In the news today is an article about a woman from Seattle that participated in the 2010 Hoka Hey Challenge.
She was on the last leg of the Hoka Hey - riding in Alaska, when she fell asleep and crashed into 2 bicyclists. The bicyclists were triathletes who were training and their bicycles were worth about $4,500 each.
Vik Livingston, 54, will spend 16 months in jail for 2 misdemeanour counts of assault and was ordered to pay restitution of $9,000 for the bicycles.
During that same race another motorcyclist, Charles C. Lynn, 44, of Florida, died in Wyoming when he apparently fell asleep and crashed.
Racing for $500,000 in cash cost two bikers their lives. Kenneth J. Greene, 63, of Ocala, Fla., was killed at 107 Mile of the Glenn Highway between Palmer and Glennallen when he drove onto the shoulder, lost control and crashed. (It is believed he was taking a short cut to reach Homer Alaska as where he crashed was not part of the official race route)
800 people started out on the 2010 race with somewhere around 200 riders finishing it.
The term Hoka Hey means "It's a good day to die" - it was the battle call of Sioux warrior - Crazy Horse and was the theme of the 2010 race.
On their web site for 2011, however, the claim now is "It's a good day to Ride".
Participants of the race must sleep outside, no hotels or motels or any inside accommodations, they must follow the route, are limited to a 6.2 gallon fuel tank, the bike has to be a Harley, (Can be a custom but certain restrictions apply), the bike must have a working odometer...the restrictions are many.
On top of the $1,000 entry fee every rider pays their own expenses: fuel and meals.
For riders who are not accustomed to long distance riding, this can be a deadly race. Between dehydration, fatigue and the inherent dangers of competition, I wonder, is $500,000 really worth the risk. Many say yes.
Harley-Davidson sponsored the 2011 race which had riders traverse 14,000 miles at much personal expense. The cost out of pocket to participate was somewhere around $5,000 - $10,000 depending on the individual rider's situation - not including the fee and riders did crash and were injured.
Bill Alviles from Las Vegas tells his story of participating in the 2011 challenge on the Las Vegas H-D blog (http://lasvegasharley.wordpress.com/2011/08/30/hoka-hey-challenge-rider-bill-aviles-in-his-own-words/)
This year the winner did not get the full $500K but shared it with the top 11 contenders - No where on their blog or web site could I find the prize pay outs. (The rules stated the prize would be split between the top 25, but only 11 crossed the finish line in the prescribed time)
Next year's Hoka Hey is reportedly going to be only 7,000 miles - the reasoning behind that is to attract more participants and will take about 12 days as opposed to the 40+ this years race took to accomplish.
Do you have what it takes? Is long distance riding your thing? I for one would not participate in a race like this, I like long distance riding but seriously feel that this type of race is too dangerous - but that is one woman's opinion.
In other news:
Some bikers in Los Angeles get involved with the Wednesday's Child Project
A motorcycle auction in Los Angeles is attracting bikes from some big names including: Elvis, Madonna, The Fonz, k.d Lang, God Smack & Guns & Roses
A company in Australia is making motorcycles that run on compressed air
There is a ton of news in the feeds today over at www.beltdrivebetty.com where we sift through the news so you don't have to.
Until Monday, have a safe and wonderful weekend...
Belt Drive betty
Editor & Rider
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