By Bill Grotto

Imagine riding your bike to Sturgis and leaving with two…Sound crazy? Not when Twisted Tea is involved! This year at the Sturgis 75th anniversary Twisted Tea not only gave away one bike but TWO bikes to lucky consumers. The first bike was a 1974 ironhead Sportster that was built by our friends at The Choppin Block. The Choppin Block is a group of builders that got together to do what they love the most- build bikes! Chop Docs Choppers (From Michigan now out of Daytona) Turners Cycle Shop, Kustoms Inc and Doomtown Choppers all played a role in getting this little bar hopper going. We gave the bike away at Steve Broyle’s The Horse Back Street Choppers show at Full Throttle Saloon. What made this bike giveaway special was that it was free to enter for anyone over 21 and the drawing happened right there on the spot that day. The ballot box was overflowing with entries! When it was time to draw a name we had two (unlucky) entrants whose names were called but they never came to the stage so too bad for them! Three times a charm is true because the 3rd name we drew was Rodney Roerhig from Iowa City, Iowa and boy was he happy! As he approached the stage with a Twisted Tea in hand we knew we had the right guy!

This story almost didn’t have a happy ending…At the end of this busy day I went home and emptied my pockets of all the receipts and business cards I get all day and realized there was something missing…Rodney’s contact information! Luckily Rodney called up The Horse and they put him in touch with us…Otherwise there would have been posters all over Sturgis that said “Rodney from Iowa call Twisted Tea we have your bike!”

The second bike giveaway we did was at One Eyed Jack’s. This was in conjunction with a national “text to win” a trip to Sturgis and a chance to win the bike. The bike was a ’72 FLH shovel head which we named “Tea Bagger” because hey it’s Twisted Tea and it’s a bagger…no brainer! We had the ballot box at One Eyed all week long and there were many entries. On Thursday afternoon we picked 6 ballots out of the box and called the contestants to let them know they were chosen as finalists. One Eyed Jacks is always busy and this night was no different. With the bar packed and the crowd waiting in anticipation each contestant came up and picked one of 6 keys out of a bucket. First one…nuthin…second guy (who won the trip to Sturgis)…nuthin…Once again3 time’s a charm and the 3rd contestant Eric Hess from Buffalo New York had the key that fired the bike! Just like Rodney he was a long time Tea drinker so we knew the right guys got the bikes and nothing could make us happier than making our loyal drinkers happy!

This was the first time we did something like this and felt it was a great success. We plan on doing it again so who knows the next winner could be YOU!