First went to Sturgis in the mid 1950s.The Old Man had a Knuckle Head with a sidecar WWII vintage.He rode with a group called the Jackpine Savages.All WWII Vets.Was pretty wild back then and no pretenders.That bike vibrated so much it took us three days to get there.I rode my first bike there with him when I was 15.A Triumph T110 hard tail.Lucky the Old Man had plenty tools in his side car.That was a vibrating SOB and every time we stopped for gas had to tighten half the nuts and bolts .We slept in sleeping bags wherever,no tents ,wherever we could.You had to have had those old bikes to appreciate what they make now.
In the 70's, the majority of the "new" bikes were Shovels, but we rode with a lot of Pans and a few Knuckles. None of the above was reliable enough not to need a good tool bag and some mechanical knowledge. Of course we rebuilt those bikes enough in the off season that it was no big deal to do a lot of it on the road also. New guys have it pretty good, but it's still perfectly normal for most of them to do a trailer trip. We were in hog heaven just to come and go with minimum problems. Lucky to even find a phone when you were in the middle of nowhere.
