For 15 years the Honda ‘Hoot‘ has been touted as one of the largest motorcycle rallies in North America.
Honda pulled the plug for 2009 citing “economic uncertainty” as the rest of us watch yet another motorcycle rally bite the dust.
I’ve talked to folks who attended the “hoot” previously and they’ve told me, it went from a Goldwing type of crowd to the loud muffler cruisers pretending to be a Harley type of crowd. A Valkyre with straight pipes sounds like an Indy race car and the Shadows with straight pipes just makes sound. Still others who prescribe to the conspiracy theory state the Hoot had been going downhill the past few years after it was changed from Asheville, North Carolina to Knoxville, TN because in part it outgrew Asheville, but the female mayor at the time worked very hard to make sure it didn’t come back as she disliked motorcycles. This was also reflected in the local news. So less and less people attended. Prices went up due to the high cost for vendors who in turn started to bail-out and thus repeating the downward cycle. Some thought the hand writing was on the wall when Honda reported the annual ‘Hoot Ride’ for kids charity for ’09 TN event would be in a new location near Nashville.
Related to this I just received the H.O.G information for 2009 and it got me thinking this might be a prime time to reach out to other motorcycle riders so they can discover what we already know…expose this group of riders to the greatness of H.O.G! There are primarily three large motorcycle manufacture supported clubs – BMWMOA, GWRRA, and H.O.G.
I can understand the reluctance to increase the size and granted H.O.G doesn’t really need to increase the ‘applicant pool’ by trying to absorb displaced ‘Hooters’, but it would be a good opportunity to reach out especially in this economy. It might be a way to improve local H.O.G rallies with higher attendance?
H.O.G are you listening or did I lose you with the image of orange shorts, tight tops and hot wings?
Logo courtesy of Honda.
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