It was high noon in Sturgis, Mississippi, and it was hot as hell.
After a few mild, weirdly-pleasant-for-August days the full brunt of the summer was back, and the timing couldn’t have been worse. Saturday was the third and final day of the Little Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, and the streets were lined with bikes and every shady spot was packed with bikers, some visibly suffering in their black clothes and leathers.
A brave few drove around, bikes flitting back and forth up the street and in and out of Diane Jackson Memorial Park like big, growly bees. Alongside Highway 12, in a shady canopy in front of the Baptist church, Chip Knedlik, of West Point, watched, occasionally picking on a banjo.
Knedlik is something like a veteran, this being what he estimates as his fifth visit to the rally. His bike, a 2004 Harley Fat Boy, is bright yellow and painted with flames. Big stickers on the back of the bike read “Satan sucks.”
Knedlik, who also rides with the Hellfighters, a Christian bike club, proudly explains that, while the paint isn’t his handiwork, most of the rest of the work done to the bike is.
“It looked like Grandpa’s bike when I got it,” he said. “The leatherwork, the pegs, the sissy bar, I did all that myself. I took off the old windshield, too.”
Sturgis Mayor Leah Brown estimated there had been about 5,000 people, give or take, come in over the whole weekend, but said it was hard to get a solid head count. Festival-goers had to buy a $10 armband to get into the park, where many of the actual activities were going on, and many chose to just park along the highway and congregate, instead.
That’s not to say the park wasn’t full. It was, as bikers and wattage enthusiasts alike prepared for a sound and bike show.
Glenn Ellis, of Walker, Louisiana, came to the show with his 1948 Simplex Servi-Cyle. He painted the bike in Army green because they were used by military couriers during World War II.
“I pulled this bike out of a collapsing building,” he said. “It was in my sister-in-law’s father’s shop, and the building was coming down on it.”
He said he rebuilt the whole machine, including having some parts custom made.
“You can’t find those parts anymore,” he said. “The company that made them has been out of business for 60 years.”
Ellis said he’d never been to Sturgis before, but decided to check it out after seeing it on Facebook.
Also setting up for the show was Trey Christmas, of Vernon, Alabama. Christmas was showing off a 2017 Harley Davidson Sportster he had customized himself.
He was returning to Sturgis after an underwhelming first experience, he said.
“I came two years ago, when they were starting back up, and it was kind of dead,” he said. “I wanted to wait for it to pick back up.”
In addition to the sound and bike show, Saturday saw a Teddy Bear charity ride as well as live music that night at the park. A wide variety of vendors were also set up outside the park entrance all three days.
Brian Jones is the local government reporter for Columbus and Lowndes County.
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