What's the scene like at the broken spoke? I am planning on staying there for sturgis. I'm a person that likes my sleep though. How hard is that gonna be at the spoke?

 

+1 on shade alley, nice place, cheap beer, clean showers. This year I am trying to convince my buddy to stay at the chip, gotta blow it out once.

 

any ride around that area is one you don't want to miss..but you'll need to go a couple years in order to do them all.

as for camping..I've been a couple times and by far the best camping yet IMO has been www.shadevalley.com they have everyhting right there from laundry to an awesome saloon to a mechanic, great shower rooms...they have absolutely everything...and some great advice on how to get around the area.

 

what perfect timing for this thread. i'm going for the first time too this year. i think we are staying at glencoe per advice from a friend of my uncle who's been many times. my uncle is planning the trip. i don't think he had reserved our spot yet so i'll be keeping an eye on this thread. is glencoe a good campground?

 

Last time I went to sturgis, I was fully planning to stay at the chip. When I rolled in and looked at the prices I couldn't believe my eyes. It was something like a hundred bucks a night. Then I realized the camping fee includes the concert, and looking at their lineup there wasn't anything I was interested in. Let's see, The Guess Who without Burton Cummings or Randy Bachman, ok that's a hot one. The next night was peewee herman, I'm going to pay money to see him? nope. So ended up staying at the Lampshere, right beside glenco and across the highway from the Full Throttle. Quiet, something like 20 bucks a night, and close to the action.

 

We stayed at the Spoke in 2010. Loved it. Hated the traffic in Sturgis. I heard they took down the temporary stop signs this year, that would be a big help.
We had no trouble sleeping, you could not here the bands playing from our camp site. Clean restrooms, clean showers, conv store,laundry room, and a pool.
I would recommend it.

 

Slept great and a hot shower ever day almost never a wait. When We wanted to party was easy. Great set up. Further out of town that the chip but there is a bus into town. Chip is 4 miles from downtown broken spoke is about 9 or 10.

 

The Elkview Campgrounds at exit 37 on I-90 between Rapid City and Sturgis is a good place. If you are tenting no reservations are needed as they have a huge open area. Check their web site I think you can save $2/day if you preregister.
I think regular price is $25/day/person at the gate. When I first went it was $17.

I go for the riding and not the parties. Do about 200 miles per day. Devil's Tower in Wyoming, Iron Mountain Road, Needles Highway are both in Custer Park which has a great wild life ride also, The Badlands, Spearfish Canyon are other good rides. Crazy Horse is better than Mount Rushmore and has all you can eat Indian Taco's in the restaurant.

This year will be my 15th year there. I never run out of interesting rides.

This was 2010 when my son and I went. You can see the amount of room for tents.

 

This letter is to all those well-meaning bikers who participate in the Sturgis Bike Rally in South Dakota, in August. We believe that the majority of you are not aware of the destruction the rally is causing to one of Indian peoples' most sacred sites, Bear Butte. Very few non-Indians know that for many centuries all the Tribes of the Great Plains worshipped and conducted sacred ceremonies at Bear Butte. It is a place for quiet prayers of thanksgiving and for seeking spiritual guidance with ancient ceremonies.

The spring and summer months through August, is when the Tribes travel to Bear Butte to conduct their annual ceremonies. These prayers and ceremonies do not stop simply because the rally has started. For the past few years there has been a continual encroachment of bars and venues heading towards the sacred mountain. Since the arrival of Sturgis County Line and other venues next to Bear Butte, traditional people are forced to pray with loud music from bars, mufflers and flashing strobe lights over the mountain, instead of praying in peace. In April 2008, Sturgis County Line announced they will be opening year-round and hosting many events throughout the summer. This will make it virtually impossible to pray in peace all summer long.

Most of you are probably unaware that returning Indian veterans of wars since before World War 1, have made their way to the sacred mountain to pray, fast and give thanks for their safe return. Most veterans wouldn't know that the Cheyenne Nation conducted ceremonies on Bear Butte during WW1, WW2, Korea and Viet Nam to insure the victory for American forces. Bear Butte is where our young men and women go to fast, to learn and to test themselves for adulthood. Bear Butte is where our holy men and women have gone to seek spiritual knowledge for as long as our tribal memories can see into the past. Even today in this new millennium, Bear Butte continues to be central to the spiritual and ceremonial lives of over thirty Indian Nations.


We ARE NOT trying to close or stop the Sturgis Bike Rally, or even interfere with all the various things that go on there. We are asking that the Federal, State and Local governments enact and enforce a buffer zone around Bear Butte, to restrict the sale of booze within the zone, make sure concerts and other extraneous noise, are kept away from the Mountain. To us that seems very minimal and reasonable, but our words have fallen on deaf ears once again and the county and state are allowing more and more destruction to happen--always closer to Bear Butte. It must be stopped.


It is now our hope that we can turn to the customers of the bike rally, the bikers themselves, to ask that they help us in our efforts. We ask all bikers to help us make attendees of the Sturgis Bike Rally, aware of our request and to help us encourage all the booze and concert venues too close to Bear Butte, to close down and move away. We are asking that all bikers boycott the "Broken Spoke Saloons" until they withdraw their bar away from Bear Butte!


We are asking that all "BIKERS FOR BEAR BUTTE" come together with Indian people to help us enact a buffer zone around Bear Butte and to help us inform all your brother and sister Bikers of the issue.

We pray there, we receive healing and learn our ancient ways of life there. We KNOW YOU respect Bear Butte and will stand by our side, in this struggle! We ask our biker brothers and sisters to help us PROTECT our SACRED MOUNTAIN.


Indian people are becoming desperate to preserve even small portions of our once peaceful and remote, sacred places across America.




For more information about our struggle, please visit us at

http://bikersforbearbutte.blogspot.com or www.ProtectBearButte.com

no way in hell i would camp at the broken spoke after reading this.

 

Sturgis is pretty far from an over the top party, buffalo chip is the closest thing to it.
The riding is great, and i go out there mostly just to do the rides and meet up with old friends.

Little tip, if you want to party hearty, ( and yes i have done pattaya, patong, patpong, manila, sinjuku, and singapore) the best bets for wild times and motor cycles are the smaller more local rallys held on private property. We are lucky, and from minnesota we have 4 -5 really good local rallys ranging from 3000 to 15000 bikes they are:
in order of when they happen
hog wild rodeo, memorial day, cones ville IA
abate freedom rally, algona IA and the conesville IA 4th of july rally
thunder in the sand - laborday weekend conesville IA
the scvr chilli feed - a couple weeks after labor day, prescott WI

These are really great parties, not over the top but alot of no holds barred fun.