STURGIS HARLEY-DAVIDSON: MAKING HISTORY IN THE HEART OF RIDER CITY

That’s where I met Tim Sutherland, the dealership’s General Sales Manager and the man responsible for overseeing the launch of the new full-service dealership.

Tim had been brought in ahead of the 2025 season to help transform the building and bring full sales capabilities to the location.

But he’s not new to the game. A longtime industry veteran, Tim has owned competing dealerships in four major markets and even co-owned a MotoAmerica bagger racing team with rider Cory West.

When I asked what brought him to Sturgis, he smiled and gave it to me straight.

“I was retired. I didn’t have to come here,” he says. “The thing that brought me back into this game was, ‘How would you like to sell the very first new Harley ever sold in Sturgis?’”

He couldn’t say no.

Tim had spent the last 20 years in the Carolinas but had owned a house in South Dakota for years. He told me he used to split his time, doing six months out here and six back home, but the more time he spent in the Black Hills, the clearer it became.

“I realized that Sturgis was more home to me than my actual home,” he said. “I don’t know the words to describe this place. The first time I came here was 2007 and I’ve been back every year since. It’s unbelievable and I love it.”

He wasn’t exaggerating. There’s something magnetic about Sturgis. Maybe it’s the way the town feels like an outpost in the middle of nowhere and the center of the universe all at once.

Or maybe it’s the backdrop of the Black Hills themselves, which seem to lean in and surround the city of Sturgis from all angles. Tim had one way of summing it up.

“It’s Sturgis. This town, these people. It smells like freedom.”

Bikes were moving fast. According to Tim, the 85th Sturgis would be an event that would break all past sales records between Sturgis H-D and their sister store, Black Hills H-D. The ability to bring in over 300 new units in time for the rally was a huge driver of success.

It wasn’t just about volume, though. It was about experience. The team has spent months honing operations and smoothing out every wrinkle, with the help of Sonic Automotive, which owns both Sturgis H-D and nearby Black Hills Harley-Davidson in Rapid City.

Sonic Automotive is one of the largest auto retailers in the United States, with more than 100 dealerships nationwide.

While most of their footprint is in the automotive space, they’ve been steadily investing in powersports through their ownership of Black Hills Harley-Davidson and now Sturgis Harley-Davidson.

But their role isn’t just financial.

They bring the kind of operational know-how and resources that allow a Rally-season pressure cooker like Sturgis to run smoothly.

From staffing strategies to inventory management, Sonic’s influence shows up in the way both dealerships operate with efficiency, even when the streets outside are flooded with riders.

Tim described it as an ongoing effort to optimize every piece of the customer journey. Sonic was actively helping the store refine its policies and operations in real time.

They’d spend full days talking through process improvement, bottleneck prevention, and logistics.

“Our customer satisfaction rating at both dealerships is our number one goal,” Tim tells me. “We’ve changed our pricing structure to be more tied into MSRP. People come here and know they’re gonna get a fair shake from our team. It’s making a difference.”

There’s something worth pausing on there. The team was operating at full capacity during one of the most chaotic events in the motorcycling world, and they still managed to make every customer feel welcome while breaking records in the process.

That’s huge.

When I asked Tim if he felt like the gamble of transforming the long-standing apparel store into a full dealership had paid off, he didn’t hesitate.

“I should have been here a long time ago,” he says. “It’s a tough battle, the Motor Company in this marketplace, and I’m extremely excited to be on this side of the fence now.”

As the day stretched on and the streets kept filling, I stood outside the dealership and watched it.

Riders streamed by in every direction, motors echoed between buildings, and I thought about how wild it must be to wake up in a town like this, knowing it only gets this loud once a year.

I thought about what Tim said, about how this place smells like freedom. And I realized I could smell it, too.

You don’t have to be a Harley rider to understand what Sturgis means to people. You just have to show up during Rally Week.

You’ll feel it in your bones when you ride through Boulder Canyon.

You’ll see it on the faces of every rider pouring out of the Spearfish turnoff.

You’ll hear it from bar patios when someone cracks the throttle in first.

And when you find yourself standing in the middle of Main Street, looking up at the Sturgis Harley-Davidson sign while bikes roll by, you’ll understand why it makes perfect sense for this dealership to be here.

Not just because the market is booming, or the rally is growing, or because riders like convenience. But because some places are meant to be a part of the legend.

This one is part of the ride.

If you find yourself in Sturgis for the rally next year (and you should), stop by Sturgis H-D when you see it. You literally can’t miss it.