Taffy said:
i was disappointed to see so few Husaberg owners support FR3. the whole idea must be to get husaberg riders out and to enjoy themselves, we'd like them to be members here and have a husaberg ideally. our duty at all times is to put something in that the most members can reasonably join in with and nothing for those on other marques.
there seems little point in putting so much effort in if the view is staggering but the numbers were down on the previous one by over 50%; a figure i have yet to see disclosed here but i believe to be true.
i can't see the point in openly advertising that anyone is welcome outside our whoop of gori - i mean bergamoto's when we clearly couldn't all be on one location. when we started, we had husaberg owners from UHE asking if their friends could join and we said ok. that should still be the rule. we don't advertise outside here coz it's UHE we support first just ahead of the actual fact that you need a husaberg. in other words lizard killer is welcome over the husaberg owner who hasn't joined the site. small but important point to make so we start to identify what we're about.
all this effort for 20 husaberg runners i believe and maybe not all members here makes it a nonsense and we need to ask the simple, basic question why we do what we do! after all, not all members were able to stop at TT which should have been a right not a privilage. UHE members staying at TT first i think should be 'given' (as we say here).
i requested no commercialism at the previous force rides and about any sponsorship being involved before it happened and but kept my mouth shut. all you need to do is just turn up and enjoy a ride with your mates from here. not steve stranger on his honda.
so lets pick a place where the most UHE members will go, never mind the view this time coz clearly that comes second to travelling and time constraints not to mention a recession.
but that's all the more reason to make it affordable for 2 years time. if you want sponsors, ask them to pay for my flight! lets just go back to FR1 style and turn up and ride, altogether, in one place where we nearly knew everyone already before we even met! it's that simple!
if for one second of one day you have to fudge what you're trying to do: meet, ride, drink beer - then it gets in the way.
i tell you now, husaberg NA would rather see 30 husaberg riders in a pig field than 20 wherever. so you won't get any complaints there. i'm sure they want to add to the experience in the right way but we have the right to be asked here whether we want them or not and not to have anything forced on us that we don't want. so there is a balance to be struck.
while i'm delighted that husaberg NA made such a financial effort for 'us' i don't think they are officially members here and i think that could mean the top brass of the site start to look at things from the wrong side of the table. i would never take the coin and i have suggested at least once before that this must be a transatlantic 'trait'! fair do's!
i have more to say on the sponsorship but i'll wait for now. so i open an initial debate only for the fact that we should do it while FR3 is still fresh in the mind and the small detail can be recalled. these are merely my views which are agreed with to my face by a small few but important UHE members - tacit or otherwise.
when you don't know everyone it loses it's personal touch, we all knew each other at the first two FRs so lets get back to that as our mission statement for next time.
in closing:
keep it on here
members here or husaberg owners to ride
a direct friend of a husaberg or UHE member can come
if we have a small site, all UHE members come first on that site
go where the members will come
keep it simple and loose and most of all relaxed so that people come first over the occasion coz that's what you take away with you.
regards
Taffy
and from you ron:
Taffy, I'm possibly begining to grasp this. You are thinking that FR3 numbers were down due to location, and the ratio of Husaberg to non-berg is too low ie: too much Japanese and German being spoken, not enough Swedish ? I'm still a bit foggy on the commecialization. We should not solicit donations of money to help print shirts nor items to raffle off at dinner, because it takes away from the ambiance of the event ( shooting the BS over whiskey and fire) ? I'm just trying to understand your concerns/ ideas friend, I'm the first to admit, for being a bunch of "english" speaking lads we're all pretty darn hard to understand some times. If I ever figure Tuts & Aussie humor out, I think I'll get a grant from Obama and write a dissertation. Oh and I think I get the part where arkler is just posting out of left field for fun and laughs, good one ........you got me, i thought you were serious. can we get some more of those Zepplin lyrics ? No? Tull anyone Tull?
Later, Football tomorrow
Ron
Hello ron
i set out i thought VERY clearly that i thought our priority for the next Force Ride and that is to get UHE member/husaberg riders there as an absolute first and foremost. clearly, in a very close second would be a husaberg owner who isn't a member here.
from those two groups we then need to say how many riders we need there. i would suggest that FR2 was close at the 44 or so we had (48?). so wherever we go, our target must be to do it without OPENLY holding out a begging hand for all and everyone.
if you can acheive the above: what else could you want? you can have slow, medium, fast and furious (and road SM see below). late starters, early risers - you name it. gunnison didn't do that. if you go back again i think those that did FR1-3 may become prunes and shr.... u.!
so, far from numbers going up, i can see them going down. we had momentum after FR2 and i think its largely been lost and in some ways we completely overshot the mark. it's not dale's fault. hell, if i looked after a certain section i'd like to feel that someone else could look after simply getting bums on seats. this wasn't done and someone was let down and perhaps he thinks i'm blaming him completely and that on reflection, is unfair and i say that we didn't do enough in the recruitment area. But the net result was that there was $10,000 of prizes, husaberg NA and only 20+ UHE members?
the huge void between the amount of sponsorship and those from this site/husaberg owners that attended is in my opinion embarrassing. whilst dealers gave of course willingly, i'm sure that they worked hard for their money and to see just 20+ riders from here turn-up is unfair.
at this point I, (yes I) can't grasp the american way, it is defo different to ours. let me promise you ron, to have that much support with so few UHE there would be embarrassing here in the UK and unfair if you believe that some dealers/trade feel they had to support the event or did based on old numbers and the 'international' element or whatever that FR2 had and FR3 didn't.
so we need the sponsorship and the numbers of UHE/husaberg to get back into synch. i know clay is an individual member here and i can't talk behind his back so i'll just say it here: the cost of the promotion has to be justified by 1) husaberg bums on seats 2) sales as a result of 3) exposure due to. i have PM'd clay and we had a good chat. he knows how i feel.
the thing to remember is that i was set against it and it went through on the nod. now he's there and next time X and Y will come and the budget will get bigger, and the bigger the budget the more of our arses they'll want. 'can we bring in a display stand', 'models', '50 foot trucks' and everyone keeps saying "it adds to the experience" and then after FR4 none of the wild west boys will be there and it'll all be white collar workers again. they always phuck up everything donchyaknow! one-lung must be turning in his bed!
i gaurantee, on this trajectory, in 2 force rides time, there will be no camp fire, no loonies, no old bikes, no characters just possers and pissers. they'll take over again because they always do! they have to organise our lives for us so they can feel important.
you talk of the T-shirts, i've seen it written here that clay would poay for those. so Ron, at 3pm we agree where and at 4pm we have the location, T-shirts sorted and we chill. what do you say to that? hassle free, beer drinking time with your old red neck mucker from the muvver cuntwree - your diamond geezer - Taffy!