The 123's of the ABC's of Touring

Just thought I should post something in this blog. They are really modern day journals, right? So as this riding season comes to an end, I wanted to talk about the HOG ABC's of Touring. each year, HOG (Harley Owners Group) sponsors a contest that is open to all members free of charge (or included in your membership fee, whatever makes you feel better!). You have one calendar year from January 1 to december 31 to take as many photographs of your motorcycle in different locations as possible. You receive one point for every town sign from A-Z (so 26 maximum points for this)

and one point for every County A-Z (so another 26 maximum points)

You also receive one point for every State sign, regardless of alphabet.

Notice in each picture there is a magazine clipped to my motorcycle. To prove that you aren't just re-cycling pictures from previous years, you must use a HOG magazine from that calendar year in every photograph you take. Your motorcycle must also appear so they can see yo're not just using other people's pictures. Finally, you must appear in at least 6 of the photos, proving you were there and it is your bike.

Bonus pictures are available, such as up to 5 pictures of National Parks, 5 National Forests, 10 unigue Harley-Davidson dealerships, most of the Harley-Davidson manufactuing plants/offices, and countries.

What do the points get you? Well, it is tiered. Just 26 points usually gets you a patch or a pin saying you entered the contest. But gather more points and you gather more prizes. Tiers are usually increments of 10 points. In 2015 the point tiers top out at 77 points. If you collect that many, you earn all the prizes available that year. They change the prizes each year to keep you wanting to do it again. 

77 points may not seem like much, but just think about where you are right now and how many points you could get in a day of riding. How many states are you really close to? How many different counties? Do you know any cities that start with an X, a Y, or a Z? How far a drive is the nearest National Forest? What if you wanted to get all 5, how far would you have to go? You can see that accumulating points may seem easy, but in reality it is not. Part of the challenge is researching where the letters are that you need and developing an efficient route to take you to several in a day. Or plan a weekend trip to get a dozen points.

If you own a Harley, and you enjoy getting on your bike and riding all day, this may be a good contest for you. You can check out the official HOG membership benefit page here

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John Hardison is an avid Harley-Davidson rider and has been entering the ABC's of Touring contest for more than 10 years.