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[SPIDERMAN]

How about they sink all that HOG $$$ into making bikes that perform and are reliable instead of some of the junk they send us now, and then wavin all that HOG lifestyle crap in our faces!!! Like they need to create a lifestyle for those that truly love these machines and already live it!!! STF!!! STH!!!

Hoist!

Howie
         I don't always get your abbreviations, but I love posts like this one 

B B

[Twolanerider]

 STH!!!

Hoist!

oh my, poor piggie

[ccr]

oh my, poor piggie

I think this may be a problem with those that protect animal rights.

I'm not sure.

And not that there is anything wrong with that either.

 

[SPIDERMAN]

Congratulations on your new ride.  Everything you have written is why HOG exists.  If your better half is not sure what you have gotten yourself into, you local HOG chapter may have a group of Ladies of Harley.  I am not actually promoting it, but if they are there, they tend to be really helpful in making the female group feel included.

Ladies of Harley I can deal with  

B B

[ultrafxr]

when I moved to florida ' I bought the 2000 SERG, and with it came the hog membership. My wife wanted to join the local chapter as a way of meeting people and doing some rides. We attended 2 meetings...held at a bar at 10:00 am on a sunday morning, There was a fair amount of complaining and whining over some sort of trivial bullchit...then the group was to go for a local ride...it was like the "gang that couldnt shoot straight"...people showed up for the ride needing fuel...needing to stop for cigarettes,snacks lotto tickets and who knows what all else they needed. there seemed to be a fairly large amount of riders that seemed to have no clue as to how to ride in a group..(side by side...passing each other, following my new bike way too closely)...after an exhausting 50minutes on the bikes, it was time for lunch..at a bar of course...most seemed to have a beer or two..(it was like 95 and very humid out)..so the beers seemed to affect their judgement, as we took off for the rest of the ride...the riding became faster, and in the middle of the pack where I was stuck..it got a bit scary...ONE AND DONE for me...first ride with them and last...
   Sure wish i could have got one of those nifty patches...and I too could have been elevated to the real biker status...Like it has been said here already i prefer to ride alone...once in awhile with a few local friends and the best treat is when two of my old friends from up north come down during the winter we ride up to Daytona or down to the Keys...its awesome as we have ridden tons of miles together and know what each other will do and how we ride together...its always fun and safe. AsI am writing this it occurs to me the difference of riding with the hog group and that of riding with my friends .....is just that...its better to ride with a couple of long time friends anytime, than a bunch of wannabe outlaws just my .02 cents worth

Cannot blame you - I'd be scared chitless also.  Do not know how long ago this horrible experience was but I can assure you that HOG takes a very dim view of drinking on chapter rides.  Does every chapter tow the line and follow the rules?  Course not.  But the chapter officers and the sponsoring dealer are leaving themselves wide open if a crash, injury or god forbid death occurred on one of these rides.

Our local chapter goes to great lengths to train our road captains and members on proper group riding techniques.  We encourage those new to group riding to get informed for the safety of all.  And we allow NO alcohol on chapter rides. 

No offense to anyone on this great website but I can tell you I've been on some rides with members here that are a helluva more scary to me and my bsr than anything I've ever encountered in my HOG chapter.

[RedDevil]

Cannot blame you - I'd be scared chitless also.  Do not know how long ago this horrible experience was but I can assure you that HOG takes a very dim view of drinking on chapter rides.  Does every chapter tow the line and follow the rules?  Course not.  But the chapter officers and the sponsoring dealer are leaving themselves wide open if a crash, injury or god forbid death occurred on one of these ride.

Our local chapter goes to great lengths to train our road captains and members on proper group riding techniques.  We encourage those new to group riding to get informed for the safety of all.  And we allow NO alcohol on chapter rides. 

No offense to anyone on this great website but I can tell you I've been on some rides with members here that are a helluva more scary to me and my bsr than anything I've ever encountered in my HOG chapter.

Anyone we know?   

 

[harleyteam]

been ridin for a lot of freakin years. taught alot of people to ride,  rode with  (what you might call , bad asses), years ago.

got tired of racing from bar to bar, and seeing (not me ) idiots get blasted, and either pick a fight with someone, or fight amongst themselves.  they called themselves real bikers, but in my opinion were nothing but a bunch of hollywood wanna bees.
 
rode a few years by myself, then in 1986, got involved with a few locals wanting to start a HOG chapter.

over the years,  met a lot of great people.  met a lot of chitheads too. ( you will meet them no matter where you go.. we do have some here).  just finished a fifteen year run as an officer.  going to be a jam(just a member )

 but I can say,  my wife and I have met some great friends that we do an awful lot together with.

and that to me,,, makes putting up with some idiots occassionally,,, well worth being a member of a local chapter.

remember - you only get as involved as you want.  you can take good,, or bad experiences out of it.

and maybe its you, not them,, thats a little out of wack.  but ,,,,,,,,,,,, thats also what can make the experience great.

[DarkEagle]

Congratulations on your new ride.  Everything you have written is why HOG exists.  If your better half is not sure what you have gotten yourself into, you local HOG chapter may have a group of Ladies of Harley.  I am not actually promoting it, but if they are there, they tend to be really helpful in making the female group feel included.

Thanks for the warm welcome. Unfortunately my wife already knows what I'm about to get myself into in many ways.

She is afraid I'll kill myself in a wreck, scare the beegeezuss out of her if she decides to be a BSR no matter how carefull I'm riding, and the possibility that I might get distracted with riding or events interferring with our quality time. She had friends in the past that rode and BSR with a previous boyfriend, and far as I know nothing bad happened, but the local bike scene around here has been reported various deadly bike accidents on a regular basis regarding excessive speed, DUI, non-endorsement and/or lack of motorcycle safety training, and small part due to other typical causes with the rider, hazard, and/or cage not seeing them.

Anyway, owning a bike has been something denied me since childhood because of various reasons, and was something on my bucket list. I plan to live a complete life and so far things are going pretty good, in many ways thanks to and with my wife.

So I ride alone for now, in some ways it is nice, a little my time and I'm fine with that. That is why I'm not interested in organized or group rides for now, the impromptu or casual friend new or old I meet when on a ride works for me.


As far as the quality of my 09 SESS, I have had very few problems so far but don't have miles racked up yet to tell. The overall problem of quality & service is what it is until enough people let the man know we mean business. One of my New Year's resolutions is to sit down and write a very distinct letter letting W.G. Jr know of my concerns on the future of the company and the bike we love, including some of the issues discussed in this forum.

Maybe everyone should get their local HOG chapters together to rally at the local dealers demanding proper service & quality products. As you have already seen in this forum, no one at corporate office are reacting to comments made here or other places about the poor response to design flaws, quality & durability issues, and just outright poor dealership sales & service. Anyway, that is another thing clubs can be used for.

Anyway, as someone else said sonewhere else, I think it goes like this...
STF!!! STH!!!
Not sure what it all means, as long as it is nothing personal...
 

[ultrafxr]

been ridin for a lot of freakin years. taught alot of people to ride,  rode with  (what you might call , bad asses), years ago.

got tired of racing from bar to bar, and seeing (not me ) idiots get blasted, and either pick a fight with someone, or fight amongst themselves.  they called themselves real bikers, but in my opinion were nothing but a bunch of hollywood wanna bees.
 
rode a few years by myself, then in 1986, got involved with a few locals wanting to start a HOG chapter.

over the years,  met a lot of great people.  met a lot of chitheads too. ( you will meet them no matter where you go.. we do have some here).  just finished a fifteen year run as an officer.  going to be a jam(just a member )

 but I can say,  my wife and I have met some great friends that we do an awful lot together with.

and that to me,,, makes putting up with some idiots occassionally,,, well worth being a member of a local chapter.

remember - you only get as involved as you want.  you can take good,, or bad experiences out of it.

and maybe its you, not them,, thats a little out of wack.  but ,,,,,,,,,,,, thats also what can make the experience great.

Well said.  You only get out of any organization / group what you put into it.  My experience whether it be work, church, this website, HOG chapter, etc., is that those who bitch the most are usually the ones doing the least.

[RK2000]

Absolutely!!!

[1abastarsmda]

I recently joined my 2nd HOG chapter.  The one I have been with is great.  They are a very cohesive group and they love to ride.  I don't go on every ride, but they have enough rides scheduled that it's almost impossible to make it to every one.  That chapter has a HOG hotline, where you can call in a leave a message if you want to set up a non-scheduled ride and looking for a few people to ride with.  Which also means, if you want to go for a ride and have noone to ride with, you can call the hotline and see if anyone else is looking to go for a ride.  I have thoroughly enjoyed becoming a part of the chapter and have made a lot of good friends there.

A friend of mine is a member of another chapter and he joined mine, and I joined his.  The new chapter I joined is a very large chapter and it seems quite different from the one I was accustomed to.  I've only been a member there for a short period, so I guess I will find out a bit more as the warm months arrive and I go on a few rides with them and see what they are all about.  One thing that's nice about this chapter is that they include a 20% off parts coupon in each monthly newsletter, so once per month you can make a trip to the dealer for whatever you want at a nice discount.  It's not real hard to find $100 in parts to buy to quickly save your $20 annual dues.

The thing I like about HOG is that I don't have to go to meetings or on rides, but they are there for me.  I've found a lot of new roads and places to eat that I may never have found otherwise.  Just like this CVO group, HOG has allowed me to meet up with some other people with the same bike that I have that I possibly may have never met otherwise.  There seems to be an instant bond in those cases.  Like any group, there are good people and there are those that you wish you had never met...although to this point I can honestly say that I haven't found one person in either chapter that I find offensive in any way.  With the law of averages, I'm sure someone will surface at some point...or maybe I'm the one that everyone wishes would just go away and I just haven't realized it yet.

To answer the original question, I think that HOG should work with Harley to offer a hugely discounted rate for a rental bike if you break down at least "x" number of miles from your home address and you are having your bike repaired at that dealer.  I also think that they should work something out to provide for priority expedited service when you show your HOG card for quick repairs again when you are at least "x" number of miles from your home address.  Third, they should offer expedited scheduled maintenance if you are more than 500 miles from your home address with your bike.  That would be real nice if you are on an extended bike trip and you know you can stop at a dealer and not lose an entire day to get your maintenance done.  As it is, what else does HOG do on a national level that is tied into the dealers at all besides Fly'N'Ride?

[Bikin' Bob]

I agree with 1abastarsmda, Spiderman, BillH, Hoist and many others above.  I'm a national member and have been since '96.  The most useful thing is the towing and break down service.  I pay for the $29 upgraded one each year.  I've had to use them 4 times, and in all 4 cases, they came and got me.  Our local chapter in Athens, GA is okay but I've never gotten involved.  We rode with them once, and it was too much.  It seemed like we would finally get some speed going and someone or something would happen to slow us to a crawl.  After about 40 miles of this, I turned off on a side road and we took off on our own.  The funny thing is about 10 other riders followed us thinking we were the "lead."  Finally, guilt took over and I pulled off in a station and told them what we were doing.  In any event, none of them knew where they were and I had to lead them back to Athens.  My wife and I know the mountain roads of Georgia like the back of our hands.

The long and short of it is that I ride to work everyday (30 miles round trip), and my wife and I ride at least 2 weekends in the month.  And we have a small group of close friends that we ride with, and we are the only ones with a Harley.  Thus, the HOG thing is not for us.  Thus, in answering the question, I would like to see them expand the break down service and like others have suggested, give us steep discounts on things (rentals, etc.).

Just my $.02 -- Bikin' Bob

[1abastarsmda]

One thing that I haven't found to be the case in my original chapter is going to slow.  In fact, if anything, the group sometimes rides too fast.  When you have a group riding close together, with 20 to 30 bikes, I'm not exactly thrilled to be riding back roads at 70 to 80 mph.  I try to stay at the back of the pack and lag a bit.  I feel a little safer that way.  I don't want to be in a 30 bike pile up.

I will say this.  A few guys in the chapter pointed something out to me.  I led a ride this summer...about 200 miles each way.  Because we had a few planned destinations for the day, I wanted to make sure that we reached those destinations on a very timely basis and planned the route to get us there quickly and keep a nice cruising speed the entire way.  I made sure that we had lots of time to make it home before dark and still take back country roads that were far from a direct route to get home.  The guys told me it was one of the most enjoyable rides they have been on in a long time.  They pointed out that whenever our chapter goes somewhere, it's always directly to an eating destination, and afterwards, everyone just hurries off, sometimes in their own directions, and just speed back home.  I remembered on ride early last summer, where we ate, and then it was 90 mph on the highway the entire way home with a group of 20+ bikes.  I ended up saying to myself, "screw this" and let the pack go.  Yes, this chapter is full of riders, but sometimes just the opposite of what others have experienced...just plain riding too fast and missing the thrill of the ride.

[ultrafxr]

One thing that I haven't found to be the case in my original chapter is going to slow.  In fact, if anything, the group sometimes rides too fast.  When you have a group riding close together, with 20 to 30 bikes, I'm not exactly thrilled to be riding back roads at 70 to 80 mph.  I try to stay at the back of the pack and lag a bit.  I feel a little safer that way.  I don't want to be in a 30 bike pile up.

I will say this.  A few guys in the chapter pointed something out to me.  I led a ride this summer...about 200 miles each way.  Because we had a few planned destinations for the day, I wanted to make sure that we reached those destinations on a very timely basis and planned the route to get us there quickly and keep a nice cruising speed the entire way.  I made sure that we had lots of time to make it home before dark and still take back country roads that were far from a direct route to get home.  The guys told me it was one of the most enjoyable rides they have been on in a long time.  They pointed out that whenever our chapter goes somewhere, it's always directly to an eating destination, and afterwards, everyone just hurries off, sometimes in their own directions, and just speed back home.  I remembered on ride early last summer, where we ate, and then it was 90 mph on the highway the entire way home with a group of 20+ bikes.  I ended up saying to myself, "screw this" and let the pack go.  Yes, this chapter is full of riders, but sometimes just the opposite of what others have experienced...just plain riding too fast and missing the thrill of the ride.

I'd be less than thrilled at that prospect also.  Way too many bikes for one group.  If your chapter has sufficient road captains you might suggest what we do - that is limit each 'group' to 7 bikes, 9 max with a lead and sweep for each group.  That way those in the back don't have to push it to make the red light so as not to lose the group and get lost and they don't have to ride like heck to catch up.  The rubberband/slingshot effect of a group of 20 to 30 bikes is considerble and poses significant safety issues, imo.  If you don't have enough road captains to do that, well that presents a great opportunity to recruit and train members as road captains. 

[LarryB]

Ultrafxr, now what chapter are you in that they limit to 7-9 bikes in a group, never seen that happen.