A Ride Through South Dakota’s Most Misunderstood Festival

Whether riding two-up through the Black Hills or bonding over leather stamping and welding with a multi-generational crew of women riders, in this episode of Travel Tales by Afar, we uncover a side of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally most travelers miss.

Transcript

Aislyn Greene: I am Aislyn Greene, and welcome to Travel Tales by Afar. Every week we hear stories of life-changing travel from comedians, astronauts, authors, adventures, and so many more. And this week is no exception.

We’re hitting the road with someone who’s made a career out of adventure, but this time she’s breaking one of her dad’s cardinal rules.

Jaymee Sire is a food writer and TV presenter, and she’s the host of the Food Network’s Obsessed podcast. She also loves a good adrenaline rush, which we’ll hear more about in a moment. But when she found herself at a tourism event in New York City, chatting with the folks behind the legendary Sturgis Buffalo Chip music festival, she discovered something that would challenge her in a completely different way.

So today Jaymee takes us on a journey through South Dakota’s Black Hills, where she discovers that family rules are made to be broken—especially when breaking them leads to the ride of a lifetime.

Jaymee Sire: I’m an adventurer. I’ve been skydiving in Montana. I’ve hiked to the top of Machu Picchu. I swam with Great White sharks in South Africa. My approach to life has always been, Let’s see what happens.

Growing up, my dad wasn’t super strict. He had just two rules: Don’t do drugs and don’t get on a motorcycle.

Dad, I’m sorry.

[Motorcycle rumble]

In April 2024, I went to a big tourism event for Travel South Dakota in New York City, where I lived at the time. The multilevel event space was transformed into a little “South Dakota choose your own adventure” of sorts. Fleurish Flower Farm was there creating fresh arrangements for guests to take home. Black Hills Contraband offered tastings from their seventh-generation distillery, and chefs from some of the state’s most iconic restaurants did live cooking demos highlighting local delicacies, including pheasant, which is the state bird.

I attended along with my boyfriend, Justin, who’s a photographer and videographer. As we wandered around, we met Daymon and Toni Woodruff, from the legendary Sturgis Buffalo Chip. It’s billed as the “largest music festival in motorcycling,” and it’s part of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, which actually started back in 1938, if you can believe it. Buffalo Chip, meanwhile, began in 1981, basically just as a campground for people coming to the rally. But then they started inviting bands to perform, and it grew organically into a real-deal music festival. Over the years, everyone from Joan Jett and Motley Crue to Cher and Bob Dylan have performed there. Now it’s actually one of the oldest family-owned and -operated music festivals in the country. Daymon told me what the festival’s real mission is:

Daymon Woodruff: To throw the best party anywhere for the nicest people on the planet.

Jaymee: I’m sure a lot of people at this New York City event didn’t know what Sturgis was. But I did. I grew up in Montana, and almost every summer, my family would take a big road trip to visit my cousins in South Dakota, and inevitably it would be around when this rally was happening. Throughout the trip, we’d see just hundreds of motorcycles, and my sister and I would try to keep a running tally of the bikes. Which, of course, was nearly impossible.

Justin and I had a great time talking with Daymon and Toni, whose parents, Rod and Carol, started Sturgis Buffalo Chip. I had always thought of Sturgis as an event for dudes—dudes with handlebar mustaches who wore leather pants and rode giant Harleys—but Daymon told me that wasn’t the case:

Daymon: Anyone who has a conception about what this place is without actually experiencing it is wrong. You can’t know without seeing it and digesting it.

Jaymee: And that’s when they told me about the Biker Belles, an annual women’s ride that they launched in 2009 as a way to increase awareness of women in motorcycling and raise funds for local charities. One of those causes is Helping with Horsepower, an organization that empowers girls and women who are at risk of [becoming] or [are] victims of abuse. Toni just lit up with a huge smile on her face when she talked about Biker Belles:

Toni Woodruff: We’re not a club, we’re not a campout. We’re an event that just says, Come and celebrate women motorcycling for mentorship and inspiration. It started as a way of giving back and honoring our past and inspiring our future.

Jaymee: Andria Yu, a rider coach who was there representing the Motorcycle Safety Foundation, could see they had piqued my interest. She was the one to say, “Well, if you want to go to Sturgis, you should learn how to ride.”

Two weeks later, I was sitting on a Yamaha Virago 250 in a college parking lot in the Bronx, driving in circles and weaving through traffic cones.

And two months after that?

I was in Sturgis.

Every August since 1981, people have come from all over to Sturgis for the Buffalo Chip. Now the festival is the largest gathering of music and motorcycle fans in the world, drawing more than half a million people. Buffalo Chip basically transforms into a small town, with rows and rows of RVs and tents. They even have a sanitation department! There’s a parade, a beauty pageant, a rope-swing contest, pancake breakfasts, a “tattoo café” where people get inked . . . even homemade bikini and mankini contests.

Justin and I arrived on Saturday, August 3, the second day of the festival, and it was already packed. People everywhere. You could smell the diesel. You could hear the motorcycles. It was sensory overload for sure, but also very exciting. I felt an immediate jolt of energy. We settled into our home for the week: an RV with an incredible view of Bear Butte and the steady stream of motorcycles zooming past it all day.

Which reminded me . . . I needed to practice. This was only going to be my third time really riding, and I obviously did not arrive on a bike.

Andria had arranged a practice session ahead of the trip, as well as a loaner bike for me in Sturgis: a beautiful crimson Triumph Speed 400. It was absolutely stunning. It almost sparkled in the sunlight. And even though it wasn’t as big as . . . say, a Harley . . . it was way bigger than the two I had learned and practiced on ahead of the trip. Immediately I felt uneasy. Andria and her colleague took it over to a parking lot so I could get acquainted with it. But after five minutes, I knew I couldn’t ride it. It was just too big, and I was just too inexperienced, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to manage the 50-mile ride.

I felt awful and embarrassed, but everyone told me not to worry: They’d figure out a way for me to still participate. Andria had been in the community for a really long time, and said she’d find someone for me to ride with. And sure enough, on Tuesday morning, about an hour before the ride, I met Steve Piehl, my knight in abrasion-resistant Kevlar, and his chrome steed. Steve is a motorcycle Hall of Famer. How you get into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame [AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame Museum], I do not know. But Steve is in it. And he’s a very experienced rider and felt comfortable riding “two up” . . . a term I learned the day prior, which basically means I’d be riding on the back of the bike, with Steve in control of everything else.

The Lodge at Deadwood served as the meetup spot for the Biker Belles ride, just outside the Old West town by the same name, where gunfighter Wild Bill Hickok was shot while playing poker in 1876. As women started arriving for registration and breakfast, it truly felt like a family reunion. Some of these women only see each other once a year, on this very ride—they may live on opposite sides of the country, but they’ve created this real community and formed friendships that are meaningful and timeless. The energy and good vibes were contagious. Long braids, bandanas, leather vests seemed to be the unofficial uniform, but it was truly a “come as you are” environment. There were lawyers, nurses, CEOs, actors, grandmothers, professional stunt riders . . . you name it, they were probably represented. I witnessed so many long hugs and a constant soundtrack of laughter under the hum of motorcycles. I felt extremely lucky to just be part of it, and even as a non-rider, I was welcomed with open arms.

Finally, it was about time for the ride, so everyone moved outside for some photos and a feel-good pre-ride pep talk from Toni herself.

Toni: This is such a great ride. I think all of us look so forward to it every year. And, you know, it’s a great chance for us to get together as women and support each other, right? You know, so isn’t that great? [00:10:06] Yes, let’s clap. Woo! You know, this is sisterhood at its finest.

I couldn’t help but clap and holler along—I was so inspired and excited to hit the road, even if I didn’t do it the way I had planned. But first—Andria gave everyone some quick reminders to ensure a safe and comfortable ride for everyone participating.

Andria Yu: Again, we have riders of all experience levels, so ride your own ride. If you feel uncomfortable or if something doesn’t feel right, kind of pull over. Someone will help you because that’s what I love about the motorcycling community. We’re always here to help support each other. I just want to say, all of you ladies riding here, you are all such huge influencers. You inspire so many people, especially women, to see, explore what it’s like to add a motorcycle to their lives, and I would love to encourage every single one of you to consider becoming a rider coach.

Jaymee: And with that, it was helmets on and kickstands up! Steve got settled and then helped me get in place on the back of his bike:

Steve Piehl: Step on there with your left foot and then put your hand on my shoulder and swing over. OK. Comfortable?

Jaymee: First things first: Navigating a motorcycle around some traffic cones in a Bronx parking lot is nothing like cruising down the highway through the Black Hills in South Dakota, the wind in your hair, the sun on your back. It was absolutely exhilarating. I felt so connected to the road, just taking everything in. It was a kind of sightseeing that I had never experienced before. There were about 125 of us, along with a highway patrol escort, all riding in a staggered formation for safety. And not all on motorcycles! There were trikes, slingshots, and bikes of all shapes and sizes. Oddly enough, even with the noise of the motorcycles, it felt serene.

And it was beautiful. So, so beautiful. Coming from Montana, I’m used to really large mountains—those jagged peaks and that wide, open landscape. The Black Hills have a different kind of beauty. There are rolling hills, little mountains, gorgeous waterfalls. And the vistas would open up in front of me as we came over the crest of a hill. And because I was a passenger, I could just look around and soak up every bit of it. It’s interesting because even though I was with Steve, I couldn’t really talk to him too much due to the noise from the bike, so it almost felt like a solo experience. I loved every minute of it, and I didn’t feel guilty at all that I wasn’t driving the bike myself.

The 50-mile ride lasted just over an hour and wove its way through Vanocker Canyon, Bear Butte State Park, and ended back at the Chip, as everyone calls it. Many of the women lined up their motorcycles for the bike show at the CrossRoads—basically a chance for everyone to check out all the tricked-out bikes, which there are plenty of. My favorite was the bright-pink one that was definitely giving Barbie movie, which felt very appropriate for the theme of this event, which is all about women supporting women. There was a brunch set up for everybody, and volunteers handed out swag bags with plaid button-up shirts and sunglasses. There were even some hands-on learning experiences, like welding and leather stamping. Women took turns on the mic talking about their personal experiences riding motorcycles, what Biker Belles means to them, and why they keep coming back. More than a few people were wiping tears from their eyes.

This was such a different side of the rally that a lot of people don’t see. And it made me realize that Buffalo Chip is not just a campground or a music festival . . . it’s truly a community. Daymon had told me I needed to come out there and experience it for myself to understand it. And he was right. This isn’t just bad boys and rebels, though there’s a bit of that, too. But what unites them is their love of riding motorcycles. These are people who want to enjoy life and see the country. Who doesn’t want that?

A lot of women asked me if I’d keep riding after this. Honestly, I don’t know. But I’m really glad I learned how. Justin and I joked that if all else, the skill will come in handy when there’s an alien invasion or zombie apocalypse and the only getaway vehicle nearby is a motorcycle. We’ll soar off down the highway, leaving stunned zombies in our wake.

But I digress . . . The Biker Belles ride wasn’t the end of our Sturgis experience. It was just getting revved up. Justin and I saw Jelly Roll perform later that night at the Chip. I sampled something called a pork parfait . . . that’s a cup layered with mashed potatoes, pulled pork, and BBQ sauce, and it’s just as indulgent as it sounds. And thanks to Andria, we also experienced another pretty epic Black Hills ride in a Polaris Slingshot: Imagine an open-air go-kart with the power of a motorcycle and three wheels navigating around the hairpin turns of Needles Highway. We stopped at Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse Memorial, and saw a herd of buffalo in Custer State Park so close I could have reached out and touched one. (Don’t worry, I didn’t.) Definitely a fun and unique way to go sightseeing!

And I think that’s the beauty of Sturgis and Buffalo Chip. It’s whatever you want it to be. A choose-your-own South Dakota adventure, if you will. But no matter which path you choose . . . it’s certain to be a memorable ride!

Aislyn:  That was Jaymee Sire. If you were inspired by her Sturgis journey, you’re in luck, because this year, the 85th motorcycle rally takes place from August 1 through the 10th. And if you want more from Jaymee, you can find her as the host of Food Network’s Obsessed and on Instagram.

Both of those links are in the show notes. Next week, join me for a conversation with food historian, author, and consummate traveler Dr. Jessica B. Harris.

Ready for more Travel Tales? Visit afar.com/podcast and be sure to follow us on Instagram and TikTok; we’re @afarmedia. If you enjoyed today’s exploration, I hope you’ll come back for more great stories.

Subscribing makes this so easy. You can find Travel Tales by Afar on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast platform. This podcast is also part of the AirWave Media podcast network, so visit airwavemedia.com to listen and subscribe to their other fine shows, like Culture Kids and The Explorers Podcast.

And, of course, be sure to rate and review the show. It helps us book amazing guests like the one you just heard, and it helps other travelers find it. This has been Travel Tales, a production of Afar Media. The podcast is produced by Aislyn Greene and Nikki Galteland. Music composed and produced by Strike Audio.

And remember, everyone has a travel tale. What’s yours?