HARLEY OWNERS GROUP

THE HARLEY OWNERS GROUP – ABC’s OF TOURING AND THE HOG MILEAGE PROGRAM.

~ creakingbones ~ 7 Comments

Any Harley Davidson motor cyclist will tell you there is more to owning the bike than just possessing it.

One of those reasons is membership of the Harley Owners Group to which every owner is invited to join.

H.O.G., as it is know has ‘Chapters’ all over the world and Australia is no exception with ‘Chapters’ in every State and Territory.

H.O.G., is not a 1%er club. It is in reality a social club on two wheels where the HOG family gathers to have fun.

Just take the ABC’s of Touring and the HOG Mileage Programs for example. By signing up for these two programs, every ride takes on an extra dimension.

The H.O.G ., Membership Guide describes the Mileage Program this way,’ As if riding your Harley isn’t reward enough, H.O.G., gives you more reasons: point and patches that show off your mileage achievements, a.k.a,  Bragging Rights.’

ABC’s of Touring is described in the guide as follows,’An alphabetical “scavenger hunt’ for you and your Harley-Davidson motorcycle! Earn points and win prizes by collecting photos of yourself, your motor cycle and “Official Signs” from A to Z.

Like many H.O.G. members, I combine the two and it adds that little bit of extra interest , particularly as photography then becomes another part of the ride.

H.O.G. members enjoy adorning their riding vests with patches and I’m no exception.

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The ABC’s of Touring patch.

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Back in the Dream Time I was awarded this patch and a plaque for attaining 50 points in that year’s competition.

Here are some images of places I’ve recorded for the ABC’s. They are not in strict alphabetical order as HOG rules require.

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Close to home.
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Western New South Wales
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Almost in far north Queensland.
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Nearly  home.
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Back in the Northern Territory.
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Matong combines with Grong Grong to field a successful Australian Rules footy team.  
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Another Northern Territory small  town.
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Close to home.
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The signs speak for themselves.
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A lovely Sydney area waterside suburb.
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The sign says it all.
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Back in the Northern Territory.
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Wide open spaces.

 

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Almost back in Queensland .
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Seems just like yesterday.
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One of my favourite Queensland cities.
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A quaint little place in South Australia.
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A great Queensland outback pub. Clocking up points on an Ulysses Club ride.

Now visiting all these towns and many more helps with the HOG mileage program. It has a patch of course and at specific intervals, as your rack up the miles, they are recognised by the award of an appropriate rocker. As you can see, over time, space becomes an issue, a new vest has been  commissioned and the sewing begins anew..blog-b5abcs_20jan2017_0007-copy-2

Hoo roo for now.

HARLEY DAYS 2016 – AN HARLEY OWNERS GROUP EVENT.

~ creakingbones

Any owner of an Harley Davidson motor cycles is welcome to join the Harley Owners Group. HOG as it is known is a world wide club for Harley owners and consists of Chapters associated with a specific Harley Davidson Dealership.

In Australia, annual State HOG Rallies are held and a National Rally is also an annual event. Traditionally, participation in these rallies is restricted to HOG members and their specific guests.

2015 saw the Annual HOG rally conducted in Tamworth, a large regional city in New South Wales. The rally was a great  success and spawned the idea of a National HOG rally ,open on specific days for riders of any brand of motor cycles.

The name coined by Harley Davidson Australia for the event was Harley Days.

The 28, 29 and 30th October 2016 were designated for the event and the chosen site was Stuart Park in the seaside city of Wollongong, New South Wales.

Friday the 28th was designated specifically for Harley Owners Group members and the other two days were open for everyone.

In order to access the HOG member only events, registration was required and scannable tickets were issued.

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As SWMBO and I  waited outside for the arrival of some friends, it was apparent that the day’s attendances would be strong as the crowd began to increase as the 10am opening time drew closer.

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OUTSIDE STUART PARK 30 MINUTES BEFORE THE 10AM OPENING.
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JUST A FEW MINUTES LATER  FROM ACROSS THE ROAD

Once inside the park, the grand scale of the event was evident. Harley owners in their distinctive HOG paraphernalia where everywhere. Vendors of every conceivable Harley part, collectible,  clothing and memorabilia were in abundance.

In pride of place was the Harley Davidson World pavilion containing a great array of Harleys and the new most powerful standard Harley Davidson engine ever, to be rolled out on selected 2017 models.

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With our friends we wandered around the exhibits and enjoyed the ever present sound of the rumble of hundreds of Harleys as they left the park  to participate in organised rides around Wollongong  and its environs.

We were particularly interested in the world’s fastest Harley Davidson, recorded at some phenomenal speed on the salt flats in Utah in the USA.

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ALLEGEDLY THE WORLD’S FASTEST HARLEY DAVIDSON.
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ANOTHER CUSTOM STYLE HARLEY. NOTE THE EXHAUST SYSTEM AND CUSTOM WHEELS.
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OUR FRIENDS JOHN AND ALLAN HEADING INTO A SEA OF HARLEY DAVIDSONS.
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ANOTHER GREAT DRESSER WELL KITTED OUT WITH ACCESSORIES.
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LOW AND MEAN LOOKING.

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SWMBO WITH FRIEND DEBBIE CHATTING WITH A MEMBER OF THE NSW HOG CHAPTER OF WHICH I’M A MEMBER.

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NOTHING LIKE THE SPARKLE OF LUSTROUS  CHROME ON A HARLEY DAVIDSON.
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A SEA OF HARLEY DAVIDSONS.
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MORE AND MORE, EVERY MODEL AND EVERY COMBINATION OF COLOUR AND ACCESSORIES.
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THE CLOUDS BEGAN TO ROLL IN WITH A SHOWER OR TWO BUT NOTHING DETERS  A HOG MEMBER FROM A GREAT RIDE.
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MORE AND MORE EYE CANDY – OF THE MECHANICAL TYPE OF COURSE.
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A NOVEL WAY TO IDENTIFY A TOILET BLOCK IN STUART PARK.

At day’s end, the official number of bikes was stated to be a roughly 1,500. To me it seemed a bit on the conservative side as there were hundreds of Harleys and other marques parked in the streets around the venue. It will be interesting, when the event is reviewed by the organisers, to learn the final number of attendees and motorcylcles.

One of the great things the five of us noted was the large number of female riders present and participating in the organised rides.

Ladies of Harley as they are known form a integral part of every HOG Chapter and are fully integrated into the management and organisation of the entire Chapter.

As an example, for quite a number of years, the Canberra Chapter in the Australian Capital Territory elected a Lady of Harley as the Chapter Director, the HOG nomenclature for President.

Additionally, many Ladies of Harley become Road Captains and as the name implies, organise, lead and control Chapter rides.

By the time our little group had visited all of the exhibitors, viewed multiple Harleys, spoken to many, many vendors and Harley Owners, it was time to leave Harley Days and make our way home.

Will Harley Days become a permanent fixture on the annual HOG Rally program? Only time will tell.

On a totally different note, all of the above images were captured either on my iPhone 6s or my Panasonic DMC-LX100 which sports a Leica lens.

There has been no post processing except size reduction. I think you might agree that there is very little difference in image quality and it is difficult to determine which camera made which particular image.

So there we are. Another interesting motorcycle/photographic day.

Hoo roo for now

FIVE PHOTOS – FIVE STORIES- DAY THREE.

~ creakingbones ~ 7 Comments

Part of the joy of owning and riding an Harley Davidson motorcycle is the camaraderie and fun that comes with being a member of the Harley Owners Group, better known as HOG. Membership of HOG is a worldwide phenomena and initial membership comes when you buy your first Harley.

The HOG is not a gang, rather it is a family oriented group of motorcyclists who ride for the love of it, on their Harleys of course.

One of the first things a new HOG member does is buy a vest and sew their HOG membership badge on it. This isn’t wearing ‘colours’ in the same sense as do the 1%ers, you know, the outlaw motor cycle gang members.

Being a member of HOG has many benefits and I have two favourites, the ABC’s of Touring and the HOG Mileage Program.

After yesterday’s story, an ever observant reader, Julie, thereluctantbaptist.com, inquired if I was displaying a magazine on my Harley.

The answer is, yes, it’s part of joining in the ABC,s of Touring. To participate in the scheme, you stop at official sign, place a current copy HOG Tales( the Harley Davidson member magazine) in an conspicuous place on your bike, take a photo of the sign and the bike and voila, you have earned a point towards an ABC award. There is an annual points competition and if you accumulate enough points you get an award. Here is an example:

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In addition, Harley issues badges to ABC entrants together with Mileage Badges, annual Membership patches and other adornments we proudly wear. Local HOG chapters also issue their identifying patches and we dutifully sew them onto our vests. As they accumulate over time you feel like a walking christmas tree when you wear your vest. Have a look at mine and you’ll see why. Actually I’ve run out of space and mine isn’t up to date. A new vest is on order.

THE FRONT OF MY HOG VEST.
THE FRONT OF MY HOG VEST.
AND THE BACK
AND THE BACK

When I commission the new vest, I’m going to frame this one and hang it in the shed next to my Harley, don’t ask me why, it just seems the right thing to do.

By the way, doing the ABC’s doesn’t have to involve company, it works well as a solo activity.

Now a post about the ABC’s of Touring wouldn’t be complete without a few examples that have earned me points so I’ve picked a few from a collection spanning 25 years. Don’t go into shock, just a few:

CROSSING A STATE BORDER EARNS EXTRA POINTS
CROSSING A STATE BORDER EARNS EXTRA POINTS
LOOK AT THE LOVELY VIEW!
LOOK AT THE LOVELY VIEW!
ONLY TEN MILKES FROM HOME.
ONLY TEN MILES FROM HOME.
MY HARLEY HAS HORSES APLENTY.
MY HARLEY HAS HORSES APLENTY.
THAT WILL DO FOR NOW, CAN'T RISK OVERKILL.
THAT WILL DO FOR NOW, CAN’T RISK OVERKILL.

You may have noticed that there are no other Harleys in these images. That’s because mostly I prefer to do my long distance rides alone. Riding the bike clears the head of almost everything thats pesky. You only have to please yourself where you stop, where you dine and where you stay.

These days many riders choose not to camp in deserted places as they believe that to do so entails risks. Just riding the bike entails risks and I’d rather trust a hidden spot in the bush than an incident with an errant intoxicated or drugged up tin top driver. Give me the solitude and safety of the bush any time.

Well another day’s 5×5 set adrift.

See you all tomorrow. Might add in a few of my riding mates too.

WRITING 101- DAY FIFTEEN – YOUR VOICE WILL FIND YOU

~ creakingbones ~ 10 Comments

Today’s prompt, in abbreviated form is simply write, in your own voice, how you feel about an event you’ve attended and loved, only to find out it’s being cancelled forever.

So, here we go.

Some years ago I found out, quite by accident, that my favourite Chapter of the Harley Owners Group, close to home, was being closed and moved to a country town almost 150 miles away.

It wasn’t the distance that got under my skin. 150 miles on your favourite brand of motor cycle is just a pleasing jaunt.

No, what got under my skin was being told that the reason I didn’t know was that I was ‘Out of the Loop’.

Also, the prospect of losing touch with my riding mates from the old Chapter was of concern to me. Of course there was another Chapter to welcome us all, but, old habits die hard and I knew that many of the blokes, including myself, would resist joining up with the other mob. After all, we’d been their opponents for years at gymkhanas and what was known as the Chapter Challenge, an annual event where competition was fierce.

As our Chapter’s closing date became closer, the rot really began to set in. Our close knit group began to disintegrate. Some just joined the other Chapter without a parting word. One or two just sold their bikes in disgust and were never seen nor heard of again. Some even announced they would never in a million years join the opposition.

At a few informal meetings, we’d loosely agreed to have our own independent riding group without affiliation to any Chapter and attend State and National HOG rallies with our international HOG membership as accreditation. In my view, It seemed like a great idea.

Now I’ve been around a while and not much surprises me any more. What did surprise me though, and peeved me no end was the cavalier attitude the so called ‘mates’ were taking with each other over the supposed continuation of our riding together. It appeared to me that no one was going to take the lead and organise something.

I’d been left high and dry by the ‘mates’ after I tried to get them out on our first independent group ride and I wasn’t going to let it happen again. It was then I reluctantly concluded our loose riding  agreement was just ‘pie in the sky’, just empty words.

What to do now? Email the lot of them and tell them what I thought, visit the ones I thought I knew and try to keep the ship afloat or simply do what every one else was doing and quietly fade away.

Thinking things over, I realised that the decision to close the Chapter was simply a matter of economics for the dealership under whose banner the Chapter operated.

Further I concluded that as a voice in the wilderness I had as much chance of keeping the ‘mates’ together as a riding group as I had of flying to the moon. No one would give a hoot if I made one hell of a fuss, or, like the others, just walked away. After all, if they didn’t miss each other, why would they miss me.

Then I decided to do a SWOT analysis of my situation. SWOT by the way stands for Strengths and  Weaknesses; Opportunities and Threats.

Briefly, after using up a forest of paper, I worked out that being a loner, one of my strengths could also be a weakness. In this particular case, loner was a strength, not a weakness. I’m a bit of an egotist too so couldn’t find any weaknesses. Opportunities, plenty, particularly as I’d have more time to ride with long time friends. Note, friends, not ‘mates’. I scratched my head and couldn’t come up with any threats.

My conclusion, stick with the long time friends. Should any of the the old chapter ‘mates’ invite me to go for a ride, I was under no obligation to accept the invitation.

I felt good having taken my decision and it’s proved to be the right one. Not only then but many years later it still is.

Looking back on it all, I sometimes ask myself, how do you feel about those past events?

My answer,  I’m completely ambivalent about the whole issue because, in the overall scheme of things it’s absolutely irrelevant.

Oh and by the way, I joined the ‘other chapter’ after a few years. This time I’ve stayed on the outside looking in. It suits me that way, no obligation yet all of the advantages of membership.

You see, I did learn something from my ‘mates’ in the old chapter.