Riding season was in full-swing in the North East – I spent nearly every day with a helmet on – often driving nowhere in particular yet happy to have an excuse to go somewhere other than work and school. Light breezes, trees thick with dark green leaves shading the backroads from the summer heat, made [...]

Inaugurated in 1939, the Black Hills Classic, aka The Sturgis Rally and Races is a diverse event that draws crowds in the hundreds of thousands to the Black Hills of South Dakota and neighboring areas of the badlands and Eastern Wyoming. Each year brings with it new faces and new rides yet despite how much the world around us has changed many things about Sturgis have stayed the same.

So, I was drafting this 99 GSXR750 down the front straight. I normally see 156 mph on the speedo on the R6 just a couple of seconds before I brake. I was probably a bit quicker on this run with the draft. I went into turn one pretty deep to get by the guy, then grabbed the brakes. NOTHING! The lever came to the bar with zero resistance. I grabbed it a couple of times and there was absolutely nothing there, and now turn one is approaching VERY quickly…