STURGIS -- Whether it was the economy or the 95-degree heat on Main Street, the Sturgis motorcycle rally was off to a relatively slow start Saturday, two days before Monday's official start.

Police Chief Jim Bush said officers on patrol didn't have much to keep them busy.

"The guys are saying there's not hardly anything to do. It's real quiet," Bush said late in the afternoon.

Though bikers and a few barely-dressed women made for a scene downtown, traffic was not backed up to the interstate, and parking wasn't overflowing into residential areas.

"Our parking violations I know are down," Bush said.

Sgt. Rich Fox of the Rapid City Police Department said this year's rally seemed small and quiet to him. "It's so far down from last year, at least here in Rapid City," Fox said.

Jason Kraft, a deputy sheriff from Redfield who was working the rally for the sixth year, said things seemed "a little slow" on Main Street. And Dan Fechner of Mitchell, another officer, said, "It's been very tame," although he was on the lookout for open containers, exhibition driving and indecent exposure.

Bush said the rally seems more spread out than in the past.

"You can't drive 150 miles in any direction without running into someone that's partaking in the Sturgis motorcycle rally."

Sturgis Mayor Maury LaRue said some bikers are spreading the rally out over the summer, stopping in before the big crowd gets here for "a pretty big shoulder season" of tourists. He said one night last month there was a group of 30 bikers from Colorado in a Sturgis bar.

May and June sales tax revenue in Sturgis was up 18 percent over last year, he said, an indicator that even if rally traffic is slow this week, "We might break even."

Speaking to any concern about a slowdown, LaRue made a point to say, "This is still the biggest motorcycle rally in the world."