Black Hills Road
Run
Sept 7 - 9 2005
By Mike (Kiwi) Tomas
Coming off a pretty hectic Davenport show I was
looking forward to the Black Hills SD road run and riding with friends from all
across the world. The some what unknown
after math of the new Orleans hurricane was taking effect with fuel prices sky
rocketing and gas stations running out of fuel that many of us really wondered
what may lie ahead of us just trying to get to Sturgis. As it turned out we did not experience any
fuel shortages heading west and the run up in fuel costs weren’t going to
dampen anybody’s fun. 3 weeks earlier
Carolyn, Ross and I were in Sturgis for the Sturgis 2005 rally with about
400,000 other motorcyclists. The AMCA Sturgis road run was quite the contrast
from a few weeks earlier. It is back to a sleepy little country town.
The road run was based in Sturgis
and for those not familiar with the Black Hills, it is at the western side of
SD and very close to the Wyoming
state line. It is very rich in Indian and American history and it is the home
of Mt Rushmore and Crazy Horse monuments. The 1st AMCA road run
Carolyn, Ross and I ever did (and got hooked on) was the Black
Hills in 1997 (Ross was only 4) which was called the “Paha Sapa
II”. People started arriving in the
early evening on Mon 5th since it’s about an 850 mile trip from Davenport to Sturgis. A
few of us planned a pre ride for Tue 6th on roads that we knew the
road run was not going to be on. Our group usually consists of faster paced
riders who like to ride pretty hard and cover the miles.
Our pre run group usually ends up
being mostly Indian riders, most likely because the Harleys have problems
keeping up. We covered about 200 miles all over the Black
Hills including Custer state park where we stopped on the roadside
and took some cool pictures with our bikes near a large herd of intimidating
buffalo. I had just got my Kiwi bobber up and running the night before leaving
for Davenport so the Black
Hills road run was going to be a good shake down ride. The Kiwi
bobber is an all new creation built around our newly designed rigid frame and
leaf spring forks. We created an experimental Kiwi 88 cubic inch engine with
modern aluminum rims, hubs and disc brakes. It was a great opportunity to put
it through its paces for cornering clearances, handling and stopping power. The
88” engine pulls like a freight train and the only bike to out do me was a new
Harley V-Rod. I was truly impressed as we had been building 84 ci engines and
this was the 1st 88 ci that we had built with all of our own
manufactured components.
Each day the weather was pretty
much perfect. On Friday we encountered a little bit of light rain on the way to
Devils Tower but it only lasted for a few miles
and those who did get a bit wet soon dried out.
Wednesday’s route was about 100 miles while Thursday’s route was a 200
mile ride. During these 2 days we stayed within the Black Hills taking in the
towns of Spearfish, Deadwood, Lead, Hill City to name a few. Interesting roads
and points of interest were Spearfish Canyon, Needles
Highway, Vanocker
Canyon, Iron
Mountain, Custer
State park, Devils Tower,
Mt Rushmore and Crazy Horse.
A few of us added about another 50
miles to Thursday’s ride making it about a 250 mile day as we wanted to cover
some extra roads not on the run. We met
up with 4 Aussies and a Swede along the way so we made sure we gave them the
grand tour and enrichened them with some good wholesome American history (even
though it was coming from a Kiwi). Both Mt Rushmore and Crazy Horse sculptures
are very impressive, however after seeing them both and realizing that the 4
president’s heads fit within Crazy Horse’s head leaves one even more impressed.
Wednesday and Thursday rides were mostly over pretty windy (in some cases 10-15
mph switch backs)” and hilly roads which made for a lot of awesome riding. The
scenery throughout the Black Hills is rocky,
steep hills (sometimes short while others very long), narrow and wide canyons,
mines (mostly closed down), pine trees,
grassy fields, streams along with many cabins and vacation spots. It’s a nice
place to get away from everything and enjoy the simple things in life (except
winter).
Friday’s ride was another 200
mile day which took us into Wyoming to Devils Tower.
The terrain was quite different from the previous day’s rides as it was gentle
rolling hills with big sweeping corners however the challenge was the lack of
fuel stops. While there were little ma and pa owned resorts and camp grounds
along the way which also had fuel pumps, most were out of gas due to the
shortage created by the new Orleans
hurricane. The instructions made clear the lunch stop was a “mandatory” gas
stop. Well we figured since we filled up at Devils Tower we could make it to
the after lunch gas stop however we did not figure on the Cheyenne Crossing
store being out of gas. We did recall seeing a camp ground from our previous
days ride about 10 miles off our route but in order to get to it we 1st
had to climb over a very steep 3 mile hill (more like a mountain). No sooner
had we started the climb I could see Rocky Halter start to shake his bike from
side to side. I’ve ridden many miles over the years with Rocky so when I saw
him shaking his bike from side to side I knew we’re in trouble. Rocky stopped dead
about 1/2 mile from the top. One of the other guys went ahead to find a gas
station which was about 2 miles away. The owner was kind enough to loan a gas
can and once Rocky was fired back up and we were over the top of the hill we
were able to coast all the way into the camp ground gas station. The owner was
a good ole boy and got all pumped up when he saw 7 Indians roll in. We thought
it would be a nice gesture on our part to leave him with some of our dollars
(after all Rocky was paying our fuel stop and bar tab for running out of gas 1st)
so we gravitated towards his cool little bar and settle into his comfy leather
sofa’s, lazyboys and big screen TV. After about a 1hr we figured we better hit
the road before we run out of time to get to the banquet. It was a very
difficult departing.
Each morning a nice buffet was
provided which was included with our entry fee. This was a great idea as it
gave us all a chance each day to sit as a group and visit with each other. The Black Hills road run would have to be one
of my most favorite runs. The 1997 run would be hard to beat but this one was
equally as good. I recommend spending time in the Black
Hills just riding around. There are plenty of roads to pick from
and the scenery is fantastic.