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What do YOU want the SCMHA to be?

3K views 42 replies 9 participants last post by  infoage1 
#1 ·
Maybe it's the right time to ask this question, maybe not. Tough s#!t, I asked it.

For a little history, I bought my bike on February 21 of this year.

In the first 5 1/2 months, I managed to get in on 2 group rides. Between here and the E-Mail list. Had to kinda be a pushy mutha to get in on one of those. Needless to say, I was pretty bummed out. Seemed like I was going to be riding solo nearly all of the time. The prospect of being found first by coyotes at the bottom of a canyon was not an attractive one.

In the 2 months since then, I've been on 6 group rides. That's more along the lines of what I expected.

ANYWAY....there's about 8 of us that have been involved on the last few rides. There's maybe 20 more folks that have posted to this SCMHA forum in the last couple of months. A couple more are scouting for bikes or soon to move into the area. I feel like we've reached critical mass, where group rides every two weeks are completely feasible. Not everybody can do every ride, but that is as it should be.

Do we want to keep it real loose, like it is now?

I don't want to get into the mandatory meetings, bylaws, gotta be referred by an existing member to be considered as a new member, payin' $ dues, gotta run the club sticker, do club duties or hit the road, etc. I took that kind of punishment for a racing situation. IMHO, it blows big time.

Is there a middle ground of just enough structure and organization to keep group rides happening, maybe get together for stuff other than rides, races, track days, ? ? ?

Any thoughts?
 
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#2 ·
Hey speeddog, I would like to ride with groups more often, but I work every Saturday, and very few people seem interested in a Sunday ride. If I remember correctly you're form Norco? I'm just up the road here in Corona. I'd enjoy a few hang outs, just pick the place! By the way, Brea Ducati/Triumph hosts a bike night at Knowlwood Buger of Imperial Highway on Thursdays if you're interested
 
#3 ·
Nick,
I think everyone should have to get a "monster" tatoo in order to be a member. 108 might have a problem since he is already inked up. I guess he could put is on the back of his head since he shaves it.

Seriously, I'm not sure of what the advantages would be to becoming more structured. Are there any other clubs on this board that are more structured? Does anyone have bylaws, pay dues, etc? I'm in a more structured Ducati club where we pay dues, have t-shirts, have occassional club sponsored track days, get discounts at certain stores, etc., but it's pretty much the same as this group when it comes down to it. Members come and go. People announce rides on our list. Some come, some don't. I kinda like your idea of a middle ground. What do you think the advantages of becoming more structured would be, and what are some options along those lines?
Kev
 
#4 ·
Hey speeddog, I would like to ride with groups more often, but I work every Saturday, and very few people seem interested in a Sunday ride. If I remember correctly you're form Norco? I'm just up the road here in Corona. I'd enjoy a few hang outs, just pick the place! By the way, Brea Ducati/Triumph hosts a bike night at Knowlwood Buger of Imperial Highway on Thursdays if you're interested
Desmoboy,
You bring up a good point. The last ride we did from this board was a Sunday ride, and it just ended up being Supafly & me. I don't think that was totally indicative of interest level, as there were several others that wanted to go but had other committments. I'm not tied to either saturday or sunday myself, so I'm open.

If you like, post your location on the "Greater LA Riders.." thread at the top of the SCMHA forum, we can get you on the map. It's not a requirement, of course.

Let's get together. Post a thread on where & when the bike nite is, let's see if we can pull some of the others in. Is that perhaps the Knowlwood Burger on Imperial Hwy, corner of La Palma?
 
#5 ·
Nick,
I think everyone should have to get a "monster" tatoo in order to be a member. 108 might have a problem since he is already inked up. I guess he could put is on the back of his head since he shaves it.

Seriously, I'm not sure of what the advantages would be to becoming more structured. Are there any other clubs on this board that are more structured? Does anyone have bylaws, pay dues, etc? I'm in a more structured Ducati club where we pay dues, have t-shirts, have occassional club sponsored track days, get discounts at certain stores, etc., but it's pretty much the same as this group when it comes down to it. Members come and go. People announce rides on our list. Some come, some don't. I kinda like your idea of a middle ground. What do you think the advantages of becoming more structured would be, and what are some options along those lines?
Kev
Hmmmm...a tattoo may be a bit much for some folks, but it would prove a certain level of committment. ;D

I don't know specifically what the advantages of greater organization might be. Sounds like the club you're in doesn't yield a whole lot more. The store discounts are nice, but I don't think we're anywhere near big enough here to get that kind of love from shops.

Pretty much the reason I threw it out there.....

Last I checked, the RMMHA and SFBMHA have their own websites and club swag. I haven't done much research.
 
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#6 ·
I ride every weekend. Whatever happens, i set aside 3-4 hrs (either sat or sunday or both).

I usually goto either ACH or Latigo Cyn only, they are the closest and don't take too much time.

Because of the time of the year, I am not able to come to group rides because its more than 3-4hrs that i cannot afford (and sometimes something or the other comes up).

I am sure others do the same. Afterall if you had a monster sitting in your garage, you cannot ignore it for too long.

A good thing to do would be to simply post every ride everyone plans to do. Assign a popular rendezvous and if anyone else is interested, they can simply show up at a given time and meet. Pre-planning over the week is good. But for someone like me, I really don't know what the weekend holds for me. I hate to commit and not keep it. So I don't post a confirmation these days.

One disadvantage of having a "middle ground" club or anything more structured than what we have now, is that someone has to sit on it and put everything together everytime. This is going to be hard. Who will do that?
One may insist on having stickers or shirts( or as Kev insits a tattoo) and other events organized, but one single person has to take the initiative all the time to do it, and keept it organized. Thats going to be the hard part.


-Spaceman
 
#8 ·
I've been thinking along the lines of a logo on T-shirts.
Maybe an embroidered patch.
I haven't priced any of this, so it's all talk right now.

I know and Industrial Designer that does great stuff, maybe I can wangle a logo in exchange for a (small) "Logo by _____" advert on it.
 
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#10 ·
Creative types.....hmmm.....I don't want to call you out Eric, but.......you do kinda draw for a livin' [smiley=waytogo.gif]

As far as the club goes, I think keeping it loose is better than some regimented club structure. What would the benefits of a Prez, ect. Nothing as far as I'm concerned. That kinda stuff reminds me of Animal House and the paddeling scene in the frat.

We live in the best riding area in the world, organizing rides is a non issue, we ALWAYS have three or four world class ride to choose from every weekend, just pick one and meet up for it and the hanging out that goes along with it.

I'm down for rides on Sat., Sun., Late Mon. anytime, just say the word and I'll be there.
 
#11 ·
Scott - I like your idea about having a different volunteer each month. Hopefully the whole gang can make the ride, but, realistically, it'll be some subset. Especially since from Northern L.A. down to Southern San Diego is quite a spread. Maybe the folks from "The OC" (what's up with the tv show, btw?) have it best in terms of location!

T-shirts would be great. I'm not at all an artist, but given the artwork there's a pretty great place here in San Diego that has done shirts for me in the past at a decent price.

I don't think Nick's point was to get weighed down by rules (I can hardly see us getting together and following Robert's Rules during a club meeting), but rather to leverage the interest and excitement of owning and talking about Monsters IN REAL LIFE intead of just on the internet. I know this is easy and convenient for dropping in without a lot of commitment (although Nick's 1189+ messages is something of a commitment!), but I have found I much prefer riding and talking face to face.

One last suggestion. Originally, the core group was OC/San Diego-based, although the L.A. contingent has, thankfully, come out in full force in recent months. If it was up to me, it'd be great to include the entire SoCal region on the map. I know the map is pretty big already, but we've got probably close to a dozen folks in San Diego who have participated on rides in the past, and I have at least a couple of buddies who recently succumbed to the lure of the beast and bought Monsters.

Or we can split the group into two, but I'm not really sure that makes sense - the more the merrier!

Mark
 
#12 ·
I don't think there's any benefit to splitting the group now, and there probably never will be. The ONLY thing I would like to see split is the map, and that's ONLY for legibility issues. Jiro and I are trying to tune the map up a little in that area. Actually, I want to ADD an SD map..........

Having a split map does_imply_a seperation of the groups, but we can deal with that.

Whatever rides get proposed, people can pick which one they want to attend. There is no downside if there's an SD area ride and an LA area ride scheduled for the same day. I look forward to the day when I've got to make that choice.

My interest in greater organization is limited to what is necessary to establish a club "identity". My hope is that a slightly more organized appearance will attract more folks to come and ride. If we regularly have rides going off that are half a dozen or more riders, the format of how the rides are organized is consistent, and the rides are at least fundamentally thought out, it should attract more participation. If there's no downsides like dues or having to kiss@$$, being in the SCMHA is going to be an easy sell.

Right now, I've got to run off to work. I'll post more on this topic a little later today, hopefully some of the concepts that came to me while I was writing the above paragraph will come back to me.
 
#13 ·
For me personally..I like the idea that if there is a ride planned, post it and hopefully we can all show up, but if not no big deal. I hate saying I'm going to show for a ride and then not show.

I prefer to do Saturday rides because I paid a lot for my NFL Sunday ticket so I can watch my Dallas Cowboys :-D

My plan was to 100% commit to one ride a month, and try and make 2. Man that doesn't sound like a lot but it is.
 
#14 ·
T-SHIRTS!

We need something..I can work on some stuff but I'm now swamped at work till the end of the month. SO don't WAIT on me, but know that I'm thinking about it and will do something at some point over the next few weeks.

throw out some ideas on waht you would like..?...
 
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#17 ·
*Ouch*... 108, you gonna take that?

I think t-shirts would be cool, especially if they maintained the general Ducati "look" (e.g. font, style and logo) but at the same time incorporated a little Cali flava (like subtle images/photos from around the city). I'd be down to using my limited design education to help out on this part...

Also, a website would be cool, right? It initially could hold an album of pics from rides, member profiles, calendar for rides, contests, etc... like a mini-DML for just us peeps in So Cal. Of course, we would need to find the requisite expertise for such an undertaking...
 
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#19 ·
I have an idea for a T shirt.

It should hold a 16:9 image of a Monster (halftoned badly enough that it looks cool). right around the chest area.


then we should have the a convex curved script "SOCAL" going over the top side of the image and concave curved "Monsters" over the bottom side

I am not sure of the colour, White is good, I am willing to go for Light Sky Blue. with White coloured fonts.

-Spaceman
 
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#24 ·
SoCal Monsters is a better title to spit out when you tell people about the club. My co-workers looked at me like my @ss was on fire when I told them my riding group was called the Southern Cal...Blah Blah Blah. Sound cool in theory but in real life...kinda goofy since we are about the nicest bunch of help-the-old-bag cross the street boyscouts in the whole wide world. Maybe we can live up to it if we all wheelie up the ACH, get in a bar fight at Newcombs, and ride away with captives to sell into white slavery, but as it stands now its not the most fitting moniker( <--that spelled right??)
 
#25 ·
Supafly, you got moniker right..

Southern California Monster Hooligan Association is 16 syllables, I think most people get confused or lose interest before you can get that whole tongue twister out. Whereas, SoCal Monsters is 4 syllables. Any one of us could say it even if we were falling down drunk.

Furthermore, since none of us are XXXXL size, "Southern California Monster Hooligan Association" would take up the whole damn T-Shirt, leaving no room for a logo. Gotta have the logo....

Speaking of the logo...I was thinking of a kinda cartoony duck, but aggressive like this icon of hotrodding:



riding a similar cartoony Monster, leaned over in a corner, maybe sort of a 3/4 front view, where you can see the shape of the monster tank, and the trellis frame, and the duck hanging off dragging his knee, with his webbed foot on the peg....
 
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