{"id":38539,"date":"2022-09-04T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-09-04T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/camaraderie-community-draw-motorcyclists-to-durango-area\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:45:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:45:19","slug":"camaraderie-community-draw-motorcyclists-to-durango-area","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/camaraderie-community-draw-motorcyclists-to-durango-area\/","title":{"rendered":"Camaraderie, community draw motorcyclists to Durango area"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Motorcyclists
Motorcyclists compete on Saturday in The Brawl, a motorcycle stunt competition, at Sky Ute Casino in Ignacio. Thousands were expected in town over the Labor Day weekend for the 29th annual Four Corners Motorcycle Rally. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The 29th Annual Four Corners Motorcycle Rally that kicked off Friday was enjoyed by thousands on Saturday in Durango, Ignacio and the greater area.<\/p>\n

Sammy and Debbie of Wappapello, Missouri, who declined to share their last names, said they hadn\u2019t planned on attending the Four Corners Motorcycle Rally when they saddled up and left town, but once they learned of the event they couldn\u2019t resist stopping by.<\/p>\n

\u201cA scooter rally is always in,\u201d Sammy said. \u201cWe rode Sturgis this year, too. We went to Sturgis, that was our first rally this year. But this kind of surprised us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sammy said he\u2019s been a part of the motorcycle community for 40 years. He owns a 2001 Screaming Eagle Road Glide, a GL-1800 Gold Wing and a 2017 Electra Glide that he and Debbie rode into town on.<\/p>\n

He said camaraderie and hanging out with fellow motorcycle enthusiasts at rallies such as Sturgis and the Four Corners Motorcycle Rally is what he likes.<\/p>\n

Sammy said his favorite part of the rally was the \u201cmotor dome\u201d \u2013 the Wall of Death featured at the Harley-Davidson dealership at 750 South Camino del Rio.<\/p>\n

\u201cCoolest thing ever. I\u2019ve never gotten to see that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He likened the spectacle, which consists of the Ives Brothers, a pair of experienced stunt riders, throttling their bikes along the steep sides of a cage that resembles a halfpipe.<\/p>\n

Sammy and Debbie\u2019s next stop is the Turquoise Trail in New Mexico. After that, they are headed to Mount Magazine and the Pink Trail in Arkansas.<\/p>\n

\"Motorcyclists
Motorcyclists compete on Saturday in The Brawl, a motorcycle stunt competition, at Sky Ute Casino in Ignacio. Motorcycle enthusiasts traveled from Tennessee, California, Missouri, Texas, New Mexico and other states to attend the 29th Annual Four Corners Motorcycle Rally this Labor Day weekend. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Cedar City, Utah, resident Rita, who also preferred to go by her first name, said she got into biking in 2015 thanks to her husband. She recently purchased a Harley-Davidson 2015 Dyna model in Denver and the couple loaded their bikes onto a trailer and drove down to Durango for the holiday weekend.<\/p>\n

So far, they have visited Silverton and are planning to visit the Four Corners area on Sunday, she said. Her favorite part of the rally was checking out new Harley-Davidson motorcycle models at the dealership.<\/p>\n

Matthew Cates, owner of Rebel Reaper Clothing Co., one of many vendors set up at the Harley-Davidson dealership, said although the rally launch on Friday started slow, by Saturday morning business was busy and booming.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been great here so far. Beautiful weather, nice people. Good vibes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Cates started Rebel Reaper Clothing Co. in 2016 in Phoenix to cater to the motorcycle enthusiast crowd he grew to adore through his longtime passion for cars, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up with mostly hotrods, old school cars. A lot of my background has to do with cars and working with cars myself,\u201d he said. \u201cI transitioned over probably the last five years into motorcycles, and I\u2019ve noticed the vibe from the people and the community as far as being very welcoming.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom a car community transitioning into motorcycles, too, they\u2019re kind of hand-in-hand. So I naturally gravitated toward that as well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The clothing company focuses on \u201chead-to-toe\u201d apparel, including custom vests, jackets, jeans, button-ups, polo shirts and more.<\/p>\n

\"Motorcyclists
Motorcyclists compete on Saturday in The Brawl, a motorcycle stunt competition, at Sky Ute Casino in Ignacio. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Motorcyclists
Motorcyclists leave tire marks on the asphalt as they compete on Saturday in The Brawl, a motorcycle stunt competition, at Sky Ute Casino in Ignacio. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201c(It\u2019s) an all-around lifestyle brand where we just try to get people together \u2013 motorcycle riders, stunt riders. It\u2019s very community oriented,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The 29th Annual Four Corners Motorcycle Rally is Cates\u2019 first time in town, but he said as good as business has been as of Saturday afternoon, he is definitely planning to return to future rallies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people are awesome here. I look forward to being here next year and every year forward,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

With increased traffic because of thousands of motorcyclists headed through town, one might think that traffic incidents would be more common. But Durango Police Department officials say that as of Saturday afternoon, there haven\u2019t been any standout crashes or traffic problems.<\/p>\n

Sergeant Padraic Ingle said there hasn\u2019t been an uptick in traffic accidents or crashes in town. He said thanks to the Labor Day weekend, there are more people in town and on the roads, whether or not they are here for the motorcycle rally.<\/p>\n

\"Motorcyclists
Motorcyclists compete on Saturday in The Brawl, a motorcycle stunt competition, at Sky Ute Casino in Ignacio during the 29th Four Corners Motorcycle Rally. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

He said on Friday night, a drunken motorcyclist crashed into a truck but the incident was \u201cpar for the course\u201d as far as how frequently crashes occur in town.<\/p>\n

Cmd. Casey Malone also said that traffic activity is certainly busy, but the rate of accidents hasn\u2019t gone up. \u201cKnock on wood,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

cburney@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Motorcyclists
Motorcyclists check out the vendors Saturday at Sky Ute Casino in Ignacio. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Motorcyclists
Motorcyclists check out vendors Saturday at Sky Ute Casino in Ignacio. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Traffic heavier than usual, but responsible riders prevent problems<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38540,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[364,1065,568,2057,28,557],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-38539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-community","tag-durango-police-department","tag-events","tag-four-corners-motorcycle-rally","tag-headlines","tag-traffic"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38539"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38539\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84051,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38539\/revisions\/84051"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38539"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=38539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}