Tour of Valor II

Bill Davidson joined a dedicated touring rally commemorating Harley-Davidson’s military history and honoring our country’s armed forces.

Words by Jeremy Pick and images by Rick Spada of Chicken Fried Choppers

Respect and support for the US military runs deep in the Harley-Davidson community. Many H.O.G.^® members or their relatives have served in one of the branches of the armed forces, and the Motor Company itself has a history of supplying military motorcycles from its very early beginnings.

Little surprise, then, that this year’s Tour of Valor—a touring rally set up by the H.O.G. team to honor and support the US military—was a resounding success, despite the challenges imposed by the government shutdown.

“Everywhere you go, riders have respect for our military, and many of them are ex-military themselves, so putting on the second Tour of Valor this year was an easy choice,” says H.O.G. Regional Manager Chris Harrison, one of the tour leaders and himself a military veteran. “On this ride we picked out significant locations—museums, civil war battlefields, monuments—that would pull on your heartstrings as a fighter in our community and to support those who gave us their service.”

This year’s ride was accompanied by Bill Davidson and his wife, Angie, for the whole tour, as well as H.O.G. Director Tim Budzien, also a military veteran, and his wife, Mel, along with a sold-out entourage of 150 riders and their partners—around 180 people in total.

The Tour of Valor started, appropriately enough, at All-American Harley-Davidson^® in Hughesville, Maryland, and ended in Buckeye Harley-Davidson in Dayton, Ohio, six days later. Along the way, participants called in to military-linked facilities and sites including the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, the National Veterans Memorial and Museum in Columbus, and the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico.

Reaching these sites meant covering some of the most glorious scenic rides in the U.S. mainland, from the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia to the famous 62-mile Triple Nickel scenic highway in Ohio, with riders dropping into many Harley-Davidson dealerships along the way.

“The dealers were blown away by the fact that Bill Davidson was there, riding on the tour with his wife,” recalls Chris. “Bill made sure every dealer got a chance to talk to him and he thanked them for everything they do for the Motor Company. They really appreciated the fact that he came specifically to see them, and everyone thought that was an exceptional part of the tour.”

Of course, the focus of the rally was the military, and the tour had been set up with the intention of all participants being escorted around the facilities. The ongoing government shutdown put a spanner in the works with that plan, with internal tours of the facilities becoming impossible. However, that didn’t dampen the overarching enthusiasm in any way, as Chris explains.

“Everyone involved really couldn’t help us enough,” says Chris. “The National Marine Corps Museum, for example—although when we got there the site had had to be closed to visitors, the outside grounds were open and the marines were apologetic that they couldn’t show us around inside. Then one young marine said that it was his day off and so he spent the next couple of hours escorting us around the grounds and the monuments and explaining everything in fine detail. He knew we had come a long way and he didn’t want it to be a reflection on the Marine Corps. These young men and veterans in uniform, they go the extra mile for our way of life and protecting our country, so that was really a heartfelt moment for all of us. The museum director also came out to meet us, and seeing him and Bill Davidson exchange challenge coins was another great moment that summed up the whole tour.

“In fact, everyone could not have been more welcoming—we called in at the AMA Hall of Fame Museum, and hearing the tour leader explain that the museum probably wouldn’t exist without Harley-Davidson and its contribution to motorsports was another really significant moment. So, throughout the tour, everyone’s spirits were high—it was really cool all-round, everyone was over the moon with how it turned out and nobody was concerned that there were closures, everyone was in the same mindset!”

Next year’s Tour of Valor is already being organized—make an early reservation if you want to be assured of a place.

A participants view: Raymas Cahee, assistant director of Northwest Florida Chapter, Pensacola

I am a retired naval veteran of more than 25 years and I attend as many of the stateside touring rallies as possible—I’ve missed just one touring rally in the last three years. My group of four took two days to ride up from Florida to the start point in Maryland, just short of a 1,000 miles. Everyone was worried that we would have an issue with the government shutdown and all the facilities being closed, but that really didn’t affect the success of the rally at all. Yes, we didn’t get to see the inside of the museums or all that we would have liked to, but the facilities were nice enough that they showed us around outside—we just couldn’t go inside, but we still had the camaraderie, the spectacular rides, seeing old and new friends, the fall colors coming in, so it was a really successful rally.

Highlights? For me, all the military sites were impressive, as was the AMA Museum where we got to see where both Willie G. and Nancy were inducted—with Bill Davidson present that was pretty great, as was Harley-Davidson of Washington who gave us a tour of what their H.O.G. chapter had collected from all over the world, which was pretty cool. Of course, the biggest highlight for me was last two days of the rally: getting to ride across Ohio with Bill Davidson… you can’t get a bigger highlight than that!

I would encourage everyone to try at least one H.O.G. touring rally. If you have reservations, try one of the ones that’s close to home. They are really the best way to see this incredible country of ours in the company of like-minded people. The pictures that are posted don’t really do these rallies justice—you have to be able to see it with your own eyes, from the saddle of a Harley-Davidson, to really appreciate the magnificence of our country.