[ExI] FW: bikers again

[spike at rainier66.com]

…

Subject: Re: [ExI] bikers again

 

About Sturgis this year and last:


 


South Dakota COVID cases explode after Sturgis motorcycle rally


https://www.alternet.org/2021/08/south-dakota-sturgis/ <https://www.alternet.org/2021/08/south-dakota-sturgis/?share_id=6643278> 

 

“In 2020, the event was such a massive superspreader  <https://www.rawstory.com/2020/08/motorcyclists-shrug-off-5-million-cases-for-big-weekend-in-south-dakota/> that 5 million cases could be traced back to the rally.“

 

 

 

Update:  Some of you may recall I am in a touring bike club where we ride an obscure market failure, Suzuki’s attempt to compete with Honda’s Gold Wing.  They built this bike only three years in the mid 80s, then no more.  A few hundred examples still run, and mine is among them.  We call ourselves the OBOOBs, for Old Boys On Old Bikes.

 

This is a photo taken about 15 yrs ago as I was heading out to a local rally.

 

Recall I mentioned our club is almost all older people.  I am one of the youngest ones at 60.  I don’t think to this day we ever did get a younger member, for I bought this bike new when I was 24, and it was kinda an old man’s bike at that time, but I liked it because it is such a comfortable road-couch, cruise all day, no problem:

 



 

Our club likes to have national level rallies in places like Branson and Sturgis, but not during the big Sturgis rally.  They like to arrange it for afterwards, because Sturgis doesn’t have enough hotels, so most of the bikers camp.  But isn’t really the sleep-on-the-ground crowd.  Some will camp, I will, but most are older couples who like to stay in hotels.  Sturgis does have a few of those, plenty enough for our club.

 

So... we arrange to do OBOOB rallies in Sturgis after the biker crowd goes home, in about first week of October.

 

Last year we had a big debate online about whether to cancel because of covid.  I chose to sit it out.  About 30 OBOOBs went ahead, knowing that for a lot of them, plenty in their 80s, that might be their last ride.  Well… it was for two of them.  One died of covid related, not clear if it came from the rally or the trip there or the trip back, or none of the above.  Kinda looks like he caught after returning home, but it isn’t clear.  He went into the hospital 11 days after the last contact at Sturgis.  The other perished of natural causes, which were anticipated in his case.

 

OK, this year a repeat.  I again chose to sit this one out.  The others are heading out in a few weeks, knowing this very well might be their last rumble.

 

spike

 

 

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