Deadwood, like much of the Black Hills, is hopping this week. There are bikers everywhere, it seems. At 5 p.m. on Monday, a line of stopped or slow-moving motorcycles
stretched from downtown Deadwood all the way to the U.S. Highway 385
turnoff south of town. And traffic on 385 was busy all the way to the Sugar Shack.

But as loud as it is, the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally does seem a tad quieter this year. But only a tad.

I haven’t been to downtown Sturgis this year or east toward the Buffalo Chip, so I can’t really compare it to the 18 other Sturgis Motorcycle Rallies I’ve attended. And when Sturgis reaches its saturation point, it becomes hard to really judge. Every rally looks big when you’re standing in the middle of Main Street.

When the post-rally numbers come out, we’ll have a better idea. Some put the number at 500,000 bikers each year, but there’s really no way to count them. For the purpose of year-over-year comparisons, you can look at sale tax collections, traffic counters, trash collection and other numbers to get a sense of whether the rally is up or down.

Whatever comes out, I think the tourism folks are breathing a sigh of relief this week. There was a little apprehension that gasoline prices were going to hurt us this year. Even though motorcycles don’t burn much gas, motor homes do. And increasingly bikers are showing up in Sturgis with pickup trucks, motor homes, buses, toy haulers and trailers. Some ship their bikes to Rapid City and fly in.

Those modes of transport are more expensive these days, but apparently not too expensive for the thousands of folks who are here for the 2008 Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.

And that’s good news for the Black Hills.