Sturgis Motorcycle Rally Is No Longer a Rally. It’s a Tourist Attraction. Change My Mind.

I’ve been going to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally for the last 15 years.

Fifteen years in a row!

And 2026 will be the first year we don’t go. That might sound strange coming from somebody who has spent the last decade and a half making the trip. But there’s a reason I’m staying home this year.

Same vendors, same setup, it’s the same everything year after year. There are rarely, if ever, any new vendors showing off their stuff. And the so-called deals are not really deals anymore. Honestly, you can get the same price online these days.

In my opinion, the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally isn’t really a rally anymore. And it probably hasn’t been since before I started going.

Sturgis Used to Be About Being Someone Else for a Week!

The old Sturgis, at least the one I started going to, was a place where you could go hang out, party, ride, have a good time, and be somebody completely different from the person you were Monday thru Friday.

You had your job.

Your responsibilities.

Your bills.

Your normal life.

Then you went to Sturgis.

And for a little while, none of that mattered.

You were surrounded by people who understood why you were there.

Bikers looked out for bikers.

You could walk into a bar, sit down next to somebody you had never met, and start talking.

You didn’t need an introduction.

You didn’t need to know who they were.

You were both there because you rode motorcycles.

And somehow, a complete stranger could become a friend by the end of the night.

Sometimes those people became family.

Nowadays, it seems like everybody is keeping to themselves and their small circle of friends.

I wonder what happened to that?

What got lost?

The rally has gotten bigger.

The crowds have gotten bigger.

The money has gotten bigger.

The businesses have gotten bigger.

But the sense of community? I am not convinced it got bigger.

Maybe I’m remembering the rally through rose-colored glasses. Maybe getting older changes the way you see things. Maybe the rally really hasn’t changed as much as I think it has. But after 15 consecutive years, I don’t think I am imagining everything.

When Did the Vendors Become the Same Damn Vendor?

One of the things I used to love about Sturgis was the vendors.

You could find things that you couldn’t necessarily find anywhere else.

Motorcycle parts, accessories, gear, patches, custom stuff. The list goes on and on. Things you didn’t know you needed until you saw them. You could touch it, feel it, try it on, talk to the person selling it. They knew everything about it.

You could haggle a little and sometimes walk away with a good deal.

That was part of the experience.

Now I walk through the rally vendors and see the same thing over and over again. It’s the same parts, the same T-Shirts, the same patches in every booth. Do you really need to have multiple Patch Stop vendors? How many rally t-shirt vendors are there really? And more or less they all sell the same shirt.

Where did the unique motorcycle vendors go?

Where are the companies bringing something different?

Where’s the booth that makes you stop and say, “Holy shit, I’ve never seen or thought about that before!”

Instead, it can feel like you're walking through a giant outdoor retail store where somebody copied the inventory from the booth next door.

And here’s the other problem:

A lot of the stuff being sold now isn’t even a great deal anymore. It’s the same stuff you can find online, sometimes for the same price, sometimes cheaper.

So if I'm traveling hundreds of miles, spending money on fuel, food, camping, lodging, and everything else that comes with Sturgis, I'd like the shopping experience to offer something I can't get by sitting on my couch in my underwear with a credit card.

Maybe that’s asking too much.

Or maybe that’s what made the motorcycle rally worth attending.

And Then There’s the Money!

This is where Sturgis really starts feeling like a tourist attraction.

Everything costs more.

It feels like everyone involved has figured out that during the rally, people are willing to pay almost anything because they are already there.

Camping?

Pay.

Concert?

Pay again.

Event?

Pay.

Food?

Obviously.

Merchandise?

Pay a lot more.

And look, businesses are businesses. I am not expecting anyone to give their shit away for free.

Make your money.

But there is a difference between making money from an event and squeezing every possible dollar out of the people attending it.

At some point, it stops feeling like a rally and starts feeling like the state fair!

Sturgis Has Become a Family Tourist Attraction!

Here's where I need to make something very clear.

I am not saying bikers shouldn't bring their kids to Sturgis.

Quite the opposite.

If you're a biker and you have kids, I think your kids absolutely should experience it.

They’re growing up around motorcycles.

They should experience the things their parents love. They should see the bikes, hear the stories, meet the people, and understand the culture they're being raised around.

I did exactly that with my daughter.

I raised her around motorcycles.

I took her to Sturgis during the day.

We had fun.

We experienced the rally together.

But when the sun started going down or dinner time came, it was time for her to be done for the day.

The adults were going out.

So we arranged proper babysitting.

She got to experience the motorcycle culture, and the adults got to experience the adult side of Sturgis.

Everybody won.

That's very different from showing up with your entire family and then getting offended by the environment you walked into.

Because here's the thing:

You don't get to walk into somebody else's culture and then demand that the culture change to make you comfortable.

If you bring your entire family to Sturgis and you're offended by what you see, what you hear, or what happens around you, maybe the problem isn't Sturgis. Maybe you brought the wrong expectations. And somewhere along the way, we've started accepting the idea that the rally should change because tourists are uncomfortable.

That's not the biker way. That's not how we came up.

And No, Your Kids Don't Need to Touch Every Damn Motorcycle

This one probably isn't going to make me popular either.

No biker wants your kids touching their motorcycle.

We don't want them sitting on it.

We don't want them grabbing things.

And we don't care how excited they are about motorcycles.

Ask first.

It's somebody else's bike.

There used to be an understanding among riders that you respected another person's motorcycle.

You didn't treat it like a carnival ride. You didn't climb all over it because you thought it looked cool. You respected somebody else's property.

Again, that's part of what I think has been lost.

It's not about hating kids.

It's about respect.

Sturgis isn’t a Motorcycle Riding Academy

Another thing I’ve watched change is the number of inexperienced riders showing up in the Black Hills and treating the rally like some sort of motorcycle riding school.

Let me be clear:

Sturgis is not where you learn how to ride a motorcycle.

The Black Hills are beautiful.

They’re also full of technical roads, curves, elevation changes, traffic, tourists, motorcycles, cars, trucks and; riders with wildly different levels of experience.

If you’re a brand-new rider, this is not the place to prove something.

And it certainly isn’t the place to buy your first motorcycle just because it has Sturgis written on it.

No one cares!

Seriously! Nobody cares if your shit says Sturgis on it.

You’re Riding on Public Roads. Act Like It!

If any section of this blog is going to get me the most hate, it will be this one. So buckle up!

Some bikers show up in Sturgis with an attitude that because they are riding a motorcycle, everybody else on the road needs to watch out for them.

No. Hell No.

You’re sharing a public road. South Dakota is a tourist destination. People come from all over the country and the world to see South Dakota. They just so happened to book their trip during the rally. That’s not their fault. They don’t know anything about motorcycle rallies.

Not every person driving through the Black Hills is a biker. Not every driver understands motorcycles. Not every driver or rider knows the roads. And not every driver is going to react the way you think they should.

As a motorcyclist, you know better.

You need to watch out for yourself.

You need to pay attention to everything happening around you.

You need to anticipate what other drivers might do.

And most importantly, you need to understand that being right doesn’t mean much if you’re dead.

When there’s a motorcycle accident, the immediate reaction is often “the car is at fault.”

Maybe the car was. Maybe it wasn’t.

Not everyone is willing to accept that maybe the rider was at fault. Maybe the rider was going too fast. Maybe they weren't paying attention. Maybe they were riding beyond their ability. Maybe they made a mistake.

Sometimes the biker is responsible.

That’s an uncomfortable thing for bikers to admit, but personal accountability and responsibility are supposed to be a part of our culture.

Maybe Sturgis Didn’t Lose Its Identity. Maybe It Just Outgrew It

Here’s the possibility.

Maybe this is simply what happens when something becomes too successful.

More people hear about it. More people want to experience it. More businesses want to make money from it. More tourists show up. More infrastructure gets built for it. More events get added. And eventually, the original crowd becomes just another segment of the consumer base.

That’s where I think Sturgis is now.

The motorcycle rally became a tourist attraction. The tourist attraction became an industry. And the industry figured out how to monetize damn near everything.

Maybe that’s good for the local economy. Maybe it’s good for tourism. Maybe it’s good for business.

But is it good for the motorcycle rally?

I’m not convinced.

So, Change My Mind

I'm not saying Sturgis should go back to exactly what it was 15 or 20 years ago.

That's not realistic.

Things change. People change. Events change.

And I'm not telling anyone they shouldn't go. If you love Sturgis, go.

Ride the Black Hills. See your friends. Drink a beer. Buy the damn T-shirt. Spend your money. Have a great time.

I'm just saying that the Sturgis I fell in love with isn't the Sturgis I see anymore.

And maybe that's why 2026 is different.

After 15 consecutive years, I'm not going.

Not because I hate motorcycles. Not because I hate Sturgis. Not because I don't enjoy riding.

Quite the opposite.

I love motorcycles. I love the culture. I love the people.

And that's exactly why the change bothers me.

Because I remember what it felt like when Sturgis was about the people who rode there, not just the people who figured out how to make money from the people who rode there.

Maybe I'm wrong.

Maybe I'm just nostalgic.

Maybe I've become the old guy who can’t let go of the past.

Maybe Sturgis really is better now.

If that's the case, I'm willing to hear the argument.

But after 15 years of showing up, I'm comfortable saying what I believe:

The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally isn't really a rally anymore.

It's a tourist attraction.

Change my mind.