National Vulcan Rally

[Slicks]

(I updated my first post)

There are four major Vulcan communities in the US:
VROC
The Kawasaki Vulcan Riders Forum
BTK Forum
VRA

I did some research and each group has their own National Annual Rally. (VROC also has a New England Rally at Laconia).

There is no single event that stands out as "The National Vulcan Rally". As a result, the only people that go to these rallies are the "die hard" forum participants from each forum.

All 4 National rallies are geographically limiting to each group. The BTK forum, for example, has their rally in Montana but they have forum members from all over the US. People aren't willing to ride a 1000 miles to meet up for a barbeque with 40 guys. One would think that by having multiple rallies, a guy could choose the closest one. But that doesn't happen because the BTK forum folks don't feel a connection with the VRA or Delphi guys...and vice versa.

If all four groups would plan their rally at the same place in 2008, we could all advertise it as a National Vulcan Rally. Regardless of the location, it would still serve the same percentage of forum members since they're all over the US anyway. Each group could still get together with their forum friends at the event but it would encourage other Vulcan Riders to attend, too. I think people would be willing to ride a 1000 miles for a true National Rally.





VROC (Vulcan Riders Owners Club)
Website: http://www.vroc.org
Forum: http://www.vroc.org/webforum.html
Number of members: 23,000

National Rallies
1) 7th Annual VROC Reunion
Rally webpage: http://vroc-reunion.com/
Rally organizer: Dianna 'Moon' Hughey
Date: Wed tp Sun, September 19 - 23th, 2007
Location: Eureak Spring, AR
Number attending: 31 (as of April 15th)

Past reunions:
2006: Eureka Springs, AR
2005: Eureka Springs, AR
2004: Eureka Springs, AR
2003: Eureka Springs, AR
2002: Eureka Springs, AR
2001: Eureka Springs, AR

2) 9th Annual New England VROC - Laconia
Rally webpage: http://www.vroc.org/eventcalendar.ph...9&event_id=557
Date: June 9 - 17, 2007
Location: Laconia, NH
Event Organizer: Dave Thompson
Past Rallies:
2006: Laconia
2005: Laconia
2004: Laconia
2003: Laconia
2002: Laconia
2001: Laconia
2000: Laconia
1999: Laconia

VRA (Vulcan Riders Association)
Website..... http://vulcanriders.us
Forum: http://www.vulcanforum.com/forum
National President: John Featherlin
Number of members (10 US Chapters)

National Rally
1st Annual National Vulcan Riders Rally
Rally Webpage: http://vulcanriders.us/nationalrally.htm
Rally Organizers:
John Featherlin
Del McCool
Date......July 17 - 19, 2007
Location.......LaCrosse, WI
Number attending.... ~30-50

VulcanRiders Forum
Website..... http://www.vulcanforum.com/
Forum: http://login.prospero.com/dir-login/...om%2Fkawvulcan
Forum Moderator: Robert Orsino .aka. Outlaw421
Number of members ? (680 visitors on April 14th, 2007)

National Rally
5th Annual Vulcan Forum World Reunion
Rally Webpage: http://www.vulcanforum.com/reunion.html
Rally Organizers:
Wes Head
Bob "Rexdog" Elliott
Date: July 12 - 15, 2007
Location: Bardstown, KY
Number attending....78 (as of April 15)

Past reunions:
2006: Boscobel, WI
2005: Birmingham, AL
2004: Deep Creek, MD
2003: Elizabethtown, KY

BearTooth Kawasaki Forum
Website.... http://www.kawasakimotorcycle.org/fo...saki-cruisers/
Forum Admin: "Kawi"
Number of members: 5700 (all Kawasaki forums)

National Rally
3rd Annual Red Lodge Montana/Beartooth Kawasaki Forum Rally
Person/s organizing event: Spok
Date July 6 - 8, 2007
Location: Red Lodge, MT
Number attending ~30 - 50

Past reunions:
2006: Red Lodge, MT
2005: Red Lodge, MT
2004: Red Lodge, MT

[G]

i think this site have a annual red lodge rally , but dont hold me to my word ..

[jdpenn]

Hey Slicks,
I think Red Lodge is the big forum rally. It takes place at Beartooth Kawasaki, owner of this forum, in Red Lodge, Montana. This is the 3rd annual Red Lodge event and there is a sticky on it in the Rides and Events forum. Some of us local yocal forum members here in the Northeast are getting together to do a 2 day forum ride to the PA Grand Canyon in August. There is a sticky on it in the Rides and Events forum. So far we have 26 forum members and 20 bikes taking the ride. But, some year I plan on getting out to Red Lodge for their main event.

[Classic]

I believe VROC has it's national rally in Eureka Springs Arkansas and the Delphi based group will be in Bardstown Kentucky. A combined rally sounds like a good idea till you consider the number of people involved which would leave out these smaller communities as hosts.

[BikerBeagle]

Originally Posted by Slicks

I'm just curious because it appears like multiple groups are trying to host their own rally and it would make a whole lot more sense if all of the Vulcan communities would work together to have one big one.

While it may sound more 'efficient' to do so, it is actually better for the Vulcan community at large to have more than one rally ...in different parts of the country ...to allow for greater participation from different regions. Only Sturgis is the exception to that rule.

[pitchinguy]

Hiya Slicks!! Where ya been man? Long time, no see! Good to see ya back again! Hope you'll hang with us!

[Slicks]

Originally Posted by BikerBeagle

it is actually better for the Vulcan community at large to have more than one rally in different parts of the country to allow for greater participation from different regions.

That sounds good on paper but after researching each rally, the number of people that attend is really poor considering the hundreds of thousands of Vulcan Riders in the United States. From what I can tell, the New England VROC event in Laconia has the best turnout, but that's because it's Laconia and still only about a 100 people or so show up.

[Slicks]

If you think about it, VROC is the all-encompassing group - people from all of the other groups are also VROC members.

This will be their 7th rally in Eureka Springs...the Ozarks. That's GREAT Riding territory! It's also somewhat central to the US. I spoke with Dianna Hughey, the Rally organizer for 2008, and she would be willing to host the rally for all four groups.

The VRA has their rally in different places each year. So does the Delphi group. I know that BTK typically has their rally at Red Lodge but would it hurt for us all to plan our event in Arkansas just one year?

[Chard]

Eureka Springs is a small town but the area has a lot of places to stay within a hour of Eureka. A few years ago the STAR Riders had a reunion at Fayetteville AR. There was a lot of bikes. Bikes, Blues and BBQ is held at Fayetteville. One of the fastest growing bikes rallys. Its about an hour from Eureka.
Just food for thought.

Regards,
Chard

[snickerdoodle]

I'm definitely partial to the BTK Forum Rally - I like that it's sort of a small number of people and bikes - People I've gotten to know etc. We rode 3500 miles last year to get there and we're doing it again this year.

[NeverMad]

ummm...what's the deal with the left coast?

[DDHughey]

Hi Slicks,
Don't get over here much but one of our mutual members posted about the thread.
Just wanted to give a little fill-in about The VROC World Reunion and Eureka Springs.
Year before last and a couple of years prior to that Eureka Springs also hosted a Corvette Club Rally the same time as the VROC World Reunion. Needless to saw the accomodations in Eureka Springs managed both groups along with a few others. Bikes Blues and BBQ was also going in Fayetteville at the same time.
We moved the date up to get away from the Corvette Club traffic, they moved the Corvette Club back a week to get away from.. us, Bikes, Blues BBQ or whatever reason.
Last year we had approx 200 VROC members and guests.
A better idea of the turnout can be seen in the photo gallery.
http://vroc-reunion.com/Photos.htm
The VROC World Reunion website is up and running and has more information for anyone interested. There is even a video link available of the motorcycle riding in Arkansas.

Dianna
Conway, AR
Patriot Guard Rider
2000 VN750 Sere (Serendipity) with a sweet little velorex sidecar
VROC # 11628
TNVROC # 45 (H)
VROC-AR # 12 Coordinator and Crowd Control
http://vroc-reunion.com "Riding in the Natural State"

[stevebtx12]

Hi Dianna, good to see you posting here, a real good group of folks here.

[troop]

I'm going to Bardstown this year. Being from Wi, I attended the Vulcan Riders forum event in Boscobel(WI) last year...

[airski]

I, for one, like the more local ralleys, this way I can actually attend. I'm not going to use my vacation days to go on a 1000 mile ride. If my wife rode, that would be different, but she doesn't. I save my vacation days for the family vacations.

[bikeaholic]

what we need is an all METRIC assoc....if this were the case then im pretty sure it would rival any hog gathering even on a local scale much less a national one. i believe that as long as its mfg specific there will never be real unity among metric riders ( and i use the term metric meaning non-hd)
honda seems to have the strongest presence around here for group activitys
the gold wing and shadow owners group have a very visible presence
maybe if all these vulcan groups banned together it would create a more
unified and powerful structure...

[V2KCruiser]

Originally Posted by NeverMad

ummm...what's the deal with the left coast?

My feelings exactly ... seems like nuthin' happening west of the Rockies.

[Slicks]

Hi Dianna. Thanks for posting.

As for the West Coast feeling "left out", any states located at the extreme corners of the country are bound to feel "left out", particularly California, Washington, Florida and Maine. As for choosing a location that's accessible to the "most people", I think this map says it all.

"2000 COUNTY ACCESSIBILITY. This map shows the population accessibility scores for counties across the country in 2000. The darker the shading, the more accessible the county to the rest of the nation’s population."

Carlisle, Pennsylvania has long been known as the trucking hub of the US because it's within a day's travel of like 40 major urban areas. This map supports that notion.

The midwest has the lowest population density and then it spikes at California. The only way to please everyone would be either to have the rally in a different location each year or have multiple rallies (i.e. East Coast/West Coast).

On a side note, this also suggests that the BTK forum rally location is in possibly the least accessible location possible for its forum members. The VRA rally in Wisconsin isn't much better but then, I didn't pick it. <g>

[Slicks]

Originally Posted by airski

I, for one, like the more local ralleys, this way I can actually attend.

I'm with you man. Being from Pennsylvania, I prefer to go to the local events - East Coast Sturgis, Hazen, Thunder in the Cascades and Thunder in the Valley. These are all within a few hours ride for me.

I've traveled a 1000 miles for a National Rally though (i.e. Daytona) and I'm planning to ride to Sturgis. I think a National Rally can be worth the ride IF, and this is the key factor, IF it's a big event. This is why I'd like to see us pull together and make it a bigger event.

[Slicks]

Originally Posted by bikeaholic

what we need is an all METRIC assoc....honda seems to have the strongest presence around here...maybe if all these vulcan groups banned together it would create a more unified and powerful structure...

The Honda Hoot is easily the most successful metric event. As far as there being a "metric" alliance, I think someone with a commercial interest would have to step in and organize it. That would be a huge undertaking for someone who is just volunteering their time.

But I think you've made the salient point - the Vulcan groups NEEDS to ban together if we want to have anything substantial and to me, the VROC rally seems like the best place to start.