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A HOG Chapter can not exist without a Harley-Davidson dealership as their sponsor and a successful HOG Chapter relys on a good relationship with their sponsor. First State HOG enjoys an excellent relationship with their sponsoring dealership: Mike’s Famous Harley-Davidson in New Castle, DE. The 2009 members of First State HOG wanted to show their appreciation to Mike’s Famous Harley-Davidson for all the great things they had been doing for the chapter. We presented our sponsor with a huge custom made decorative mirror emphasizing the MFHD Friends & Family philosophy. Afterall, our HOG Chapter shares a “Friends & Family” relationship not only with our fellow chapter members but many of the staff members at Mike’s Famous.

As a side note, you should also make it a point to thank all your chapter volunteers, officers and the employee’s at your sponsoring dealer who go out of their way to be involved with chapter functions. You can do this by presenting them with special certificates and volunteer pins available through HOG.

To make the above mentioned mirror we found a decorative mirror that needed a home. Diana made a design utizing the MFHD chevron logo and one of the HOG logo’s. She added some flames and it came out pretty cool! She amazes me everyday with her hidden talents! We e-mailed the design to one of our members who had a Cricut Machine. This is an amazing little machine that cuts stencils. She used it to chemically etch the mirror. The etching came out incredible!

I built a custom frame for the mirror like a shadowbox to give it bulk and depth. I fitted it with bolts to make it look industrial. I painted it with the same orange paint used to make our Chili Cook-off trophies. Below are pictures in case you want to make something similar. See my trophy post for more information on the paint color.

Tags: HOG by Jay Green
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Back in 2008 Joker wrote a post about the Blackstone HOG Winter Chili Cook-off in Massachusetts between HOG Chapters. That inspired me to have the 1st Annual First State HOG Chili Cook-off last February. Diana bought me a Craftsman Router Table  and Router for my birthday and I used it to make the plaques for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place.

This year I kicked it up a notch by making trophies. I used some scrap wood for the base and top deck. I used the router to put a decorative edge on them. The base is a 5.5″ x 9″ rectangle and the top deck is a 5.5″ square. I painted them with Valspar “Autumn Blaze” 2002-1 Semi Gloss from Lowe’s.

I purchased two 2′ lengths of 2″ diameter PVC pipe and painted them with flat black spray paint. I cut them to 10″, 8″ and 6″ with my Craftsman Power Mitre Saw that Diana bought me for a housewarming present when I bought my house.

I purchased one 12″ long threaded rod, two washers and two nuts for each tropy (1/4″ diameter). I drilled a big hole using a 7/8″ drill bit on the bottom of the base just deep enough to sink the washer and nut. Then I finished the hole all the way through with a 5/16″ bit, I drilled all the way through the top decks with the same bit. The bolt should have wriggle room unless you can make the drill holes perfectly vertical. If you can do that then go ahead and use the 1/4″ bit. Maybe I should have used my drill press. Maybe a tight fit with perfectly vertical drill holes would have made assembly easier. Now that I think of it, another set of washer and nut to secure the bolt to the base would have worked twenty times better. I wish I thought of that before!

We ate four cans of canned corn with dinner over a two night period and saved the cans. Took the labels off and washed them. Punched a 1/4″ hole in the bottoms using a nail and hammer to start the hole. Then a phillips head screw driver to make it bigger and then a nail set to finish the hole. Try to get the metal to point down rather than in.

The next step is to connect the can on top to the top deck with the Base on the bottom with the PVC pipe sandwiched between the base and top deck. A washer and nut go under the base in the sink hole and a washer and nut go inside the can. Getting everything lined up and tightened up is a little tricky. Maybe wingnuts for inside the can would have worked better. Had to use small needle nose Irwin Vice Grips, 7/16″ crescent wrench, and 7/16″ nut driver to get the job done. I didn’t break out my socket set but a 7/16″ socket would have come in handy.

Diana made labels for the cans that have a diamond plate background. She mounted the labels using 3M Super 77 Multipurpose Adhesive in a spray can to glue the labels to the cans. The final touch is to glue a #1, #2 and #3 on the base. I got the numbers at A.C. Moore. they are 3.5″ high and cost $1.29 each. I painted them white and used Elmer’s Carpenter’s Interior Wood Glue to adhere them to the base.

The trophies came out great! Now I’m thinking about how to step it up another notch for next year.

Tags: HOG by Jay Green
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The motorcycle industry has embraced the female market segment. Women riders although still a minority are not uncommon. Women riders are empowered! So why do we have an exclusive segment of HOG special for women? My wife prefers to be treated as equal, not special. So as you guess, my opinion is that LOH should be replaced with something more up to date. 

Harley-Davidson, HOG and each local chapter of HOG are challenged with attracting the under thirty market segment. HOG Chapters are filled with middle aged members, but where are the twenty somethings? Perhaps HOG should consider a special young adult group. Call it LT30 for “Less Than 30″.

The only problem I see with going this route is: where do you draw the line? If you have a special group for women and a special group for young adults then you need to treat all minority groups special. Where would it end?!

So I ask you:

What do you think of LOH and the idea of a new youth oriented group? Can you think of any new sub groups? Did I drink too much beer tonight and I am off my rocker?

Thank you to our new sponsor Riders Discount

Tags: HOG by Jay Green
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Only two more days left in 2009. This year will be etched in my mind forever. It was marked by numerous accomplishments and one horrific loss.

I began the year by taking on a leadership role that was a daunting but welcome challenge. The Director of my HOG Chapter resigned to start a new MC. It was agreat opportunity for her, unfortunately for me she took several of our key officers with her. I had been the Assistant Director for only a few months when I was asked to step up to Director. Not only was I a fairly new member taking the healm of a twenty year old HOG Chapter, but I had to put together a leadership team to pick up the pieces and keep moving forward. Luckily an enthusiastic Ed and Karen Fortner came to my side and joined forces in the task. Ed became the Assistant Director and Karen was already the Activities Officer. Together with my wife Diana we spent many January and February weekend nights discussing how to increase particaption in our chapter and planning a spring trip to Outer Banks North Carolina.

The four of us went to North Carolina on Valentines Day weekend to nail down the details of the trip. We got along in a way that I can’t explain very well. I guess it is hard  enough to find a guy friend you see eye to eye with, but to find a couple that have the same likes and dislikes as you and your spouse… well that’s probably twice as hard to find and twice as valuable. We had a blast that weekend and over the next couple months we got to be closer and closer as friends.

Springtime came and we hit the ground running. The new leadership team created a fun atmasphere that made eveyone feel welcome at our HOG chapter events. We focused on the HOG mantra to Ride and Have Fun. Particpation shot up immediately in March and we ran straight into April. We had record turnouts for our first dinner rides and poker runs taking home the most particpation awards at the first two regional poker runs we attended. Then the four of us went to HOG Primary Officer Training with our Secretary and Head Road Captain. The six of us had a great time and got a glimpse of how impressive the HOG organization is. We got home from POT just in time to host our one big fundraiser of the year: our annual First State HOG Spring Poker Run. It was a huge success thanks to all the officers and volunteers… and the weather was pretty good to us.

We gathered on April 24th for the spring trip that Karen and Ed had planned so well. It was a beautiful day! Ed took the lead Road Captain Position with his proud wife and Activites Officer riding wing. Their son Justin and two of his friends followed directly behind them. Diana and I were at the rear, me in the Sweep position wearing a flouresecent safety vest.

We were riding about twenty bikes strong with smiles pasted on our faces as we headed to North Carolina. Four hours into the trip we found ourselves in Cheriton, VA approaching the Chespaeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel. In a flash lives changed forever! A deranged women in a Ford Taurus sped out from a driveway and plowed through our pack of motorcycles killing our dear beloved friend Karen! It was a horrible thing and there hasn’t been a day since then that I haven’t thought about it.

The motorcycle community gathered around the Fortner family and offered their support as best they could. Our HOG Chapter became closer. We didn’t want to let Karen down, so we valiently continued on through the year succeeding at everything we set out to do. We won 10 awards and doubled chapter participation over the previous year!

Becoming Director and succeeding has been one of the best experiences of my life. It is a huge accomplishment and an honor to have people follow me voluntarily. It’s nothing like my job where my staff do what I ask them to because I’m their Supervisor. Being Director of First State will probably be the closest thing to fatherhood that I will experience. When our chapter succeeds at putting on an event or wins an award I feel like a proud parent. Our chapter has flourished this year and for that I am proud. My blog and online store have also done extremely well. My mail order business is a success, we have exceeded 6,000 hits per month and I am seeing some advertising income. I even started getting paid to write for other online publications. Diana and I have been recognized by Harley-Davidson and received a special invitation to come test ride their motorcycles in NYC and write about it on RC USA. The accomplishments have been many!

The numerous victories of the year however are overshadowed by the loss of a dear friend. The vivid memories of the carnage on Route 13 will be with me forever. April 24th, 2009 was the worst day of my life. If Karen were still here to relish in what we accomplished… then perhaps it would have been one of the greatest years of my life. But she is not here, the accident really did happen and it is difficult to savor the victories without her.

2009 was a bitter sweet year.

Tags: Deep Biker Thoughts, HOG by Jay Green
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Here in Delaware and Maryland the HOG Chapters are pretty tight. I know most of the Directors and many of the officers from the other chapters. Diana and I were in Cheriton, VA a little over a week ago with two other members from First State and we met a HOG member from All American of Hughsville, MD. The member didn’t know his Director by name but told me it was Smurf. Below is a picture of Steve Keene, aka Smurf, presenting First State with the plaque for furthest traveled at their chapter’s Brain Freeze Poker Run back on June 27th. He’s the guy handing me the plaque. I’m the goofy bald guy with an orange t-shirt and camo pants. That was our 5th award this year. We now have 10.

I was checking out the Rider Stories on the Harley-Davidson You Tube channel and came across this video. I was thinking “I think I know this guy. He seems very familiar. Oh my gosh, it’s Smurf from All American!”

Tags: Cool Video, HOG by Jay Green
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Those of you familiar with the inner workings of HOG know that Norscott is the only company licensed to make and sell HOG merchandise using the Harley Owners Group logo’s and trademarks. Norscott has 19 different Chapter Officer Patches. These are the black felt arch shaped patches that say “DIRECTOR” or “ROAd CAPTAIN” in gold thread. Norscott will not make custom made officer patches. So what do you do if your chapter has an officer position that is unique to your chapter that Norscott doesn’t make? You go out and find somone to make it since these patches don’t use any regristered trademarks or logo’s. I saw some bad knock offs at POT. Either the shape was not right, or the gold thread looked off, or the black felt just wasn’t a match. But the officers from the Cut N Shoot Chapter in Texas had some really good ones with their nicknames on them. They turned me onto their supplier Corporate Logos Inc. which is one of their members. You can e-mail Rex at look@corporatelogos.org or call him at 1-800-926-9130.

Rex will make custom HOG Officer Patches at $7.00 each plus shipping. I ordered a QUARTERMASTER patch and three AMBASSADOR patches and they came out great.

Tags: HOG by Jay Green
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