Hi theandyman... I hope that the national Canadian HOG rally that you are planning on going to in London Ont. is better than the Canada Rally we went to in Leithbridge Alberta in 2004... It was not a National HOG Rally but it was bad, first when I was trying to get e-mail info. on the rally from the local HOG Chapter in Leithbridge it was just kind of Ho-Hum, and they did not go out of their way to help me locate a nearby hotel because the host hotel was sold out. I was some what familer with Leithbridge so I did find a hotel which was so-so but not really biker friendly..if I could have found another one I would have but the choices were mostly filled up because of the rally. The first night at their hospitality room wasn't too friendly, earlier there had been a poker run but we arrived late and did not get in on it. We opted to mingle and see about making new riding friends, we were talked too, but it seemed like if we were not one of the home town people we felt ousted. The next day there were diffrent tour rides that you could go on so we went on one mostly by ourselves. No one offered to ask if we wanted to ride with them and kind of show us the area. when we got back to the hotel to gather for a parade downtown Leithbridge that was a goat rope..it was not organized and nobody knew what was going on? it was a wonder any of the bikes made it back to the hotel after the parade. The bikes were spread out and not kept together for the parade, not to mention trying to get through intersections without being in a accident. There appeared to be quite a few bikers drinking and driving also, don't get me wrong I like to have a beer too but there is a time for that when you are not driving a bike and have parked the bike for the evening. Earlier in the day there had been a BBQ lunch at the local H.D. dealership part of your entry fee, we got there earlier cause we had a feeling, that we had better the way things were going, you did get one small charred burger, a dab of salid,and some chips, but there was no place you could sit down only a couple of small round tables and about 10-20 chairs for over 300 people....not to mention it was raining and they didn't even have any tents you could get under out of the rain to keep your paper plate from being soggy, the delership would not even open their service shop up so you could get out of the rain. That night at the dinner banquet again a small piece of tough roast beef, salid which they ran out of with other items of the meal, which took them over an hour to go and get more of. Then during this down time they had some local cheesy comedians get up and tell jokes which were off color and out right foul mouthed, I can handle dirty jokes and such, but I felt with the mixture of young children in the crowd it was not right, the looks that a lot of the folks had on their faces told me they did not appreciate it either. After that myself and the wife and a few others had enough and went back to our hotel, early the next day there was supposed to be a going away breakfast back at the local H.D. shop, after the BBQ incident we decided we would eat breakfast at the hotel and then hit the road to do some touring before heading home. As we drove past the dealership there was a very long line of people and again no tables or chairs to sit down on. Later I was told that we did not miss a good breakfast, in fact quite sorry, one pancake, one link sasuage, and maybe an egg, but they ran out of food anyway.... I don't know what the problem was with the whole rally other than poor planning and maybe a don't care attitude?? and we did not feel welcomed at all, that had been our 4th HOG rally that we had attended and up till that time we had had a blast...but they were rallies down in the States... Again I do not wish that experence on anyone going to a rally in Canada, hope you do not experience this kind of
sour event... but it will be a long time if ever for me to try a Canada Rally again.... FatrideTom97
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