Day three of our ride up to Sturgis dawned clear with a brilliant blue sky and we were up early, ready to hit the road and make some serious miles. Jeff Decker was also heading for Sturgis in his van, bike and bronze statues in the back, along with Hippodrome Studio merchandise and he kindly offered to take our gear. The plan was that he would stick with us for the day and when we pulled up for the night he’d give us back our gear and drive on to the Black Hills.

So we loaded our stuff in his van and wheeled our bikes out of Jeff’s garage. Bingo! – We meet today’s obstacle, a flat tire on the Flattie. Turned out to be a nail that had penetrated both the tire and the inner tube. So we pump some air into it and headed down to Legends Vintage Motorcycles in Springville (“Vintage Motorcycles” – how handy!) while Jeff rings Scott from Vintage to meet us there.

Scott arrived, opened up and Billy pulled his wheel off, the ‘wheel-that-will-never-rust.' In no time Scott had the tire off and was searching around for the right size tube which, being the aforesaid Vintage shop they had it in stock. Once he located one it is only minutes to fit it.

Jeff assisted Billy to refit the wheel and we were, as Willie Nelson sings, ‘On the road again’.

Jeff lead the way from the bike shop to one of Utah’s many canyons and then lets us go on ahead. With some mist still in the air and the sun just warming up we begin a great day’s riding, mental fingers crossed against encountering any more hassles.

So relatively light and manageable the bikes had become that they didn’t even seem to need a guiding hand on the bars, eagerly heading toward Sturgis like puppies fresh off the leash.

Gradually, however, the sky began to darken and we could smell rain in the air and began to wonder if this was our second trial by fire (water?) for the day.

Fortunately, our luck had changed and the storm veered off to the side and we were back in bright sunshine again which meant it was time for a few more pictures to be taken.

And why not? We were enjoying the ride and now that things seemed to be going smoothly we were in no hurry at all. We crushed the outlaw curse that had been throwing various problems our way, and I for one was filled with confidence that the rest of the trip would be a doddle. Hmm, maybe that wasn’t the best mind set to have at that point . . .

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