The world-famous Sturgis Motorcycle Rally runs through Sunday, Aug. 15, in South Dakota. Sturgis is right down the road from where we all were for the Days of ’76 Rodeo in Deadwood just the other day. Since five-time Wrangler National Finals Rodeo team roper Coleman Proctor was spotted on the back of a big bike, we wondered what was up with that—and also asked Coleman to compare cowboys and bikers.
“There are only two kinds of people who understand and appreciate that kind of horsepower—cowboys and bikers,” said Coleman, who’s currently 18th in the world, and scratching and clawing in front of his 14th-ranked heeler Logan Medlin for a spot in the top 15. “Motorcycles scare the ever-loving crap out of me, but if I’m being totally honest, even just riding on the back of that big bike made me feel like a badass.”
That’s Coleman’s cousin Rick Ramos holding those handlebars up front.
“Rick was in the Air Force, and moved to Alaska for that when I was a kid,” Coleman said. “He’s retired from the Air Force now, and lives in Cheyenne (Wyoming, where the 2021 Frontier Days Rodeo just played out), but was up in Sturgis for a welcome event for the rally. I told him if he came up to Deadwood (about 20 minutes away by bike), I’d buy him a steak at Legends (Steakhouse).
“You really can’t judge a book by its cover, because those guys on those bikes do some really cool things as volunteers for veterans. As one example, when veterans pass away, they escort them to their final resting place. There are some big hearts on Harleys. And if there’s any group of people with camaraderie that compares to the bond between cowboys, it’s bikers.”
