The Chill... 2012

FHVR Booth FHVR Booth Greg Knox and Jean Muhm Ralph Goodwin's Bike "Big Bird" Devon Olson's bike - 1st Place in Victory Category Marcia Bright and Greg Knox Dan Bright try to not have his picture taken A Hot Cory Ness Bike Ralph Goodwin's "Big Bird" - 2nd Place in Victory Category Our Sponsor's Booth - BikersEdge Greg Knox's Bike - 3rd Place in Victory Category Brad Ward's Bike FHVR Booth Loading image. Please wait The Flint Hills Victory Riders display.

Greg Knox and I decided to enter the show and promote FHVR back in December...plenty of time to get ready...right???...yea, right! Plenty of time for most but Murphy's Law seems to get in the way sometimes. Greg's Kingpin is clean and ready to go in early February but I am having troubles getting my brake calipers powder coated locally and decided to send them off to Witchdoctors. All that gobbles up time...maybe one of these days I'll learn to leave well enough alone...someday.

Jean steps up and handles the table display and information packs to hand out to prospective members. All this is done with her usual professional style...she has the club lookin good! We meet at the show on Thursday night and setup the booth with bikes, a few chairs, hang the banners and get the table all set for the show opening on Friday around noon. Bruce Muhm and Brad Ward enter their Visions so we have 4 bikes entered.

Friday starts off slow and we wonder if this is going to be worth the effort. All of us manage to find time to wander around a bit and see the show; it's getting better every year. Some folks stop in and talk a while; a few leave us contact info and take a FHVR info pack...all good as they are now prospective members.

Saturday turns out to be the busiest day at the show and several more leave their email address and take an info pack. At the end of the show we have had 9 leave us their contact info and we hope some will decide to join. Lotsa traffic on Saturday, Dan and Marcia Bright come by and help man the booth for a few hours. Welcome help as it gives us a break to go look around some more. Steve and Donna come by and visit as do Glen and Rhonda...was fun to talk and joke a bit. This was a long day...12 hours ...can't say I was there for the whole thing but everyone is looking pooped out at the end of the day.

One thing for sure, to promote the club, you don't need fancy show bikes. Turns out Bruce's Vision got the most attention of all the bikes. Biker's Edge didn't have one at their display as they are selling them as soon as they get a new one in. We joked around about Bruce going to work at B.E. as has walked a couple of prospective buyers over to B.E.'s display area after answering questions for prospective Vision buyers.

Jean is at the show before the doors open and reports that the church service complete with gospel music was nice along with good burritos, biscuits and gravy for breakfast. We pick up a few more prospective members on Sunday but most came on Saturday. By the time the car awards are over with, everyone is in a hurry to get out of there but we wait for the bike awards and we take home couple of ...2nd and 3rd place in the Victory class.

All in all I think it was a worthwhile effort and it was fun. Many walked by and seeing the VMC and FHVR banners they stopped and said they never knew there was a Victory club in town...NOW THEY DO!