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From this year's 'Crazy Crap' file, comes this outrageous chopper with no less than a semi-truck tire for a rear Weiner. It must take half it's horsepower to turn that thing, and cornering must be rather exciting...but I'll bet that everything else on that bike will be worn out 200,000 miles before that tread is gone.
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The 'Slutster' also made an appearance in downtown Sturgis....
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Try as they might, the 'Bikini Bike Wash' girls were not succcessful in luring me and the company Chevy van into their evil, spongy, clutches.
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Apparently 'Bear', the doorman at one of the uptown Sturgis bars was plumb tuckered out from all the revelry...
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Mains street Sturgis, during the rally, is a great place to hook up with old friends and reminisce about thinner days....
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Which reminds me!...always on the lookout for celebrities, I was surprised to spot Karen Carpenter right there on Main Street...Ironically, I think she's sitting on a Fatboy!
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Judging by the colors, I think this may be an Italian cowgirl....nah! needs more orange.
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More tomorrow. Nerd emoticon
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Great pics, great commentary! Thanks for sharing.

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Scooterdoodler wrote:
Which reminds me!...always on the lookout for celebrities, I was surprised to spot Karen Carpenter right there on Main Street...Ironically, I think she's sitting on a Fatboy!
ROFL emoticon ROFL emoticon ROFL emoticon ROFL emoticon
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SCOOTER i agree with GOOGE ROFL emoticon ROFL emoticon ROFL emoticon You must be smokin some good stuff because died like 50 yrs ago ROFL emoticon Glad your having fun. Do you go every year?
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judy wrote:
Do you go every year?
I never 'go' to the Sturgis rally....I live in Rapid City, which is twenty some miles down I-90 from Sturgis, SD.

This year's rally attendance estimates range from 500,000 to 800,000. It clogs the entire Black Hills region.

To put that in some perspective, the entire population of the state of South Dakota is a tick under 400,000...then the rally happens.

It comes to me.
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8) I love short term population explosions When i'm gone. Laughing emoticon Hey did you ever see this guy there?
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judy wrote:
8) I love short term population explosions When i'm gone. Laughing emoticon Hey did you ever see this guy there?
No, but he'd(?) fit right in.
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He went to Sturgis quite a few times but he died of prostate cancer a few years ago I befriended him when he brought the trike over here. He went all around the USA in it. Including Alaska and all the Hawaiian islands. 8)
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The carnage at this year's Sturgis rally was especially brutal with the news reporting nine fatalities in the Black Hills rally area, with at least eleven more dead in rally-related crashes in other states. The latter number represents riders traveling to and from the rally.

I'm not certain, but this may have been the deadliest Sturgis rally to date, or at least ranks among the deadliest.

I know that four riders were killed in Iowa in one crash when a drunk in a pickup truck went over the centerline in a construction zone and plowed into a group of bikes that were either headed here, or were on ther way home.
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Scooterdoodler wrote:
The carnage at this year's Sturgis rally was especially brutal with the news reporting nine fatalities in the Black Hills rally area, with at least eleven more dead in rally-related crashes in other states. The latter number represents riders traveling to and from the rally.

I'm not certain, but this may have been the deadliest Sturgis rally to date, or at least ranks among the deadliest.

I know that four riders were killed in Iowa in one crash when a drunk in a pickup truck went over the centerline in a construction zone and plowed into a group of bikes that were either headed here, or were on ther way home.
Wha? emoticon Facepalm emoticon

That's terrible...
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Enough of all that serious and morbid stuff......here's some trikes and misc items....
Yamaha Roadliner custom trike conversion, IMO probably one of the nicest three-wheelers I've ever seen...if you like that kind of thing, that is...
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At least with some of these customs, there's some decent styling going into them.....
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Oh, I almost forgot....brace yourselves for the arrival of giant, street-going custom quads....
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Of course, they wouldn't be complete without the damn skull graphics...
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For this year's test rides, I only rode three machines (compared to last year's 15 or so).

I finally rode a Yamaha T-Max....
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This lovely blue Yamaha Roadliner.....still my favorite large cruiser three years running....
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And this rather rather bland Victory....
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⚠️ Last edited by Scooterdoodler on UTC; edited 1 time
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Masala wrote:
Scooterdoodler wrote:
The carnage at this year's Sturgis rally was especially brutal with the news reporting nine fatalities in the Black Hills rally area, with at least eleven more dead in rally-related crashes in other states. The latter number represents riders traveling to and from the rally.

I'm not certain, but this may have been the deadliest Sturgis rally to date, or at least ranks among the deadliest.

I know that four riders were killed in Iowa in one crash when a drunk in a pickup truck went over the centerline in a construction zone and plowed into a group of bikes that were either headed here, or were on ther way home.
Wha? emoticon Facepalm emoticon

That's terrible...
In probably half the accidents, they were very survivable.....but you know how that 'cruiser crowd' is, without going into too much detail and opening up a tired old can of worms.....I'll just say that ATTGATT is something not prescribed to by the vast majority of Sturgis rally-goers.
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Scooterdoodler wrote:
In probably half the accidents, they were very survivable.....but you know how that 'cruiser crowd' is, without going into too much detail and opening up a tired old can of worms.....I'll just say that ATTGATT is something not prescribed to by the vast majority of Sturgis rally-goers.
I hear ya'...

How was that TMax?
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Masala wrote:
How was that TMax?
I can only compare it to our recently sold and traded pair of 650 Burgmans, but that's a good bike to measure this model against...though the ride was only twenty minutes and there were really no curves to speak of, which is an area where the T-max will probably show some superiority to the much larger (physically) Burgman, I was able to accelerate hard on the interstate ramp and run the Yamaha up to 80 mph (Indicated) and cruise I-90 for the seven miles back to the Sturgis test area.

It's aceleration seems to be very close to the 650 Burgman's even though the Yamaha has about a 150cc 'handicap' from the Suzuki. It cruises the interstate with surprising ease and like the Burgman never feels 'stressed' doing it, which is something that always amazed me about the Burgmans. Being 500cc's the Yamaha's engine spins faster than the Burgmans at any given road speed, but it does it with little fuss or 'drama'. By comparison, a Yamaha 650 V-Star will feel like it's going to blow up at 75-80 mph and will have little (if any) reserve for hills, headwinds, and load.

It seemed a little crowded in legroom compared to the 650 Burgman, and the seat felt like it had a rounded profile from side to side, which may become a pressure point before too many miles, but I may be wrong about that too, there just wasn't enough time on the bike to get more than a brief first impression.

I DO know that I like the Yamaha's analog instrumentation a lot better than the LCD cluster of the Burgman, though I don't think the T-max had a tachometer, and even though one might question the practical usefulness of a tach on such a bike, it was still nice to see what the Burgman's engine was spinning at.

I still think the T-max is overpriced though (as is the 650 Burgman IMO), and I'd have a hard time not buying a 650 V-Strom with all that scooter money....heck, we just bought a brand new 2009 Concours 1400 for $10,000 even. Apples and oranges maybe, but!.......
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