Motorcycle Views Newsletter for 08/06/2017 By Walter F. Kern Motorcycle Views Newsletter Vol. 11, No. 8, August 6, 2017 Articles of Interest on Motorcycle Views: 1. Sturgis Motorcycle Rally: The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally held at Sturgis, South Dakota is scheduled for August 4-13, 2017. In fact, this is the 77th annual rally. My book, 50 Wild Motorcycle Tales, has two stories about Sturgis. For the Newsletter, I'm using my article about Sturgis and I'm including a quick link to the Sturgis Webcam trained on Main Street and other areas so you can see what's going on during the rally. The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally® attracts hundreds of thousands of motorcycle riders to Sturgis®, SD each August to be part of one of the biggest motorcycle rallies on the planet.
The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally® began in 1938 by a small group of Jackpine Gypsies Motorcycle Club members to bring a few tourists into town. J. C. "Pappy" Hoel was one of the founders of this event which began as the Black Hills Motor Classic. The name was changed to Sturgis Rally and Races in 1992 to reflect the fact that the event was known world-wide as Sturgis and that racing was always a part of the rally since its inception. Currently, the event is known as the Sturgis® Rally or Sturgis Motorcycle Rally®. What's in a name? The Sturgis® Rally has grown over the years. In 1938 only a few people watched the local races. By 1940, 5000 spectators watched the races. During World War II, the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally® was cancelled for two years. In 1981 there were 25,000 riders coming to Sturgis® ; in 1987, 63,000; 1997 saw 220,000; and in 1998 over 360,000 people attended the Sturgis® rally. The size of the crowd sometimes depends on any special significance that might be placed on the event. You may notice me waving in the center of the picture at the top of this article. It was taken at the 1993 Sturgis rally. This event is not confined to the town of Sturgis® that has a population of 6000 during the rest of the year. It's spread all over the area. Most people cannot find a motel room unless they book a year in advance so many go to the numerous camp grounds. The Buffalo Chip Campground is the most famous. You can even check out the message boards for the Buffalo Chip. People take rooms and camp out up to 100 miles away from the Sturgis® rally. In fact, you cannot ride anywhere within a 100 mile radius of Sturgis® and not be literally surrounded by motorcycles. Especially be sure to check out the town of Deadwood, where Wild Bill Hickok was killed in a local saloon. Deadwood is now mostly known for its gambling casinos and slot machines in every store. You can also visit Mount Rushmore, the Badlands, Devil's Tower, and of course, don't miss Wall Drug Store -- the signs won't let you. Check out the complete Sturgis article. Sturgis Live Webcam on West Main Street Watch what's happening right now on all four webcams in Sturgis. 2. Motorcycle Recalls: Everyone assumes that the new motorcycle they buy will be trouble-free. In fact, many riders only buy new bikes to eliminate some of the repair problems associated with used bikes. However, motorcycles do develop problems and some are serious enough that they have to be fixed using a motorcycle recall program. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) maintains a database of vehicle recalls. I have extracted motorcycle recalls from this database for recalls beginning in 2006. I will be updating this Motorcycle Recalls feature whenever I see a new recall in the NHTSA database. See links below for motorcycle recalls sorted by Year-Make-Model and by Make-Year-Model Also, from time to time, motorcycle equipment items (such as helmets) may be recalled. The equipment items are also handled by the NHTSA. When I receive new motorcycle recalls, I will post them on the Home Page of Motorcycle Views, in my Motorcycle Views Blog, Facebook, and Twitter. All recalls are also listed in this Motorcycle Views Newsletter. Check to see if your motorcycle has a motorcycle recall: Latest Ten (10) Motorcycle Recalls
3. Recent Additions to the Motorcycle Views Website:
4. 50 MORE Wild Motorcycle Tales:
The second book, 50 MORE Wild Motorcycle Tales, contains new stories received from visitors to Motorcycle Views. It also contains 19 stories I wrote and four that my late wife, Jane Ann Kern, wrote before her untimely death. I will let you know in this newsletter when the book is released. 5. Five Motorcycle Terms: I am featuring five (5) of my Motorcycle Terms in each issue of the newsletter.
6. Motorcycle Picture of the Month for August 2017: Motorcycle Picture of the
Month - August 2017 - 1981 Kawasaki KZ1000J: 7. Latest Motorcycle Pictures:
See the latest received pictures by category.
(Send me a picture and description of your bike.) 8. My Memoir, Normal Secrets, and My Previous Motorcycle Books: I have recently created an author website to contain all my current and future books.
I hope you will take a look at my five books, available in paperback and Kindle editions on Amazon.com. My new book, Normal Secrets, is a memoir about secrets in my life. The other four books are motorcycle related. These books make great, inexpensive gifts. In fact, you can purchase all five for less than $40 total (less than $15 if you buy the Kindle editions). I have reduced the price of my five Kindle editions to $0.0 (FREE) IF you also first purchase the corresponding paperback edition. That way you can always have the book with you if you have a tablet or smartphone with you. None of the paperbacks has color pictures in them owing to the high price of producing a book with color. However, every Kindle edition has color pictures, so Normal Secrets, Getting Started Riding a Motorcycle, and Motorcycle Haiku Poetry Kindle books have full-color pictures (excepting original black-and-white pictures). 9. Here are some very popular articles on the Motorcycle Views Site. Take a look:
10. Newsletter Archive: I now have a Motorcycle Views Newsletter Archive to store all my newsletters. The archive gives the year, month, day, and subject for each newsletter. Each newsletter contains many links to the Motorcycle Views website. A link to the archive will also be included on the Home page of the site and on the page where users can join the newsletter list. Visit the Motorcycle Views Newsletter Archive 11. The Motorcycle Views Website is also on your Smartphone or Tablet: Are you relying more and more on your cellphone or tablet and less and less on your PC or MAC? Remember that all that great motorcycling information on Motorcycle Views is as near as your cellphone. It's also in a new format designed to fit your portable screen. Check us out anywhere you need motorcycle information. 12. Social Media: See me on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, and YouTube. 13. 2016-2017 Polar Bear Grand Tour Motorcycle Runs
The Polar Bears consist of 550 riders from New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Delaware, who ride each Sunday to a different prescribed destination where they sign-in and receive points. There is, usually, a restaurant at or near the destination. It gets cold, windy, and snowy on these rides. I've been a Polar Bear member for more than 20 years, and I built and continue to maintain their website. The picture to the right was taken at Hillbilly Hall, Hopewell, NJ, and is one of the Pictures of the Year. 14. Help Grow Motorcycle Views: The Motorcycle Views Website is here for you. We encourage you to submit a story, picture, poem, salvage yard recommendation, user review of your own bike, tattoo, YouTube video you made of your bike, motorcycle tip, etc. These will be evaluated for inclusion into one of our major features. Send us a submission today and share part of your motorcycling experience with our many readers. Read how to make a submission.
For New Subscribers: Expect newsletters on the first Sunday of each month. Please understand that the Motorcycle Views Newsletter is NOT the Motorcycle Views website. The newsletter provides a few links to content on the Motorcycle Views website. Once you click a link in the newsletter, you'll be getting access to content on the Motorcycle Views site. If you'd like to view any of our past newsletters, just go to the newsletter archives page. Thanks for signing up for the Motorcycle Views Newsletter. Using this Newsletter, I'll keep you up-to-date with what's going on in the Motorcycle Views Blog, the Motorcycle Views Website, and the Motorcycle Views Forum. Not sure what a blog is? It's like a daily readout of what I'm thinking about, similar to a diary at times. Most often, I'm using mine right now to tell my visitors what has been added to the Motorcycle Views site. See me on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, and YouTube. The Motorcycle Views Website is also on your Smartphone or Tablet: Are you relying more and more on your cellphone or tablet and less and less on your PC or MAC? Remember that all that great motorcycling information on Motorcycle Views is as near as your cellphone. It's also in a new format designed to fit your portable screen. Check us out anywhere you need motorcycle information. END OF NEWSLETTER All Previous Newsletters:
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
© 2017 Walter F. Kern. All rights reserved.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Each year, hundreds of thousands of motorcyclists head toward, what many feel, is the motorcycling mecca
of the world, Sturgis®, and the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally®
in South Dakota. The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally®
takes place this year August 4-13. The links, below, should enable you to check out the various items mentioned
in this article about the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally®. Several Web sites seem to want to be
the "official" Sturgis Motorcycle Rally®
site and some of these sites are often incomplete or have bad links.
I have completed the Polar Bear Grand Tour Pictures of the Year for 2016-2017.
These also include the Best videos. 
