The cover of the December '76 Street Chopper featured an unlikely trio of images: Horst painting what appears to be an angry warrior ape-woman onto a tank, the Sturgis chief of police perched on a gold chopper, and a colorful bike aptly named "The Climax." With that sort of mishmash, how could we resist? (We'll be honest: In actuality, it was the angry ape-woman that really caught our eye. But that's just between us.)
Former STC frontman Bob Clark covered the '76 Sturgis rally, then in its 36th year of existence. "Each year the run has grown in popularity," Clark reported, "and a record-breaking gathering of almost 20,000 bikes, bikers, and no telling how many spectators came from all parts of the United States and Canada for this year's get-together." He noted that the A.M.A.-sanctioned races were gradually giving way to Main Street Sturgis, "where the bikes and their owners gather by the thousands to get together with others of their own breed."
The STC crew ran into a fire-breather of a chop in a tiny town in Alabama: a 280-pound bike...with an 87ci Sportster motor. (We'll wait while you pick your jaws up off the floor.) The "Saturday Night Special" routinely blew away the local guys in their hot rod cars who "just don't believe how fast a really hot bike is. They sure find out quick enough, though, and it usually costs them a little money." That very night, the owner made $75 off some unsuspecting racers on a pot-holed road in the dark. Not bad for a town that didn't even have a burger stand!
Some of you may know the town of Deadwood from the HBO series of the same name. The famed haven for outlaws of the Old West retained much of its lawless spirit into the 1970s, hosting an interesting bunch of "outlaw bikers" who tended to flock to the town during Sturgis week. Stage shows such as The Trial of Jack McCall for the Killing of Wild Bill Hickok [sic] ran almost every night at the Old Town Hall, and burnouts down the main street were practically routine.
A spread for "Wild Wild West" stood out among the beautiful choppers and women of the Bay Area, going into some detail about the chrome-and-gold plated Sporty engine that was the norm with many NorCal-built bikes. More of Horst's wild artwork could be found, particularly in the form of an earth-goddess type holding a revolver. That's the life of a biker girl, though: beauty and brains.
Bob Spina's unusual-looking (to say the least) Casino Cruiser couldn't decide whether it was a trike or a spaceship (but could it fly?); we learned how to sandblast our own stuff with the Port-A-Blast, which resembled a fire extinguisher; and Lundberg Products finally came up with an oil cooler "that didn't look like a miniature radiator"-definitely a great triumph.
December '76 had it all: slick bikes, gorgeous women, illicit street racing in rural 'Bammer, and a colorful cast of characters from the '70s chopper world. One can only wonder what January will bring.