS was something else. I would cruise the German Autobahn at 100 to 125 miles per hour. 

I did a lot of over the road touring with my great friend ‘Zilla, who also got a 1977 BMW R100RS with me. We traveled South to Switzerland and Italy, North and West into Holland and France. We camped out in campgrounds. Somebody Up There Liked Me! I can count the several times my seat had “pucker marks” in it from (and I mean this) a few near death experiences motorcycling. More than a few of them happened here in California as I brought the R100RS home with me from Germany in 1978. 

MOTORCYCLING 

I gave motorcycling all but my very life. I sold the R100RS in 1980. 

Kit 57788, thanks for the Topic!

MOTORCYCLING

It was one of the greatest adventures of my entire life! Period!

A last story. For all of us with sons (daughters too but they are calmer than teen age males) the day comes when you hear your son say the words: “Dad can I borrow the car tonight?” 

For me it was my older son Robb, who, in West Germany said one evening: “Dad, can I borrow the R100RS tonight?” 

We are talking a two wheeled Rocket here. 0 to 60 mph in seconds!

He did. No problems (at least that I ever heard of).

Of course he had his very own “Dirt Bike” so he did have two wheeled experience.

Alive and Smiling

Cap and Patti who never rode with me because we met 12 years after I ended my riding days.

I’ll add this : I CAN and I DO talk “Bikes with the Bikers!” Harley Davidson Riders. Some of them pretty tough lads!

I always begin with this as I walk up to one of them : Have you ever blown a rear tire on this scooter of yours, going 80 miles an hour with the traffic flow, in Davis, California, on a Sunday afternoon on Interstate 80 four lanes heading West for San Francisco, IN A DRIVING RAIN STORM and lived to tell the tale? Let me tell you, it leaves “Pucker Marks” in the seat!

Ciao4now. Cap

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