A most unconventional convention

There is no place on earth quite like Sturgis which is why the 6,000-resident town in South Dakota draws 400,000 to 600,000 bikes and bikers every August. These photos by Carole and Roy Timm (and a few by your faithful blogger) will give you a flavor of the motorcycle world's unconventional convention. Click on any image for a larger view.

First and foremost, Sturgis is about bikes, mainly Harley-Davidsons. There hundreds of thousands of new bikes and old, production and custom, to be admired.

Sturgis is also about people, hundreds of thousands of bikers, some of them more visible than others. Here we have antlerman . . .

. . . there we have flagman . . .

. . . and more than one dog riding with his master.

Some tattoos are worth a closer look. It's estimated about 15,000 tattoos are applied during Sturgis week.

Greg, the GM at Grand Teton Harley-Davidson & Buell, takes in the scene on jam-packed Main Street.

Did we mention there is no shortage of biker babes at Sturgis?

Dan, one of two bankers in our group of riders, takes the obligatory ride down Main Street.

Craig also does the tour of Main Street.

But there is much more to Sturgis than the parade of bikes, bikers and babes on Main Street. There are great one day rides in almost every direction. Here, Mount Rushmore looks on from the distance as a group of riders enters a tunnel on Iron Mountain Highway.

There are motorcycles everywhere in the Black Hills of South Dakota around Sturgis . . .

. . . but it's still possible to find solitude, especially early in the morning.

Jay and Brandon, father and son from Vail, wait for a breakfast cafe to open in Keystone prior to an early morning ride on Iron Mountain Highway.

The Needles Highway is another not-to-be-missed ride in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

Another view of the Needles Highway in the Black Hills near Sturgis.

We were fortunate to have E.B. Chester as our host and guide. He's been to Sturgis more times than he can recall.

But before any riding started, the first morning after our arrival in Sturgis was devoted to getting our Harleys clean and shining again after 1,000 miles on the road.

Ed, a partner in Arizona Bike Week, was one of three riders in our group seeing Sturgis and environs for the first time.

In Custer State Park, buffalo still roam--and have the right of way by virtue of their sheer mass.

Larry, riding a Harley-Davidson for the first time, started his banking career in Rapid City near Sturgis many years ago.

Dan Klann of Butthead Racing, a team sponsored by Chester's Harley-Davidson, takes off down the drag strip during racing at Sturgis. In 2006, Butthead was the Super Gas winner at Sturgis.