West Coast Thunder XI – Behind the Scenes
Posted on 14. Jun, 2010 by Coach in Open Road
West Coast Thunder is the Memorial Day ride that parades from Skip Fordyce Harley-Davidson in Riverside, California to the Riverside National Cemetery to pay tribute to the men and women who have fought for this country, and to those soldiers and their families that have paid the ultimate sacrifice. This ride has gained a lot of attention, as this eleventh year event was host to nearly 10,000 bikes in an effort to raise money for the Riverside National Cemetery Support Committee.
Putting on West Coast Thunder is no small task. And this year the conversation about the West Coast Thunder event has gotten a little louder than normal. There have been a lot of concerns over the perceptions of the direction that West Coast Thunder may be taking. I believe it is important that we get the best information on what is taking place with the West Coast Thunder event, and I think the best insight in what took place comes from my recent interview with Jay Dabney, owner of Skip Fordyce Harley-Davidson in Riverside, CA.
Jay Dabney:
“This year there was not a change in the vision or the goals of the event. The idea has always been to pay tribute to the men and women who fought and died for our country, and give the riders on the west coast someplace to go that is somewhat parallel to the Run for the Wall since the Run for the Wall takes a couple of weeks. As we have gone forward we have raised money for the Riverside National Cemetery Support Committee which then uses that money to build monuments, memorials, and for the infrastructure of Riverside National Cemetery.
“That has always been the heart, or Fire of the event, and this year has been no different. But there were a couple of changes this year that led to us changing some things around. One was that the two men that have been the original organizers, and the guiding light and leading forces in making it happen every year, Pat Delahunty and Don Odell, were not able to participate as strongly this year. This has always been a volunteer lead event, Skip Fordyce Harley-Davidson provides logistics and financial aid and some manpower, and partners with the Inland Empire HOG Chapter. The HOG Chapter more or less started this event. This has lead to the event as it is today, providing the ability for the people in our community to pay their respects on Memorial Day.
“Because the original two organizers were unable to put in as much time and effort as in years past, they asked us if we would be able to talk to some promoters and take some of the burden off of them. After interviewing a number of promoters, we settled on KFROG’s promotion division to help us get organized and see if we could grow the event to something beyond what we had been doing to enable us to raise more money for the Riverside National Cemetery Support Committee.
“We were the primary donor for the POW/MIA National Memorial Monument. We are pretty proud of all those things we have accomplished at the Riverside National Cemetery, and I don’t think we would ever vary from that core idea.
“The current recession has made things more difficult. When you look out over the other large rides in California; the Love Ride has been canceled last year and again this year, the Sierra Hope Ride has been canceled, and the burden of putting on a big event like West Coast Thunder of Love Ride can put quite a bit of financial pressure on a dealership like Skip Fordyce, because you are basically putting up the financial means to make sure that everything happens. We have to secure the police department, the different cities and municipality fees, and such. Plus there is the manpower that we donate for marketing and logistics.
“Soboba’s role really came because they provided us with the means to have a concert without having to pay for all the equipment and the venue, lighting and the sound, with the idea that any monies that cleared the direct expenses would then go to the Riverside National Cemetery Support Committee. So we had to be a little more careful this year than in years past to minimize the burden put on Skip Fordyce’s balance sheet. It has proven to be a difficult year trying to achieve what we want to achieve, staying on track with the event, while staying on track with our business. A lot of dealers have not survived the recession to date.
“And finally, if you have been to the ride in recent years, you see how many people are out there. For years and years not everybody registers for the event. I would estimate that only 30%-40% of the people actually register for the event. The rest of them just get in line and just ride up for the parade, or just hop on somewhere along the route. We wanted to find a way to get more of the people a reason to register. We have taken the approach that if we give them enough value to register, that more of them will. This will allow us to provide more to the Riverside National Cemetery Support Committee.
“My major pride in this event, besides trying to provide a means for people to show their support for the military and honor the fallen soldiers, is to provide the funding for a permanent way for manifesting the motorcycle community’s support for the cemetery and the men and women who fought and died for our country. The memorials and monuments, if you have been out to the cemetery to see the POW/MIA Monument which is just amazing, brings me a great deal of pride because we have provided the major funding for this memorial. This is something that people can enjoy every time they go to the cemetery. I really enjoy taking people up there and show them what West Coast Thunder has done in terms of the funding for these kinds of things. It is not just ephemeral, but is always going to be there. We have several things here at the dealership that we keep up year round to show our support for the military and for the fallen soldiers and their families. This is something that we do to reach out to the community of riders and show them that we support the men and women that fought and died.
“In terms of what happened this year with regards to the route taken, we have always gone to the Riverside National Cemetery. Just as you wrote earlier, the veterans have fought and died to give people the right to make their own decisions. We gave the riders the option to go to the Riverside National Cemetery or go straight to the event at the Soboba Casino. It wasn’t really different this year, but we were concerned about the logistics at the cemetery, and whether the amount of people that would go through would be a problem for the cemetery.
“We added the casino and the entertainment to provide more value to the package so that more people would sign up, instead of just ghost riding. It has always been about the ceremony at the Riverside National Cemetery. The only thing that has changed is where we end up at in the end. We discussed in our planning meetings the best ways to balance all the needs of the participants in this event, the cemetery and their staff, the HOG chapter, the volunteers, and dealer and our employees. We tried to find the best balance for all these groups, but most of all for the riders who are coming out to pay tribute. If we made some mistakes in our early planning, I will take blame for that. But it was never to do anything other than to provide the best possible event for the riders who come out to pay tribute to our men and women who have sacrificed for our country.
“Over the years, for me the most satisfying and moving thing that we do every year is this event. Watching the Color Guard and the Honor Guard do the things that they do, and the Ultimate Sacrifice ceremony that these groups put together every year after practicing hours and hours to make sure that everything is done perfectly is moving. And seeing people gather here in the morning, and seeing people gather around the Ultimate Sacrifice Ceremony and watching bikers bawling and women and children in tears and inviting Medal of Honor winners and Purple Heart recipients, and see them moved by that event has really been the most fulfilling thing I have done in this business in all these years. Everything else is really secondary.
“This has been a very rewarding business. I love building my business, watching people take possession of their bike, and being a part of the motorcycle community. But the thing that most fulfills me and moves me is doing West Coast Thunder, and seeing what we have done and listening to the feedback we get from everybody that have done this event every year. Every year that I do it I get chills.
“The event has grown every year. This year the number of riders that lined up on Indiana was incredible. Some 10,000 bikes lined up this year. The event has become an incredible event, and I believe that it is part of this dealer’s destiny to be a part of this.”
Thank you Jay for all you have done in honoring the soldiers and their families. I am sure that I am joined by the other veterans out there in extending our appreciation for all you have done to help provide a great event that allows us the opportunity to come together and pay tribute to our fallen brothers and sisters, and their families.
I look especially forward to West Coast Thunder XII next year, and I want to encourage everyone out there to consider registering next year for this great event. Let’s really make an impact at the Riverside National Cemetery.
