September Meeting

A very well attended meeting this month taking up a good third of the Red Garth with a noisy, lively bunch. Most of the time was taken looking at photograph of the recent USA tour. Several hundred snaps had been taken and had to be showm round and compared.

Website Address

We now have a new website address for our "Hognorth" website which is a little more user friendly that the old one, if you want to take a peek here's the URL

The site is currently being updated with loads of pictures and ride reports from the USA tour described below.

USA Tour Report

Fortunately I was on this so it will provide me with months of material to write about as I intend to give short reports on some of the excellent rides we had over the 17 days in the USA. For this month I'll give some general stuff.

The idea for a visit to Sturgis developed during the Aviemore rally in 1999 over a few drinks. Ron Balliet our Minnesota globetrotter then developed a plan which would let the tour party have a taste of the USA on the way there while at the same time let him re-visit some of his favourite parts of the country. The plan was so good that numbers snowballed and eventually we had 10 people from the UK and 9 from the US who ended up on the tour, 19 people on 13 bikes. The logistics were immense. In addition to the route being planned, rooms and campsites were all booked up and sights and dealers to visit planned. Our US cousins had the detail all sewn up before we got there even down to exclusive "Hole in the Wall Gang" T-shirts and tour books with all the details of where, when, etc.

Three of us had decided to ship our own bikes over which proved to be tricky but not impossible. We can now be considered experts in Air Shipping, US customs documentation and how to get Stateside insurance. A big thank you is also required to Pete Grimshaw of "Eddy's" in Leeds who came up with shipping crates at very short notice easing a major crisis which arose when our original supplier left us short.

The tour started in Tampa, Florida and then went on to cover 10 states. Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, South Dakota and finally Minnesota. We covered ground from sea level to 12,000 feet, saw from swamps to desert to the Rockies, met all sorts of interesting folks and most of all made some great new friends.

One of the highlights was the Black Hills Motor Classic or Sturgis as it's better know. The 60^th anniversary had been predicted to be very busy and the pundits were not wrong. Estimates of between half a million and 800,000 bikes did not appear to be unreasonable.

From around 200 miles out of Sturgis the whole area was "loupin" with Harleys in all directions. In the south and west all we had seen was v-twin cruisers in any case but as we drew closer the numbers increased exponentially. We were staying about 18 miles out of the town but even there the whole area rumbled with Harley thunder 24 hours a day and in town itself it was a gridlock of mainly American Iron at peak times.

Ride outs to see the sights of Mt Rushmore and Devils tower were less than a total pleasure because the sheer volume of bikes kept things slow but that in itself was, for me, part of the whole experience. More Harleys in one town than in the whole of Europe, wonderful.

As the winter months approach I intend to write up some of the great rides we had to keep our spirits up through the dark, cold days ahead.

The Scotsman Article

A colleague kindly kept a copy of this for me to read on my return from the US. Not all may agree but a little bit of urine extracting from the young lady I thought, not entirely unexpected I suppose. What for me was more disappointing was reported comments from our own members which only served, in my opinion, to reinforce the stereotypes.

Having just spent 17 days in the States mixing with "real bikers" the comment on bikers in America was in my opinion way off the mark. We did overtake" bikers" there, we had to because some of them drive like pussies on twisties and we certainly spoke to them, that was one of the most enjoyable parts of the tour.

Without exception, wherever we went we were greeted in a most friendly manner by even the biggest, scariest looking, most hairy-assed, most tattooed guys I've ever seen. Some of these guys have more riding in one month than some see in several years and they are the guys who have the experiences I want to share and learn from. Even the ultra right wing, white supremacists we bumped into were sociable although we preferred to have a beer on our own than join in the "smoke" offered.

I agree there may be more 1%ers in America than here (if that makes sense) but the US has as many Rolex Riders and RUBs (Rich Urban Bikers) as we have. This was obvious by the amount of trailered bikes we saw from states which could easily have been ridden from. I can fully appreciate the distances over there make trailering a necessity if time is limited but some were transported from neighbouring states. After 4,000 miles to get there I can testify that the journey is a big part of the fun.

I spent a couple of hours one evening with some guys, including a Hells Angel, (no apostrophe Ms Spencer) some fitted the stereotypical hairy, tattooed look of a biker some did not but each was intelligent, articulate and very sociable. All had travelled the US extensively and had ride experiences which I listened to with interest.

None of our party had any problems from anyone in Sturgis which was inundated with patches and colours form every part of the country. If the bad image of "bikers" is to be changed at all then we need to be as careful of judging people by looks or reputation as anyone else.

On lighter note, I'm not sure the only difference between Hells Angels MC and HOG is that we pay for our gear first. A quick look at my Visa statement following the USA tour convinces me we need to find another area of distinction to work on!! Any bank managers in the group?

Monthly Meeting

Finally the usual reminder that we have our monthly meeting on the first Wednesday of every month at The Redgarth Hotel, Kirkbrae, Olmeldrum, Aberdeenshire at around 7.00pm. All welcome whether owners or potential owners

Further details of our activities can be found on the North Section website at the URL below.

http://www.hognorth.btinternet.co.uk/