I went to the Americade rally on Tuesday, and I wish I had more time off to go back this year.  What a neat feeling to be in a majority (bikers) instead of a minority.  I think I have heard estimates of 40,000 bikes total for the weeklong event, in a village of 10,000 or so people.

The demo rides were a blast-I rode a Honda 919 and a Kaw ZRX 1200 .  Talk about different from the GS!   Torque, torque, and more torque.  Glad my arms are still attached .   Unfortunately Suzuki was a no show, as I wanted to try out an SV or a V Strom .  I definately want to do alot more rides next year.  

If you haven't been to a motorcycle rally and you have one in your area, try it out.  I thought that people would be a bit standoffish about the GS at a "touring" rally, but there were about 30% sport(y) bikes there, and people I talked to about the GS either had comments like "good bike" or at least kept their snickers for after I left .  I also saw two other GSs there, a red one w/fenderectomy and a black one.