A new Sturgis Rally — on Cushmans
The Black Hills have long been a gathering place for people who love old cars, old motorcycles and other cool retro stuff.
We host Black Hills Overdrive and Kool Deadwood Nites, events for vintage car enthusiasts. Sturgis hosts motorcycles and Mustangs. Spearfish has the Corvette Rally. I’ve also been to conventions for Studebakers and Ford Retractibles (very cool hardtop convertibles). And I was once lucky enough to tag along with a group of railway motorcar (a.k.a. putt-putt car) collectors as they rode the unused rails from Kadoka to near Murdo.
Now there’s a new event coming, and it should be fun. The Cushman Club of America 28th National Meet is coming to Sturgis June 14 to 18. The 5,000-member club is dedicated to preserving and restoring Cushman motor scooter.
I’ve been Googling around the Cushman images and websites. There’s a huge variety of Cushman vehicles over the company’s long history.
The Cushman scooter was born in Lincoln, Neb., in 1936. Light and versatile, the Cushman Auto-Glide was inexpensive and easy on gas. They weren’t flashy like the Harleys and Indians, but they got you where you needed to go.
During World War II, the company made the Cushman Airborne, which could be attached to a parachute and dropped out of an airplane. The airborne scooters were so tough that they were still driveable even if the chute didn’t open.
Over the years, Cushman scooter-based vehicles served as ice cream trucks, delivery cars, police vehicles and other utility carts vehicles. Shriners rode Cushmans in parades.
In fact, Cushman is still in business. It doesn’t make scooters anymore, but it makes a wide variety of industrial carts, service vehicles and golf carts. When a football player is injured, it’s likely a Cushman that will haul him off the field.
The best thing about events like this is that the vehicles have been restored to showroom perfection. People who love vintage vehicles have a passion for perfection. And you can pretend that you’ve gone back in time when Studebakers, Cushmans and Indian Chiefs plied America’s highways.
