Please read this thread if you are a GMAIL user.

ParrotHead · #1 17th September 2022

At long last I have finished part one of my ride report for the 2022 Hoka Hey.

Sit back with your beverage of choice, relax, and enjoy!

Getting There …
The Hoka Hey (full name is the Hoka Hey Motorcycle Challenge) is a motorcycle ride that is approximately 10,000 miles in length. Participants must use paper directions, cannot use a GPS, and must sleep outside. If you receive any kind of moving violation such as a speeding ticket you are disqualified. And if you leave the route you must go back to where you went off route before you can continue, regardless of the distance. There is no fixed finish date however there is an End of the Road party 14 days after the start. Of course, I do have a job so I had a forced end date since I had to go back to work.

I first heard of the Hoka Hey many years ago when a member of my HOG chapter mentioned it to me. At the time (2010 and 2011) there was a very large prize for the first rider to finish. That was before I had ridden in an Iron Butt Rally and I laughed because there was no way I could have finished such a ride, let alone win it (I still could not win it to this day regardless of any prize amount!).

Over the years I met a few of the other riders and learned more about the event, and my ability to ride long distances in short periods of time has improved. For various reasons my desire to give it a shot increased over the years and in 2019 I was giving it some serious consideration. However for 2020 I had plans to take my wife to Cancun and of course COVID hit. 2022 would have to be the year.

April 2021
2021 was an Iron Butt Rally year and I was entered in my 4th IBR. With the preparations for that along with some family challenges I missed the opening of registration. I finally signed up for the 2022 Hoka Hey in April of 2021 and at the time registration for new riders was full. I was wait listed and number 9 on the list with 8 potential riders in front of me. Nothing more I could do so I focused on the IBR and had my best finish to date, finishing 28th.

Time marched on and occasionally I would receive an email informing me that I had moved up a notch. In July I was 6th, in October I was 5th, and in January 2022 I was 3rd. But now I had a dilemma, I still owed my wife a trip to Cancun and I had decided I would not do both the 2022 Hoka Hey and the 2023 IBR. I went ahead and applied for the IBR and hoped that I would hear I got into the Hoka Hey before I had to send in my first payment for the IBR (assuming of course I got in) In March I received the “congratulations” email for the 2022 IBR but had until April to send in my first payment. This was getting interesting …

March 2022
Then in March I got a call while I was meandering down to the IBA banquet in Jacksonville FL, I was accepted into the Hoka Hey. My wife is going to be thrilled! NOT!!!! She had her reservations of my participating due to the sleeping outside part. She feels I am too old to be sleeping outside on the ground. Go figure… I had a few more days before I’d see her in Jacksonville and would decide then. I was leaning towards declining the Hoka Hey because the IBR was going to start and finish in the Northeast US in 2023 so it was more or less local. With 2023 most likely being my last IBR (at least for a few years) it was hard to turn it down.

Once in Jacksonville I broke the news to my wife that I was accepted into the Hoka Hey. She had the reaction that I expected, and I told her I was going to keep my promise and not do both the Hoka Hey and IBR, however she could tell that I really wanted to do both. Then something unexpected happened. Many of the attendees in Jacksonville were Hoka Hey riders and she spent quite a bit of time speaking with them. They assured her the Hoka Hey riders are one big family and they take care of each other. I’m not sure what else they discussed, however before we left for home (me riding and my wife flying) she told me that I could do both if I really wanted to. I asked her several times if she was sure and she said yes. Boy am I blessed with a wonderful wife!

Of course now I had a dilemma, I had just 12 weeks before I had to leave for the start in Rapid City SD. I had to get my bike ready, acquire and install a Fleet Tracker tracking device on my bike, acquire camping gear, figure out how to strap all the stuff I need on my bike, figure out the logistics of getting to the start including getting a fresh tire on the bike for the start, get into riding shape, and run parking for an airshow. I made a list of camping gear and spoke to a friend who had ridden in the 2018 Hoka Hey. He strongly suggested a cot which I was skeptical about mainly due to its size. After some contemplation I decided to purchase it with the thought that I’d rather have it on my bike and not use it than not have it and wish I did. I could always ship it home if I wasn’t using it. I made a list of things I needed to do to the bike which was substantial since it hadn’t been ridden any distance since I got home from the 2019 IBR.

I immediately started working on the bike. I had to order larger panniers (hard aluminum saddlebags for my Harley friends), install them, replace the swing arm bearings and rear motor mounts, replace the rear caliper, new rear tire, replace the exhaust crossover pipe since it was cracked, securely install both exhaust pipes, install new rear shocks, and install the tracking device. I first swapped out the rear caliper and took the bike for a 200 mile ride to enroll in a mileage contest. The bike wasn’t running right and had all the symptoms of an intake leak. I dug around a bit and found a broken MAP sensor and a cracked vacuum line.

Old MAP sensor

New MAP sensor

Cracked vacuum line

April – May 2022
Since I was ordering parts I also ordered new intake manifold gaskets just to be safe. I installed the new parts and that solved my issue. I then received the panniers and mounting brackets and the new shocks a few days later. I needed to install the shocks before the panniers, however I couldn’t do that until I changed out the swing arm bearings (well I could but I’d have to take them off again) So first I went to remove the swing arm, however the locking mechanism that keeps the swing arm shaft from spinning when removing the bolts was broken. I had to drill a hole through the engine mount and the shaft to pin it so it wouldn’t spin, however the bolt was frozen and the pin either bent or broke. I tried heat but when I did I managed to melt my drive belt (top tip, when you are using heat below your drive belt it will melt, and the molten rubber is really really hot and will give you a nasty burn if you touch it to figure out what it is) So I had to cut up the rubber engine mount to get the heat directly on the swing arm shaft.

Eventually it worked and I got it apart. But now I was waiting for a new drive belt, swing arm shaft, and bolts. A week later they finally came in and with several weeks of banging away I finally had the bike back on the road around May 20th.

New swing arm shaft installed

New shocks and caliper

Mounts for new panniers

New panniers

Finished with HH number applied and hydration mount

Fully loaded

However I now had to help setup parking for an airshow on Memorial Day weekend and then run parking at the show June 3,4, and 5 so a test ride would have to wait until June 10, 11, and 12. I had to leave for Rapid City June 17th so I was really up against a hard deadline. Fortunately the test ride went well and everything worked.

Of course while all of this was going on I only did two or three practice rides and those were on my 2007 Sportster. It’s setup similarly but it’s not the same bike. There was no time to go to the gym to lose the 20 pounds I hoped to lose. There was also no time to try out my new camping gear. I managed to set up my tent in the back yard once during the daylight so the first time wasn’t when I was tired in the dark. I got to try out my cot when my wife brought Covid home from Vegas so I was comfortable with that. Lesson learned, not everything stays in Vegas!

For the logistics I decided that I’d stage out of Iowa. It was half way to Rapid City and I had a friend there who agreed to let me do a wheel swap in his garage and store my extra stuff during the ride. To maximize riding time and minimize vacation time taken I opted to ride out over the weekend of June 17, 18, and 19, work from a hotel June 20, 21, and 22, and then head to Rapid City on the 23rd giving me the 24th and 25th for registration and starting the Hoka Hey on the 26th. My plan was to finish on Saturday July 9th(2 weeks for the ride), head back to Iowa on the 10th, and get home on the 12th so I could go back to work on the 13th. This also gave me the option of working from a hotel for a few days should I run late and not finish on the 9th as planned.

The test ride went without issue, and the following Friday I was on my way. My route included a number of Tour of Honor stops. The ride went as planned and I got into my friend’s house in Mt Pleasant IA around lunchtime on Sunday June 19th. I spent an hour or two swapping out my rear wheel and then we just hung out for a while. Since dinner options were limited especially on father’s day he cooked a few steaks on the grill. After dinner I headed back to my hotel in Burlington IA which was about 30 minutes away.

June 20 – June 22
I spent the next few days working and after work on Wednesday June 22nd I headed back to my friend’s house to drop off my work laptop and some other odds and ends I would not need during the ride. I made it as far as Des Moines IA that night and stopped to gas up before checking into a hotel around midnight.

June 23
I was up and out Thursday morning around 6am and packed the bike. I started it as I was putting my helmet on and it stalled. Huh? It ran just fine the night before! I started it up and it ran as long as I kept the RPMs up. My morning coffee kicked in and a lightbulb in my mind slowly fizzled to life and I thought “gee, the last thing I did was get gas last night, I wonder if I got bad gas?” Of course at 6am nothing was open so I decided to hit the road. The bike ran but wasn’t happy, and as long as I kept the RPMs up it ran ok but I hit reserve around 100 miles so I was really burning fuel quickly. I stopped for gas and added some seafoam to the tank. Back on the highway and after 75 or so miles I stopped for gas and my mileage was what it should be plus the bike was running and idling just fine. What a relief!

I continued on my way and made my stops as planned. I was enjoying the relaxed pace but I realized I was falling behind schedule a bit. All was fine until I was about 10-20 miles from I-90 and I way my low voltage light came one. Really??? I stopped at a gas station to do some troubleshooting and realized my battery cable was loose. Tightened that up and all was well. Another side effect of not having adequate time to prep and test ride the bike. With that fixed I hopped on I-90 and made a beeline west towards Rapid City. I stopped for gas in Freeman SD and spotted a Plymouth Superbird. First one I have ever seen in the wild.

Superbird

The rest of the ride went as planned and I got into the hotel around 6pm. I checked into the hotel, found my friends, and hung out for the rest of the evening.

June 24
Friday was registration and inspection day at the Harley Dealer. I headed over around 8:30 am not knowing what to expect.

Rapid City HD

Once the dealership opened I went in, registered which included signing a few forms, answering a few questions, and in about 10 minutes I was done. Outside I lined up for the bike inspection which was nothing more than them confirming my tires had tread, my lights worked, and my horn worked. Then I was done. I hung out for a while and then went for lunch with a few friends and other riders. Afterwards I headed into Sturgis to pick up another Tour of Honor memorial and a National Cemetery. After that I headed back to the hotel and hung out in the bar for a few hours.

June 25
Saturday we had a service at the National Cemetery near Sturgis for the Hoka Hey’s founder Jim Redcloud. It was a native American memorial and a few songs were sung which I found to be very soothing for a lack of a better description. Afterwards I headed into Sturgis for breakfast and joined a few riders at a small restaurant. It was great to meet other riders who were riding this year and who rode in prior year rides. One the way out of Sturgis I stopped by the Harley Dealer about a shirt

From there I decided to head down to Mt Rushmore and Crazy Horse. Mt Rushmore was a bonus in the 2015 Iron Butt Rally and my last time at Crazy Horse was in 2009 when I rode out to Sturgis with a friend of mine.

Mt Rushmore

Crazy Horse

After that I ran down further south for a Tour of Honor memorial then headed back to the hotel for a mandatory riders meeting. The riders meeting covered a few details we needed for the ride and afterwards we headed into the restaurant for dinner and hung out in the bar for a bit. I headed to bed around 10pm since I had to get up around 5am to head over to the start at the Harley Dealer.

Leg 1 to follow …

Crusty · #2 17th September 2022

Fascinating! More, Please!

ChinCactus · #3 17th September 2022

Great read. Can't wait for part 2!

Thanks

sportsterpaul · #4 17th September 2022

Sweet Chris, worth the wait. What shocks did you run and how do you like them"

ParrotHead · #5 25th October 2022

Sorry for the delay in posting, life got in the way ...

June 26 – Day one of the 2022 Hoka Hey
Rapid City SD – Greenbush ND

I was up around 4:30am and since I had packed the night before was out the door around 5am. I got to the starting location which was the Harley Dealer in Rapid City SD a few minutes later. I attached my clipboard to my bike and then the waiting began

They started making announcements for the lower numbers to go to the start of the line. It seems we were starting in roughly numerical order with the lower numbers towards the front and higher numbers (me!) in the back. I was happy with that! I wandered about taking pictures of the bikes

Eventually the bikes got into some semblance of a line

One of the past riders came down the line blessing the bikes and riders, I figured I could use all the help I could get

The plan for the start was for us to be led out for a while where there would be no passing. Once the leaders broke off we were on our own and would need to start following our directions. Around 6:15am we were handed our copies of our directions and a few minutes later the bikes started rolling out. There were approximately 180 bikes and it took quite 10 minutes or so before I was on my way since I was one of the very last bikes to leave.

We pulled out and got on I-90 and headed west. We got off at the Sturgis exit and made our way through town and then turned north on SD-168. Eventually I passed a group of riders and I realized later they were probably the group of riders that led us out. Eventually we turned onto US-85N

SD-168 & US-85 north of Belle Fourche SD – typical roads for most of the day

US-85N north of Buffalo SD

I still didn’t have a grasp on what my range was and realized I was in the middle of nowhere so I started looking for gas around 135 miles. I saw a gas station a few miles later and filled up. I was getting close to 45-50 mpg due to the lower speeds I was running at on the State and US Highways. There was one or two other riders that stopped where I did, the rest kept going.

Around 20 miles later I saw a group of at least 20 bikes at one gas station and at that moment I was glad I had stopped when I did. The rest of the day was essentially the same, riding great roads in the middle of nowhere occasionally coming across other riders on the side of the road who waived me on, passing riders in gas stations, stopping for gas and watching other riders pass me. I crossed into North Dakota and continued to head north.

As I headed north and the sun started going down the temps started dropping and I got a chill. I came to a turn and there was another rider there who was putting on his heated jacket liner. I decided to do the same. I took a few moments to take a deep breath and reflect on what I had gotten myself into. I was having a blast! I was challenging myself on one of the toughest rides that can be ridden AND I was riding back country roads with great scenery which is what I enjoy about riding. Back on the bike I continued north through North Dakota.

I stopped for gas at a rather rural looking gas station. What is a rural gas station? One with a gravel parking lot, a building that looks to be from the 40’s or 50’s and may have seen paint in the last 5-10 years, no canopy covering the pumps, and lights that looked as old as everything else. Over by the building it looked like 10-15 bikes were parked with bodies everywhere. Up to that point my biggest concern was where would I sleep. Friends who had ridden in prior challenges had suggested churches. But at that point I realized that I could pretty much stop where I wanted. I wasn’t planning on stopping at 9pm and throwing my cot down in the middle of a shopping center, but anyplace with limited traffic and especially later at night would be fine. At the same stop I had a chat with a rider who had been behind me for the past hour or two and we headed out loosely together.

My normal plan when riding like this is to stop before midnight. That allows me to stop for 4 or 5 hours at the most and then continue on. Every few days I’d need an extra hour or two. Doing this I can pretty much keep going for 11 or more days as I have done so several times during the Iron Butt Rally. I also knew that if I ran myself to exhaustion that I’d be worthless the following day. This is engrained in every ride I do where I am on the road and pushing myself. Except, I almost forgot this with all the adrenalin from riding in the Hoka Hey.

Around 1am I stopped for gas in Greenbush ND and realized what time it was. I decided I was done for the day even though I felt fine. I told the other rider that I had been loosely riding with and he said ok and headed out. I decided I’d simply set my cot on the ground next to the building and get 4 or so hours of sleep. And that was the plan.

Cot set up for sleeping at a gas station in Greenbush ND

I laid down and instantly fell asleep

With that my 1st day riding in the 2022 Hoka Hey was done. I had ridden 985 miles.

June 27 – Day two of the 2022 Hoka Hey
Greenbush ND – Ruthton MN

My sleep did not go as planned. Around an hour after I laid down I was wide awake shivering. I put my gloves on and tried to go back to sleep. I may have gotten another half hour of sleep before I simply was too cold to sleep. I had discovered my first planning error. I had all the riding gear I needed to ride down to about 30 degrees. However, I did not have gear for sleeping in temps below 60 degrees. All my traveling out west and in the northern states during the month of June had been during the Iron Butt Rally and I had spent the nights in hotels. I had not gone camping this time of year. The only way I could get warm was by getting back on the bike and riding.

I packed up and was back on the road around 3am. I came across small towns but all of the gas stations were closed so I had no option for getting food, coffee, or brushing my teeth. Eventually around 4am I came across a gas station that was open so I went in, brushed my teeth, and found something to eat. I also got a cup of coffee and some soda with caffeine in it and stood by my bike having breakfast. A police SUV pulled up and the officer (Sherriff?) went inside. A few minutes later he came out and we chatted for a while. He asked if I was one of the Hoka Hey riders and I said I was, and then I asked what was probably one of the dumbest questions I could have asked. I asked him how he knew what we were doing. His response: They had seen all of the bikes and simply Googled Hoka Hey. Duh!!! I laughed and he commented there were bodies all over the county. He commented that there were even 4 riders sleeping in parking lots in Greenbush when there was a campground right in town. I commented that I was the one at the gas station and he laughed saying the entrance to the campground was next to the gas station. Oh well, opportunity lost… We wished each other well and went our separate ways.

I continued to ride east into Minnesota and as the sun started coming up so I stopped for a quick photo of the sunrise near Birchdale MN. I had no idea at the time that Canada was on the other side of the treeline

Sunrise – Birchdale MN

I was noticing riders stopped in all kinds of locations, some next to water towers, others in rest stops. Around 6 am I started feeling the effects of limited sleep so I pulled into a rest stop as three other riders were getting up and heading out. I used the outhouse that was there and laid down and closed my eyes for 15 minutes and then headed out feeling refreshed.

The rest of the day went well and my short sleep had resulted in me leap frogging ahead of quite a few riders. I had to stop and take quite a few catnaps during the day but overall made pretty good time. Again I had great roads and equally great scenery.

US-59 near Morris MN

I did have a brief shower in Minnesota but otherwise it was a pretty uneventful day and was treated to a nice sunset near Holloway MN

US-59 near Holloway MN

I continued on and just after it got dark I had a brief rains shower. I rode on through the darkness and as it was getting late I realized that I was in the middle of nowhere with nothing resembling a parking lot in sight to stop in. I came across a sign for a park of some sort and thought that would be a good choice so I turned onto a side road and continued on for about 10 minutes with no sign of a park so I turned around. I came across a picnic area with a great big sign that said no overnight camping. I considered stopping there but it was right next to the road and there was little blocking me from being seen by passing cars so I decided to pass. A short while down the road I came across a sign for Twin Lakes County Park (Ruthton MN) so I turned down a side road and after 5 minutes rode into the park and off to my right I saw two campers. Cool, a campground! I pulled in, spied a cinderblock building, and realized I had a shower. I set up my tent, walked over for a nice warm shower, and crawled into my tent for a good night’s sleep

Day 2 total miles ridden approximately 1,000. 500 miles to go to checkpoint one

June 28 – Day 3 of the 2022 Hoka Hey
Ruthton MN – Olathe KS

I was up and packed around 5:30 am. It took a little longer to pack than I would have liked but with the sun up I had a chance to check out the location where I had spent the night

I was on the road around 6am and had a relatively short 500 miles to the checkpoint. I was undecided on whether I would stop there for the night or continue on. I decided to play it by ear based on how things went. I had one maintenance item to fix, my exhaust crossover pipe served as the support for both of my mufflers. I had replaced it with a used one from ebay in the spring since the weld had cracked and it was leaking. The mufflers are attached to the pipe with two bolts through two tabs welded to the pipe. One of the tabs had snapped and the other bolt broke off inside the muffler. Consequently the muffler was loose and the clamp was loosening up resulting in the muffler bouncing around and a sizeable exhaust leak. Hopefully that would be an easy fix at the checkpoint which was a Harley dealership (All the checkpoints are dealerships)

The day went smoothly although I did have a few routing errors resulting in a few extra miles ridden. I pulled into Rawhide Harley Davidson in Olathe KS at 7:45pm only to have to wait 15 minutes for a train to pass through town

Once the train passed, I was at the checkpoint around 8pm.

The dealership had grilled hamburgers and hotdogs for us and they were a treat after eating gas station food for the past few days. I swallowed them, changed into shorts, and then went to work on the bike. I pulled the muffler off and went inside to see about getting a new exhaust clamp. I asked about the crossover pipe and was told they had none which was to be expected. MY next option was securing my muffler with some steel strapping which I had with me. I asked the service manager for some nuts and bolts and managed to secure the muffler to the crossover pipe just as it was getting dark. I went inside and degreased my hands and arms and decided that if I pulled out now at close to 10pm I’d need to find a place to sleep in about two hours and I may not be out of the Kansas City area by then and it could be difficult finding a quiet place to sleep. My best option was to sleep where I was, so I pulled my bike around back and opted to simply sleep on my cot and not put up the tent since it was relatively warm. There were around 20 other riders who also decided to spend the night there.

Day 3 total miles ridden were 620

Leg 1 total miles ridden were 2,605