Key West to Homer, AK competition

[Ric in Sac]

I have been reading in the Anchorage Daily News about an LD ride from Key West, Florida to Homer, Alaska. First place gets 1/2 million in gold. Yes, I'm serious. The race started two days ago and has an established 7000 mile route. The newsprint photo showed a large group of Harleys leaving the start. It is anticipated that the finish will come on the 4th of July.

The FJR riders on this forum would reach Homer by July 1. Any forum riders making this trip? If the LD riders on this forum compete and ride 7000 miles for fun, why not do it for $500,000 smackeroos?

I am sure you can go to "ADN.com" to read about it.

 

[Ignacio]

If the LD riders on this forum compete and ride 7000 miles for fun, why not do it for $500,000 smackeroos?

Many, many reasons. But probably at the top of my list is that putting money on it shifts it from an amateur event for fun to a money event that's potentially unsafe. People will do some seriously stupid things for the chance at a cash prize.....in fact they already wadded up 4 of them the very first day.

And I doubt there are any forum dwellers or FJR riders participating unless they also have a piece of American iron....one of the prerequisites for this particular run.

 

[Ric in Sac]

I didn't know American Iron was a prerequisite. I guess their money is safe then . . . :lol:

I know they left two days ago and have an anticipated arrival on the 4th. The LD riders on this forum could do it standing on their heads.

 

[Bounce]

Do a google on "Hoka Hey" and read more about road signs being torn down by the leaders, 4 crashes within the first couple of hours of the ride, someone in a chase vehicle of one competitor intentionally hitting a different competitor and totaling the bike. And the organizer Big Jim has been found to have been involved in previous long-haul scams in the past. The rules keep changing, the routes aren't correct, riders are taking short cuts, someone's already died (iirc).

Yeah it's a real quality rally.

 

[airboss]

So a google on "Hoka Hey" and read more about road signs being torn down by the leaders, 4 crashes within the first couple of hours of the ride, someone in a chase vehicle of one competitor intentionally hitting a different competitor and totaling the bike. And the organizer Big Jim has been found to have been involved in previous long-haul scams in the past. The rules keep changing, the routes aren't correct, riders are taking short cuts, someone's already died (iirc).
Yeah it's a real quality rally.

Just hope it doesn't turn into a media circus painting all rallys with the same brush.

 

[wfooshee]

No hotels, you sleep on the ground by your bike.

1000-mile routes between checkpoints, where you receive the route map for the next checkpoint.

$1000 entry fee with 1000 entries.

Polygraph test at the end to see if you've broken any laws. (I'm sure nobody anticipates the organizers finding no one who passes the polygraph, then keeping the prize money.)

One wonders what The Motor Company thinks of their logo being associates with this event so heavily?

 

[Bounce]

actually MAYBE 500 riders at the start.

route maps have been reported as "a joke"

polygraphs that won't stand up in court - and there will be suits when this kind of money is involved.

firends and organizers also participating in the "race"

it ain't a rally by any current definition.

 

[rickcorwn]

No hotels, you sleep on the ground by your bike.
1000-mile routes between checkpoints, where you receive the route map for the next checkpoint.

$1000 entry fee with 1000 entries.

Polygraph test at the end to see if you've broken any laws. (I'm sure nobody anticipates the organizers finding no one who passes the polygraph, then keeping the prize money.)

One wonders what The Motor Company thinks of their logo being associates with this event so heavily?

They didn't get the "1,000 Spartans who will battle to the death"

Organizers don't need to disqualify everyone to get the money, they're in the "challenge", how convenient.

Not just American iron required HD air cooled only. No V-Rods, no Victorys at one point they told someone they could not compete on their Indian but now I see an Indian in the event :blink:

At one point one of the Hokey Pokey folk were on the Team Strange board talking trash. He was offered a free entry to the Butt Lite someone else even offer to cover his gas for the event. We never heard from him again, surprise, surprise.

At least one of the claimed charities they're donating to doesn't know anything about the Hoka Hey.

According to the Lakota dictionary Hoka Hey does not mean it's a good day to die.

The list goes on and on. The good news is there are a bunch of riders out there having the time of their lives. Too bad they had to pay these hucksters $1,000 to to do it.

Plenty of reading about Hoka Hey here!!

 

[kolonial72]

Many are called but few will be chosen. Only 1,000 chosen individuals – those who can hear 10,000 horses hooves thunder across the prairie as they ride into battle – will be counted among the most elite riders to ever straddle a steel horse.

That's just retarded.

 

[exskibum]

actually MAYBE 500 riders at the start.
route maps have been reported as "a joke"

polygraphs that won't stand up in court - and there will be suits when this kind of money is involved.

firends and organizers also participating in the "race"

it ain't a rally by any current definition.

As a condition of the very contract sought to be enforced in that civil lawsuit, there's no reason a polygraph test result won't "stand up". While it may be an imperfect indicator of compliance with the laws by the participants, absent something like "impossibility" or lack of notice of a well defined condition, it's unlikely that a court will "rewrite" the contract to eliminate the condition of simply passing such a test. I can sure see challenges that the condition isn't evenly applied, however -- e.g., where one man's polygraph test is materially different from another's. (I haven't read the language of the offer/contract, and that language is almost always the most important issue in interpreting/enforcing it.)

That's not to say that there aren't a lot of problems with the way this free for all is organized and run (as you've noted), as well as the foreseeable consequences of breaking laws and even worse antisocial behavior.

As someone else noted above, I most hope that the media doesn't do their usual broad brush sensationalist condemnation of responsibly run rallies and all motorcylists.

 

[wheatonFJR]

...And I doubt there are any forum dwellers or FJR riders participating unless they also have a piece of American iron....one of the prerequisites for this particular run.

So do they take the chinese parts off their HDs before they start...

...and do they still run afterwards?

 

[Indian Scout]

First let me state that they have to have a Hoka Hey sticker on their bike or be disquilified.

Now I have a question, as this is being called a race how many of these people do you think the Canadian border guards are going to let into Canada?

 

[chrisflock]

No hotels, you sleep on the ground by your bike.
1000-mile routes between checkpoints, where you receive the route map for the next checkpoint.

$1000 entry fee with 1000 entries.

Polygraph test at the end to see if you've broken any laws. (I'm sure nobody anticipates the organizers finding no one who passes the polygraph, then keeping the prize money.)

One wonders what The Motor Company thinks of their logo being associates with this event so heavily?

They didn't get the "1,000 Spartans who will battle to the death"

Organizers don't need to disqualify everyone to get the money, they're in the "challenge", how convenient.

Not just American iron required HD air cooled only. No V-Rods, no Victorys at one point they told someone they could not compete on their Indian but now I see an Indian in the event :blink:

At one point one of the Hokey Pokey folk were on the Team Strange board talking trash. He was offered a free entry to the Butt Lite someone else even offer to cover his gas for the event. We never heard from him again, surprise, surprise.

At least one of the claimed charities they're donating to doesn't know anything about the Hoka Hey.

According to the Lakota dictionary Hoka Hey does not mean it's a good day to die.

The list goes on and on. The good news is there are a bunch of riders out there having the time of their lives. Too bad they had to pay these hucksters $1,000 to to do it.

Plenty of reading about Hoka Hey here!!!!

I would wonder if there isn't going to be a ringer, and of course they'll go by some name ("John Big Bear") that will 'win' the prize money. That is assuming that the riders don't get to Homer and find no one associated with the event...

 

[allrider]

It's a Pirate race. No wonder it makes no sense to us.

I envision a combination of Rollerball :assassin: and Mad Max Thunderdome.

 

[wheatonFJR]

I would wonder if there isn't going to be a ringer, and of course they'll go by some name ("John Big Bear") that will 'win' the prize money. That is assuming that the riders don't get to Homer and find no one associated with the event...

...Or Peter "Pencil Dick"

 

[BwanaDik]

This just in

Clicky

Check out the quotes at the bottom of the article. I'd like to know how this finally finishes up

 

[BikerGeek99]

[SIZE=24pt]CANNONBALL!![/SIZE]

CANNONBALL!!

 

[airboss]

This just in
Clicky

Check out the quotes at the bottom of the article. I'd like to know how this finally finishes up

Just like P. T. Barnum said " There's a sucker born every minute"