Harley Hoka Hey Challenge
The Hoka Hey Challenge 2011 was a great success with the World’s Top Riders competing in a 14,000 mile cross-country event.
The course took them through 48 states and 2 Canadian provinces. This year, the route left the Challengers little time to ride without either navigating the many different roads on the route or riding through the technically thrilling course that took a great deal of concentration.
Again this year, the Challengers were taken through some of the most scenic highways and byways in America and eastern Canada. This year an unexpected visit by Hurricane Irene made things even more interesting!
The skill and determination of the Challengers is without a doubt what puts them in the category of the World’s Best Elite Long Distance Riders.
The fact that this year the ride and riders’ stories were closely documented by David Roma and his crew throughout the Challenge will eventually allow the amazing stories of the Hoka Hey Motorcycle Challenge to be shared with the world! We are very excited that we will have the opportunity to celebrate our Challengers through David’s efforts and that the world will hear these thrilling, courageous and heartfelt personal journeys.
This year, the Hoka Hey went high-tech and utilized GPS tracking devices to monitor the riders to ensure compliance with the prescribed route of navigation. All finishers complied with the route but the top riders had to submit to polygraph exams for further scrutiny into their compliance of the many rules.
The GPS tracking also served its most important purpose: to allow family members real-time information on their riders. Everyone involved was extremely pleased with the implementation of US Fleet Tracking’s GPS tracking system!!
Because of the fact that the 2010 event did not utilize US Fleet Tracking to obtain information about the riders’ speeds and location, the Organizers had to rely on local law enforcement as the primary means of enforcing speeding violations.
The Organizers relied on the issuance of a speeding ticket or moving violations, along with the polygraph examination to qualify the 2010 winner. In this 2011 event, the information provided by US Fleet Tracking specific to the 11 contenders could not be ignored by the Organizers of the Challenge.
After the final validation had been completed, even though the 11 riders who finished within the allotted time frame have accomplished something that no other rider on earth has done, they could not be awarded prize money. The situation was discussed at length at a Contenders’ meeting and consideration was made for the fact that the Contenders had to incur significant additional expense to travel to Mesa, AZ for the mandatory polygraph examination. There was an offer made and accepted to help offset their expenses for the mandatory travel.
The Fleet Tracking devices could send out an email notification if a rider went over a certain speed, however, without knowing the speed limits in any given location, and without knowing whether that rider was passing another vehicle at the time, it would be an unreliable and unfair option to remove any rider from the field.
So, it was decided that the results would be withheld until the entire validation process had taken place. It was a process that took many days of scrutinizing speed patterns for each rider. Reports for each were thousands of pages long as the US Fleet Tracking GPS pings a rider every 10 seconds.
A number of the Hoka Hey Challengers were on hand to celebrate the winners and enjoy festivities at Chester’s Harley-Davidson, Mesa, AZ during their annual Rocktoberfest. Chester’s Harley-Davidson was the starting point for the Challenge and on Saturday, Oct. 8, 2011 Chester’s welcomed the riders back with a ceremony to honor all the brave men and women who fought the elements to complete the grueling 2011 Hoka Hey Motorcycle Challenge.
Everyone present enjoyed 11 rock bands, a poker run and a spectacular concert by Paul Rogers of Bad Company which brought everyone to their feet!
Thanks to all that made the 2nd Hoka Hey Challenge a great success! Especially the folks at Harley-Davidson Motor Company and US Fleet Tracking, proud sponsors of the Hoka Hey.
