The Sturgis Chronicles Episode 1 - The Road from California to South Dakota

[Music] in 1938 America was deep into the Great Depression and a lot of Americans were feeling down and out but one local South Dakota resident wasn't going to let that get him down Clarence Pappy Howell decided he wanted to host a race called the Black Hills motor classic Pappy ran a local ice business where he would transport ice all the local residents however with the invention of the electric refrigerator he decided that the writing was on the wall and decided to move on and go all in in the motorcycle world and he purchased the local Indian motorcycle dealership to create a sense of camaraderie Pappy also started the motorcycle club called the jackpine gypsies Pappy and the Jack Pine gypsies decided that on August 14 1938 they were going to host that race the Black Hills motor classic and they sent out letters inviting all their friends to come out and race on that day nine Racers showed up ready to compete and a few hundred fans came to spectate what originally started as a small little race and stunt show by Pappy back in the late 1930s has now grown into the most notorious largest motorcycle rally in the world Sturgis now has grown into what attracts about a half a million visitors around the world every single year to its rally I was born at morning on the first day of June 1900s and something and two us a sweetheart a father was too that left me a watching an old pair of shoes 2023 would Mark the 83rd annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally for years I've wanted to make the ride from Southern California up to Sturgis South Dakota and experienced a rally but I wanted to do it the right way I wanted to get a group of guys together that I enjoyed riding with and block out a decent amount of time to really enjoy the ride up there and back and hit all the major hot spots in the Sturgis area and it turns out this year everything fell into place I grabbed a couple of guys here from the shop Andrew and Brandon a couple of my friends a couple YouTubers million dollar Bogan and a couple of my cousins Chris and Daniel coming from Washington and Utah so we had a rad crew a bunch of guys coming from different states different countries we had Australia represented we had Germany represented and we all had one goal in mind to hit Sturgis South Dakota for the first time and enjoy the open road on our Harley-Davidson motorcycles I've been lucky to someday and all the food from the trees Stars been alive and my Goose hanging High I'll be okay [Music] [Applause] foreign [Music] [Music] starting off here on another adventure this time we're hitting Sturgis so pretty pumped about this trip it's been a long time in the making we've been planning this thing for a very long time got a couple surprises along the way a couple guests a couple surprise appearances as well so this is going to be a multi-part series here we just shot up from Southern California Brandon's over there taking a piss behind the wall so we are in Barstow right now we got a really early start we wanted to try to beat the heat a little bit Beat the Traffic as much as we could as well so we got five Riders right now including myself we've got me we've got Brandon we've got a guest appearance here from Stefan Stefan flew all the way from Germany to ride with us to Sturgis initial thoughts here it's great it took six months of preparations I'm so happy to be here to ride with the crew I tried it so many times I was always refused but now they've finally approved my application are you still employed you still have a job and everything you have to quit your job uh I would have done it but I found an agreement with my boss so he's he's good with me riding here and then when I'm back home I need to redo the work to uh yeah do some extra shift some extra flights what are we on today we are on the Wilbur's client that's how I yeah basically it's uh we would have thought it's definitely with Wilbur's oh okay no just I'm here for Harley Davidson okay now it's a streetlight standard I think at 21 or 20 small year and we did some slight modifications of course the suspension but some nice Kahuna grips and some LED lights thanks to Steve from late loss for feeding all those extra parts and making the bike ready very nice all right well streak though I can't go wrong with that right we got Brandon on his Road King of course 2017 Road King here we got Andrew on the road king as well 2017 Road King yeah baby we're in it now starting to feel the heat set in huh yeah a little bit it's like uh I think it hit like 95 100 on the way up here so I think it's about 100 right now so uh heading to St George tonight we also got Matt here special of guest appearance he's on the Low Rider s what year is your bike uh 2020 2020 lowrider S I always like it when we mix it up a little bit with soft tails we don't have all touring bikes so it's nice to have a you know a soft tail with us or Dinah we don't have any dinos here but modern soft tail here stop tonight Final Destination is St George so we'll try to uh enjoy the heat here and push through it [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Applause] second gas stop we just laid down about 130 miles and bred the Terribles just north of like State Line in Nevada you know or herself in Vegas still so we got a ride through Vegas and hit St George we stopped off here before you checked out our North Rim video this is like one of the biggest gas stations in the world I think is what they claim it's like 90 pumps or something like that it's about 111 degrees right now so yeah some of us got the hydration vests on it's yeah we're just getting baked out here for sure so we knew this was going to be kind of the hottest stretch of the trip so we're just trying to push through it and uh I just try to make the best of it you ever had a White Castle burger before Stephanie no never should I have fun is it a must it's like the white trash food of America oh okay Sounds sounds promising not exactly healthy put my head and my helmet underneath water not the other one right yeah clean water yeah all right let's call find the guys and see what they want to do you ever been to this big of a gas station before no biggest gas station ever is it is it really the biggest ever I think well I think it's the biggest in the world yeah it's a lot yeah it is a lot what's wrong with you this is hot over here come over here no drinking and riding okay yeah okay maybe some normal alcoholic yeah but you know I'm I'm used to German beer so yours is just a little bit of purified water oh my goodness this is it dude are we allowed to even be in here yeah yeah please yeah don't lock Us in are we even allowed to be in here a pretty good rule of like just go as far as you can until they say like hey you're not supposed to be here it's got me some pretty cool places you know I like that policy that's good it will be we're in 110 and now you can see our breath I thought it would be hotter that's great that was money where's Kid Rock when you eat it all right let me grab some jerky or something [Music] you guys all charged up I'll charge it up dude first time I've ever using it I bought it for uh Grand Canyon there you go never got to use it let me know what you think man yeah give you a full in-depth review on our next stop [Music] we were wrestling with two schools of thought when we were planning this leg of the trip on one hand I was thinking that we leave late in the afternoon so we go through the hottest part of the desert through Vegas and end up in St George when the sun has already gone down it's only about 90 degrees and the other school thought that we went with was leave early in the morning and try to beat all the traffic and just zip out there as quickly as we could and maybe only go through 115 part of the time I can't really say which one was better we definitely hit some really hot temperatures but I will say we ended up arriving in St George a lot sooner than we would otherwise which was kind of nice to get the relaxation once we got there thank you [Music] we finally made it into Las Vegas by the time we hit Vegas the temperatures had reached 120 degrees we started to hit some traffic at one point where it's literally stop and go the boys and I decided to instigate California rules and we started splitting lanes and going up the locals didn't seem too pleased about that but it got us through a little bit quicker and it cut our time heading into Mesquite by a little bit [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] degrees right now we're in Mesquite we're about 60 miles away from our destination right now yeah this is probably hopefully the worst part of our trip right here because yeah it's blazing 120 is like no joke so yeah fill up with gas right now head into St George eat some chicken we've got a place called Vivo the chicken I think that's what it's called Hit the pool so we'll see how it's going my hydration vest helped for about an hour but yeah we're this is probably the hottest weather I've ever ridden in before have you guys ever ridden in 120 degrees before probably the hottest not riding but in the river yeah riding this is probably my hardest I would like to make a statement about the street lights okay make a quick statement okay it's a lovely bike I've never had so much wind protection and I never needed it less like are you used to the Road Glide you think this gives you more wind protection than the rogueline especially with the aftermarket windscreen I I hardly get any wind so I'm dying but it's a nice bike so without any modifications uh well handle Bob eyes and seat Wise It's good mystery guy gives you a little bit better wind protection you know guys everyone that calls the sharknose fairing the wind splitter I I just I don't know guys I think the I agree with these guys the street glide you deflect the wind better it's closer to you you have a little bit more of a bubble you get a little bit more headwind on the Road Glide but anyways it's 120 degrees here in Mesquite Nevada and uh we're gas station and we need to rehydrate our cooling vests water is bigger right there do you mind if I borrow that hose just like wet myself to get back on the bike absolutely thank you sir foreign [Music] [Applause] damn this is the part of the YouTube video where things start to get a little weird it's best not to ask questions so we're gonna make the best of his 120. we now got our air conditioning it's only about what 49 miles 50 miles to St George and then we're uh we're relaxing poolside you know it's nice holding up good so far it's always like a little nerve-wracking when you're running the engine hard at 120 degrees outside like I just feel like it's getting really hot but yeah good old Betsy my Milwaukee 8 on my 2018's never failed me yet so yeah it's running strong I just had a fresh service with all the synthetic fluids so that helps out as well I'm gonna run in here and fill up the yeti here and then move on into St George here real quick [Music] foreign [Music] oh my gosh yes [Music] 20 degrees in here feels so good so when we get to Sturgis you know we're staying there we got a place for staying there for about a week and we're gonna hit up like all the hot spots all around Sturgis so like Devil's Tower we're gonna try to hit up the Badlands we're gonna go all through the Black Hills hit up Mount Rushmore Spearfish Canyon so we're gonna try to do all the the best most notorious like iconic places in Sturgis so yeah I'm really looking forward to it I haven't done any of those rides before so this is gonna be radar rehydrating yeah you want some [Applause] [Music] it's pretty good yeah just enjoying the 120 degree weather out here in the lovely town of Mesquite [Music] [Applause] [Music] so even though we were worn by three people to get off on Pioneer because of all the construction right before the gorge going through Arizona Andrew Brandon and Matt still managed to miss the exit but Stefan and I were able to make the exit and pass a lot of this standstill traffic that was leading up to the gorge and the side road was actually kind of Scenic as well so that's always an added benefit thank you [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] until [Music] they beat us here I don't know how they beat us well I do know actually they were splitting Lanes in Arizona by following the law Matt single law was broken and we still managed to just beat you guys you know we're just that fast they're just good at what they do you know I I can't explain it they just know what they just know how to ride so me and Stefan uh he had a little bit more of a legal ride yeah and uh we got here slightly after them so it's all good I'm hoping against those illegal Highway uh lane splitting stuff and we found such a marvelous piece of roads I still got goosebumps from the road even though it was 120 degrees weather it was a nice Road uh speaking of splitting Lanes though Steph and I saw you splitting in Las Vegas you know you can't split in Las Vegas right yeah but they will send the tickets to Wilbur's USA hopefully yeah there was a guy like pissed off at us like honking and stuff well there's a guy that would let you buy right that was a guy that rode a jeep that was driving a Jeep and I thought cheap guys are good guys as I'm riding a cheap Wrangler as well but there are some exemptions I have to say yeah that jeep guy was kind of a jerk man maybe yeah it was a rental for sure yeah that guy was trying to sideswipe you and take you out all right we're here at Viva Chicken now so this is kind of one of our favorite spots to come in St George [Music] yeah after a long hot run through the desert we finally made it to our hotel in St George Utah and the pool was definitely calling our names so we cooled off a bit got a little r r and decided to hit the hay early we had a long day ahead of us the next day to Granby Colorado [Music] you're working out tonight yeah you're really gonna work out tonight absolutely dude no days off brother dang dude there's a fitness center so you guys that's dedication right there [Music] just splitting up good morning guys starting off day two here in beautiful St George Utah uh it's probably only about 85 at this point so I haven't hit the scorching temperatures yet I'm hoping to kind of get out of town before it really gets super hot last night uh Stefan had some incredible growth overnight what is that good morning Stephanie good morning fine you're looking forward to today's activities yes it'll be really forwards to uh and a warning for all other viewers don't get too close during the night to met so why is that uh I don't know it just feels different when I woke up today uh can you explain the growth uh the mustache growth overnight as well or uh yeah that was part of I was scared to join the late law crew without growing in mustache and I'm not able to grow one sorry for that so I had to take other preventive measures otherwise they wouldn't expel me from the group gotta look the part I guess I don't know I think we're headed to Beavers our first stop we're meeting up with my cousin Daniel in Green River Utah he's headed from the Salt Lake area so yeah we got about 550 570 miles today something like that we're stopping in Granby Colorado for the nights we didn't want to do Denver tonight just because we didn't want to deal with like the city traffic and everything so we're kind of keeping it like a little bit more remote so Granby looks like there's some cool Mountain Roads off in that area as well so yeah we'll see how day two goes I think you're gonna lose the mustache on the road I hope not uh maybe it tends to move to an eyebrow or we will see it we will see it we will see Brandon jacked up his boots yesterday the soul came out tell us a quick story quick well I've had those moves for a while they've kind of already been falling apart which is disappointing because you're wearing I thought they were good road boots and they fell apart in the heat so I tossed them last night I was kind of bummed about it but freed up a lot of space and I found these bad boys the score right there [Music] for a while maybe I'll stop by and say hello foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] I find myself [Music] I won't have to be stuck in bed famous [Music] [Music] [Music] I can sleep [Music] oh my God I'm taking long colors [Music] Beaver Utah and I gotta say I do love me some Bieber where are we Mr President Bush we're in town of beaver Beaver Utah he's been talking like Bush this whole time Bush Bush Jr yeah ask Debbie get right what's up man what are you doing um visual inspections yeah it's hot now we're at about 6 000 feet right now such a refreshing day compared to yesterday 120 degrees yesterday so it's about 80 85 right now up here which was super nice probably next stop Green River meet up with Daniel this ride just gets so much better once you get north of like Vegas and St George it just like opens up super fast Highway scenery is awesome I just found a two dollar bill on the ground I don't know if it's good luck or bad luck that's very good luck that means you're gonna have a good trip in Sturgis still on there yeah and it got a nice suitable nutrition it does Suits you very well but it's just for mustache wearers so no for the non-bearded guys yeah only Master us mustache where everything going down yeah [Music] eliminated that [Music] you said Andrew fix it I'm trying to man I'm doing what I can Andrew's trying to fix the car but no luck so far pretty sure it's a fuel pump issue so yeah I don't know if we have any luck here [Music] oh so after we left Beaver Utah we would continue North on I-15 and we'd hang right on the 70 East take the 70 East through Richfield and we continue to a little town called Selena where we would make a pit stop grab some gas and continue on the 70 East we would take that into Green River Utah where we would meet up with Daniel my cousin [Music] foreign [Music] stop unfortunately we weren't able to get that girl back on the road on her car Andrew was kind of giving it his best effort but we think that she had a fuel system issue like a fuel pump issue or something like that so just have to wait it out Andrew gave her a bunch of money though to like hang out and maybe get a hotel room or something like that so Andrew's got a big heart I gotta hand it to him really good dude [Music] [Music] foreign State 70 East we dropped an elevation quite a bit from Salinas down into Green River and with that elevation drop we made a serious scenery change as well we went from the Alpine mountainous area gained a lot of heat which isn't really what we were looking for but we traded the alpines in for the red rock formations all the Bluffs and the plateaus spanning The Horizon it definitely gave me that southern Utah feel with a little bit of a Colorado twist to it right before we got into Green River we went through some amazing Canyons we had these large high-speed highways cut right into the mountain range some awesome Bridges we crossed and just that stereotypical Western United States Cowboy feel all the time [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you [Applause] census teach you what it is [Music] until now all the time in the world for pleasure is [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] Harley-Davidson crew plus some yup I'm excited for the ride definitely we got a good crew we got what like six people or so we got six now we're gonna be adding some along the way maybe adding a few more once we get out to Sturgis hold up and uh cousin Daniel is here so Daniel's officially joining the crew now we made it made it with the group he's on the street glide came down from Salt Lake City so we're gonna Head East now I'm going to Granby Colorado it's like 105 outside right now so yeah push through it hopefully it cools down pretty soon foreign [Music] River we continue to follow the 70 East and take it into Colorado we'd go through Grand Junction go up along the 70 this is a beautiful Highway by the way go through rifle New Castle a lot of this highway as well like follows the Colorado River it's absolutely gorgeous we would take that past eagle and then we would get off on the 131 and head north here [Music] foreign [Music] so never tell me you're getting an Indian next time dude yeah sorry man I'll never say you're getting an Indian yeah dude that one looked kind of sharp that would just passed though I know you liked it but I know this thing can do a Harley man yeah okay sorry man it'll never happen again I promise actually Matt could kick my ass so no he it's a cool 107 out right now I'm hoping uh it cools off here real quick some room for your helmet oh freaking hack dude why pack really nice I love you Daniel oh thanks man we're good thanks dude yeah it's gonna be really refreshing absolutely I love it that's a road trip hack number one for you guys all right helmets in the ice cooler if you can't find the beer caves yeah next best thing all right you're checking out Teddy Morris's Harley-Davidson here well they got a free Sturgis Park in there [Music] foreign [Music] Grand Junction Colorado and heading East on the 70 I had what was probably the biggest surprise of the entire trip this stretch of highway all the way until we turned off to head north into Granby was absolutely breathtaking and usually the motorcycle World tends to avoid the main interstates if they really want to find the good stuff but in this case on a main vein through the middle of Colorado the scenery could not get any better paralleling the Colorado River riding right at the foot of amazing mountains the amazing tunnels we went through I think these highways were built with the motorcyclist in mind [Music] and it's true [Music] [Music] take me to place [Music] about to head into Granby our next stop is our final resting location so we're going to uh eat some dinner tonight hopefully and uh yeah this part of Colorado is Awesome by the way [Music] [Music] we're taking the 70 right next to the river the Colorado River and it was it was beautiful like right after you get east of Grand Junction and you're headed out on the 70. it's a two-lane Highway high speed right next to the Colorado River like it was super epic never done this road on a motorcycle I've never done it period but yeah if you're headed to Sturgis and you can use the 70 to get out there it's a pretty dang good route [Music] online [Music] [Music] there's nobody here to me [Music] I think one of the main goals of every motorcyclist is to find and travel to the most epic Scenic roads possible of course there is one ingredient that can make the most scenic picturesque roads in the world even that much better and that ingredient is if you're riding into the sunset as you go over those roads [Music] we just got off the 131 here so we're gonna be heading up into Granby so we just exited off of the the highway 70 but oh my gosh I was not expecting that today that was such a rad Road 100 on the Lexus shut up thank you that road man the 70. that was sick dude are we done with 70. that was intense I don't think we're gonna pick it back up tomorrow no highways more Scenic than that one dude no main Highway yeah a main Interstate like that was so awesome yeah like I mean can you imagine the construction like they built the westbound Lanes up above the eastbound Lanes it's so cool that was so rad I got that dude I can't wait to see your footage it's a long yeah it's a long clip hey it's all good man I think this is my air my air filters might be spraying a little oil on the edge a little bit oh my mine's spraying all over my bike that's normal because dude we're riding them hard yeah check that out there I have like just little dots sometimes right here and here yeah it's just it's just blow by yeah I got I mean I got it up here too yeah man you wanted the white bike yeah yeah exactly everything shows up foreign probably didn't do my due diligence in doing enough research but we'll go through here then we would get off at a little road looks like a one we'll do it called trough Road and take that that quickly turned into a dirt road much to our surprise had a little adventure to the whole trip if you know what I mean take that one up here very Scenic and beautiful though we continue to follow that road all the way up in the dirt all the way into kremling then we headed east on the 40. things got kind of dark by the time we got up to the 40 when we took that followed that all the way in and got into Granby Colorado for the night [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] the route that we were taking is now turning into dirt so we're taking a dirt road over a mountain pass I guess so we're just gonna send it and do what we can so hopefully uh hopefully no one Falls [Music] should have brought the pan Americas huh I guess I had no idea this road was dirt [Music] all the way yeah you're off road it goes all the way to crab Lane pretty much we're going to Granby tonight yeah just I would take it slow there are sections that are both oh really there's a there's a like maybe a half mile section so this is dirt road corrugated sucks and you go through the hills for a minute it's not that bad like it's almost 40 and then it becomes like hard packed dirt and then there's a tiny tape section that there's like you know tight Mountain Pass and then um back down the way we came up I guess so uh probably like 24. 24 miles on this so 24 minus like they said like eight in terrible terrible just up the road okay half of the Hill yeah man this is a terrible spot to park what do you think is this the only way to uh it's just the banter you know it's 20 it's 24 miles to get to the Mavericks with patches of uh paved road but it's not till a while until the very end you guys just want to take it real slow and just do it yeah let's just go let's just take it slow [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] not too many places are open we found uh the Grand Azteca Mexican Restaurant so we're gonna check it out here [Music] thank you [Music] thanks for dinner thanks for having me [Music] [Music]

Channel: Matt Laidlaw

Views: 248,206

Keywords: Harley-Davidson, Motorcycles, Laidlaw's

Id: lhnLzEaxUbQ

Length: 49min 34sec (2974 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 22 2023