What you see in the picture above is the “Veteran Memorial” at the Buffalo Chip grounds near Sturgis. It is a large field of American flags planted annually to honour fallen soldiers, combat veterans, and the sacrifices made for freedom. The field is established at the beginning of the rally and involves thousands of volunteers placing flags to commemorate those who have served and made the ultimate sacrifice. This moment couldn’t get more American than this! If that is the first image, then you know you are in for a ride! So, let us get to it.

Country: USA

Language: English

Currency: United States Dollar (USD)

Year: 2025

Distance: ~2,500 km

Route and Map: Minneapolis > Sioux Falls > Badlands National Park > Keystone > Sturgis > Needles Eye Tunnel > Deadwood > Sturgis > Chamberlain > Minneapolis

Map Link

Ride on: Right Side

Metric System: Speed in mph and Fuel in gallons.

Machine: Indian Roadmaster

There are bucket lists, and then there are big buckets that need just one thing to fill them up. When you talk about motorcycling, it is usually solo or done with a group of people who are hopefully like-minded and who won’t kill each other by the end of the ride. At some point in our riding lives, we have been part of a group ride, a festival or a rally. The Sturgis rally is the mother of them all.

Without a doubt, it is the world’s biggest motorcycle rally! And while I am on a mission to visit as many countries on motorcycles (currently the stat stands at 79 countries), Sturgis was the big ticket item for a long time.

My first stop was in the town of Sioux Falls, which is also the largest city in the state of South Dakota. It is named after the cascade of falls that were created 14,000 years ago in the Ice Age.

What could be better for such a ride than to have a flagship motorcycle from Indian Motorcycle, the Indian Roadmaster! The Sturgis rally was founded by a group of friends and Indian motorcycle owners in 1938! I picked up the bike from Minneapolis, Minnesota and decided to ride down to Sturgis and back for a total of around 2,500 km.

Out of Minneapolis, it is Highway 169, which is pretty straightforward and goes to one of America’s largest’ things, in this case, Minnesota’s largest candy store. Wide open fields, railway tracks as far as the eye can see into the horizon, classic cruiser country.

The Indian Roadmaster is the flagship classic motorcycle from Indian’s stable. The one I got was the Dark Horse with complete matte black bodywork and the bit of chrome shining through. Perfect for Bruce Wayne when taking it slow. The Thunderstroke 1,980 cc air-cooled engine makes 171 nm of torque at just 2,900 rpm.

When it comes to cruisers, horsepower really does not matter, but it does put out 92 bhp, so it not only wells from the start, it can also carry speed. The weight is almost half a tonne, well, 404 kg, or a bit more depending on the exact trip. The engine is very refined but still gives you that perfect rumble bass that reaches the bone marrow without tearing your eardrums apart.

There are very few true-blue cruisers that I love to look at, and the Roadmaster is one of them. The other was the Victory Vision, which was a company also owned by Polaris till 2017, but wound down to focus its resources on Indian motorcycles.

The next day saw me ride from Sioux Falls to the Badlands. The native American Lakota people called this ‘mako sica’, which literally translates to Badlands. Extreme temperatures coupled with scarce water and an outlandish landscape make this area look very beautiful to ride through, but definitely not somewhere you want to get stuck in. This area also has one of the richest fossil deposits from over 33 million years ago!

Riding the Badlands loop is one of the most surreal things you can do in this part of the USA. Though you can choose to remain on sealed roads, there are some lesser touristy gravel roads as well that will give you an otherworldly feeling. Truth be told, I am not really a fan of riding a 400 kg metal behemoth off-road, but admittedly, it did handle well enough even when I was white-knuckled and grinding my teeth most of the time.

The Badlands loop ended and threw me back onto the small town of ‘Scenic’ and then onto Highway 44 to Rapid City.

The Neo Kavach Tech Pack Pro has some nifty features, and the ones I ended up using the most were the hydration pack and the helmet holder. Read our full review of the Neo Kavach Tech Pack Pro here.

The Sturgis Rally, though named after the town of Sturgis, actually covers a much bigger area and surrounding towns like Deadwood and more. You will find it hard and expensive to book any accommodation in Sturgis itself if you do not do it in advance, at least a few months before. But it hardly matters since this area has some of the best riding roads in this part of the USA in the Black Hills.

The Mount Rushmore National Memorial.

The town of Rapid City, which is 45 km from Sturgis, is a good base for exploring the Black Hills region, and it also has a major airport. However, this was also too expensive at that time, so I chose to stay in the town of Custer, which is 112 km away from Sturgis, but can be done in 1 hour and 15 minutes one way with good scenic roads. Even here, I had to pay 250 USD per night!

Full Throttle Saloon.

However, Custer is quite close to Mount Rushmore memorial, the iconic place that we have all seen in Hollywood movies and posters. The sculpture features 60-foot-tall heads of four United States presidents: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln. There are some fantastic riding roads around this area as well.

The Sturgis rally has a lot of things going on, including music performances, the best customised motorcycles, topless wash and more! There are a few prominent locations where you will find a lot of action happening, and they are a little away from the main street, Sturgis, where a group photo every evening also happens with thousands of bikers.

You can check out Buffalo Chip ground, Full Throttle Saloon and even the Indian motorcycle showroom there.

Main Street of Sturgis.

Aside from Sturgis, the riding is also great around this area. But you should be very careful as there are motorcyclists of all calibre here, and your main priority should be to reach your hotel back safely with good memories. Do not overspeed or ride intoxicated; chances are you will get a heavy fine, and your bike will be impounded. Though you will find some amazing modified motorcycles and choppers out here that are barely road-legal.

Historic Town of Deadwood.

Then you have the historic town of Deadwood, which is famous for its gold rush era architecture and the famous gangster Bill Hickok, who was killed here. If anything will, this town will take you back in time, like we are used to seeing in movies.

Lots of music and rock and roll everywhere!

When you are here, riding through Needles Highway is also a must. It is known for its needle-like rock formations, narrow tunnels and dramatic landscapes.

Needles Eye Tunnel.

You will notice that there are hardly any sportsbikes at the rally. Mostly, there are Indians and Harleys and all sorts of choppers with a few odd modified cars. If you hang around long enough, you might just make friends as well; however, I hardly had time, but people in general were friendly and were busy with themselves or just checking out the bikes in general.

The last two days were spent riding from Sturgis and back to Minneapolis with a stopover in the city of
Chamberlain. I found a lot of sunflower fields along the way that truly made it magical.

Minneapolis downtown is also a must-visit for all Prince fans, like me. He was born in this city, and the huge murals made me nostalgic and a bit sad that we lost such a great musician of our lifetime.

The Sturgis rally might not be for everyone, but it should be on everyone’s bucket list; Be it for the amazing ride to Sturgis from any of the big cities like Denver or Minneapolis… be it for the rides in and around the Black Hills… be it for the insane number of bikes and camaraderie you will see… Or be it just for the vibe. And if it is on an Indian motorcycle, then you have really aced it!

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