Earlier in the week when we stopped at the S&S tent at Black Hills Harley Davidson, we learned of a chance to ride the 143″ Dragon at the Sturgis Dragway. Seriously?? Sign me UP! I mean, Sign Bill UP!! Hahaha. I think I was more excited about it than he was.
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How cool is that?? And a major shoutout to the guys at S&S who were beyond helpful!
So on Thursday, August 11th, we made our way out to the dragstrip. Sturgis Dragway is conveniently located between the old and new Full Throttle Saloons, which was next on our agenda. Getting there, we also had a chance to ride the new Fort Meade Way bypass, a new gravel road that was recently constructed to connect I-90 and Highway 34, so you can easily get to the Full Throttle, the Buffalo Chip and Bear Butte from I-90 without having to go through downtown Sturgis.
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The dragway is on the west side of Highway 79, just north of 34. Bill registered at the tent (got another S&S t-shirt!) suited up and went back for his bike. First, you take your own bike down the dragstrip, basically to show them you can ride. Then you get to take the 124″ down, and if you can handle that, then the 143″ Dragon (rolling start).
Lacking battery power on my phone, I only got video of the 124″ and 143″, but not Bill’s Ultra. 🙁 There was no one waiting in line, so he got to go twice on the Dragon!
I was so happy he got to do this. We’ve been coming out here for so long and visiting the same places, I feel like I have no new stories to tell. This was a new and pretty cool experience!
Next on the agenda was, as always, the legendary Full Throttle. This year, unfortunately, we had two places to visit, the old and the new. The original Full Throttle was lost in a devastating fire on September 8th of last year, just 11 days after we would visit for the last time. The old site is open to the public, and I wanted to get the hard part over with first.
The annual photo I take from the front parking lot was painfully different. Instead of bikes in front of the building, it was bikes in front of the tents, with the familiar train trestle in the background. It was still hard to believe this was the same place we’d check in at every year during the rally.
The tents covered the concrete foundation where the main bar stood, and made for a walkway for visitors to walk beyond into the infield, where thousands of people had once gathered for concerts and shows. Everything was lost except for the rental cabins and the office. Charred, rusted relics were set out on display. I just still thank God no one was injured. It was a rather sad day touring the grounds.
On a lighter note, our next stop was the new Full Throttle, directly north of the old site on Highway 79, north of Bear Butte.
This place is YUGE. Formerly the Broken Spoke, it is now home to the new Full Throttle and Pappy Hoel Campground. We walked around, again taking in what will be the new Throttle.
Unfortunately it rained the whole time we were there so we didn’t get to explore much. I still wanted to visit the campground store and the other end of the property. I’m glad we stopped and I’m happy to have gotten the “before” pictures during construction. I can’t wait to see it grow. I wasn’t there for the beginnings of the original Full Throttle (1999) but I look forward to the next chapter.
We waited out the rain and decided to make a break for our campground. It was a rainy ride through downtown Sturgis. We also got to see the B1 bomber fly over Main Street, right over us. Talk about jumping out of your skin!