H.O.G. rally activities question

[rick-ia]

Just to start, my wife & I have only been back into riding about a year. Joined our local right away. Great chapter. We rode to our state rally last week with a few others. (Our first rally). We had a good time, participated in a few competitions, should of done more. Some members were disappointed from other years rallies. Our rally was in Iowa at a casino. The word is that the casino would not allow other food vendors on there property. I know it was a HD event, but no other product vendors showed up near by as many have prior years. I think last years rally was in a city park & alot of vendors showed up.
Just wondering what others experiences were at rallies.

[michae2250]

I've been to a couple of different states rallies, and they're all unique. Some are good, some suck. Activities are all dependent on the local organizing commitee, the locale, local chapters (who are not necessarily the organizing commitee), the host hotel and so on.

National HOG is very, very involved with the organizing commitee and planning starts more than a year before the event. Really.

The host commitee submits a plan to the National HOG regional rep long before the event and that plan must include the host hotel name, outline of activities, security, registration plan and lots of other details. Its a lot of work and I admire anyone who takes on the enormous task.

So to more directly address your question, if the host hotel doesn't allow third party food vendors on it's property, it's because the organizing committte made that choice a year ago.

By the way, it's very unusual to find any on-site vendors who compete with HD Dealers, either. You probably won't see the local independent repair shop with a booth, or another brand of motorcycle, or even the local riding leather shop.

Organizers sometimes get around this by informally setting off-site (but nearby) space aside.

[Putt 4 Dough]

I just returned from a VERY disappointing state rally...first one I've been to in 20 years & the last one I'll go to...
2 food vendors...great if ya like fried stuff...
3 patch vendors...who wants to pay $6-20 for a patch & then pay another $5 to have each sewn on...
1 sunglass vendor...the gals were nice to look at...
1 HD dealer was there & trying as hard as they could to sell $30 t-shirts & $150 boots...

The bike show was a joke...20 bikes entered...
One guy was told he couldn't enter his softail in the show even though it was a HD frame/engine/ & tranny because it was "too custom"...yeah he had extended the top tube 6", the downtubes 8", increased the rake out to 40*...but it is still a HD...
The bike that won the custom class was a '07 bagger w/ less than 2000 miles. It had every piece of bolt on bling & accessory that you could get out of the catalog...I guess that makes a custom these days...

One of our local bike nights @ the watering hole has more bikes attend than we saw @ the state rally...

We were disappointed we wasted the 45 minutes to ride to it...
If I had been an out of state attendee or ridden as far as some of the folks did, I'd been PISSED...

Next year state rally is gonna be held 5 minutes from my house & I doubt very seriously that I'll go...

I know this CANT be the way a usual state rally is...this was my first one to attend in 20 years...I now remember why...
Anybody want my tickets for the 105th???

Putt

[rick-ia]

michae2250 thanks for the reply, that all makes sense, our last years chapter president had something to do with this rally. Maybe he can give our chapter more insight at our next meeting.
Putt4dough, drink refreshments were all that we had at the activities lot. 40-50 bikes in the show (including mine). Our chapter road 180+ miles & had the largest turn out I beleive. At least our chapter won 3 bike classes & won the in state chapter challenge. Next years rally will be a couple hundred miles the other direction. I will probably go, but hopefully I can get some better info. on their vendor status before I go.

[rick-ia]

PUTT 4 DOUGH, you got a cheap hotel reservation to go along with those tickets?

[Putt 4 Dough]

Originally Posted by rick-ia

PUTT 4 DOUGH, you got a cheap hotel reservation to go along with those tickets?

No cheap hotel...we were gonna stay w/my wife's aunt & uncle in Wauwatosa...don't get cheaper than that...

Putt

[sam sam the mex]

should have gone to ROT rally that the just had down in austin i here it is bad ass!! you know everything in TX is bigger!!

[Putt 4 Dough]

ROT is a different kinda rally than a HOG rally sam...besides I have BBBQ in my front yard.

Putt

[flattop69]

i went to my first and last state hog ralley in may,there were a few vendors at a parking lot down the road and around the corner.when we got to the fairgrounds to register where the rally was supposed to be,there was hardly anyone there and nothing going on until 8:00p.m. the beach boys were playing ,i heard they were good but buy that time the crown&coke was already in use at the motel.

[geezerglide]

Originally Posted by flattop69

i went to my first and last state hog ralley in may,there were a few vendors at a parking lot down the road and around the corner.when we got to the fairgrounds to register where the rally was supposed to be,there was hardly anyone there and nothing going on until 8:00p.m. the beach boys were playing ,i heard they were good but buy that time the crown&coke was already in use at the motel.

Yep, I would never go to another one either!! Might have to stay up past 10! And getting drunk and missing a national act at at HOG rally? Yep, I feel your pain!

[flattop69]

i did'nt care to pay $45.00 per head just to see the beach boys,way before my time.did'nt get drunk ,but i wont ride if i'v had anything to drink.the point is,outside of a concert on saturday night there was no ralley.but we had a great time rideing threw the texas hill country.

[geezerglide]

my point was: "I got a bad haircut once and I will never go to the barber again, they ALL suck."

[pirate50]

Originally Posted by geezerglide

my point was: "I got a bad haircut once and I will never go to the barber again, they ALL suck."

How long is that ponytail??

LOL

Pirate

[alnelson]

Having been to many State Rallies and work on the state committee one year, it is a very large project to put one of these things on.... Our regional manager was deeply envolved but since then we have gone to a more perminate state committee. The experience doing one of these help doing the next, even if you fill a different position.

Now having said that each state's rally is different. Some are better than others, so are larger than others. If you go to a resteraunt and do not like what you ordered do you never go out to eat again??? Well try a different state. Talk to others and see how well they like the rally in previous years. And yes you can volunteer to work at a rally. Most are looking for HOG members to help. Remember this did not just happen, someone had to step up and ask to help.

Now concerning vendors. I'm not in favor of how HOG lets the states do this but most have to have 'Approved' vendors. Approved by HOG and Harley Davidson. They do not like competition. Even the local dealer must sign off on other dealers coming to the rally. It gets real political....

Some state have gone to Katancha Inc, which puts on rallies for a bunch of states and know who are approved and who are not. Sometimes the vendors will be within the rally site and sometimes just outside the site. If just outside you can get away with more non-approved vendors. Vendors go where they can make money. So a smaller rally will not have a lot of vendors. Here in Tennessee we usually have 25-30 vendors, but I was in Texas a couple of years ago and they have over 50 vendors.

I always attend my local state rally. Some years I volunteer to help for a couple of hours at the rally. It may be in registration, manning a gate or what ever they need help doing. It is nice to be envolved.

[Mr-Jester]

My two cents about State HOG Rally's.

(1 cent) HOG has a thing about not letting non-Harley vendors on the rally site. It's a shame they don't recognize these vendors could compliment the rally.

(2 cent) As for activities, it's all about how well the rally committee works together and how much they put into the planning. They put a lot into it...good rally. They don't...not so good rally.