roi harley-davidson malaysia: Malaysia Harley Owners Riding Experience (H.O.R.E.) Course #01/2013

HORE #01/2013
*photo courtesy of Sir Joe Labu

in the beginning it was known as Basic Riding Course (BRC) when it was first launched in 2009. back then when i developed the module of this course i was the Safety Officer for HOG Malaysia Chapter. the main objectives of this course was to provide a platform for the Harley owners in Malaysia to share good practices in riding Harley-Davidson bikes besides creating safe riding awareness among all. In addition, this program was introduced by HDKL as one of their value added services to the customers.

not like in US and Europe that they have Riders Edge program, there was no such structured program being conducted or organized before BRC. for the Harley owners in Malaysia most of us especially those coming since from the HD Dealer 222 PJ and HD Dealer Sunway were self thought and based from our year to year riding experience. some learn from the hard way which is falling off from the bike....

so in 2009, 4 courses were organized and conducted with some help from TJ (HOG Activities Officer '09), Kamil (HOG Secretary '09) and Nawi (ex Safety Officer '08). it's not easy to get the "buy in" from the Harley owners to participate to this program during those years. we been challenged by many bikers on our capability in conducting the course... some even question on how we could certified the riders where's we were not being certified by any certified organization i.e. JPJ, PDRM, etc. let alone on the course name it self (BASIC Riders Course) as some Harley owners were reluctant to join as they didn't see why they should come for a basic session where's they have been riding for many years.... in total, 35 Harley owners mainly new owners attended the course for the whole year of 2009. not bad isn't it..... ;-)

“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn. ” ― Alvin Toffler.

in 2010, we organized 4 sessions of the same course in that year with some changes to the name of the program. Thanks to Dato S.M. Zulkifli (CEO of Naza 2 Wheels) who always being supportive to us by giving great advise and feedback on what we have done has suggested us to reconsider the course name to pull more participation from the Harley owners. BRC course was later known as Riders Orientation Program in 2010.

course name changed but nothing much changed so far in-term of the numbers of participant registered to the program. among the Harley owners, we heard some feedback that the word ORIENTATION has hold them back from joining the program. perhaps bad experience during orientation session in college still haunted their mindset... but we stay focus and always motivated to continue organizing and conducting the course when the dates came. that year in 2010, 45 Harley owners have attended our program ..... extra 45 people from the first year ;-)

since then the course name has not being changed. we organized 4 more sessions in 2011 and 2 sessions in 2012 (low session due to bz schedule). slowly but surely, the demand for the same course came from the new Harley owners. this time we thank the HDKL and their salesperson who keep on promoting the program to their clients.

this year 2013, the course has been face-lift with some additional input of it contents, slides, excercise, material and name. it's now known as Harley Owners Riding Experience or HORE (pronounce as "HO Rey"). HORE module includes :

1. Introduction to Harley-Davidson, it's stories and legacy

2. Safety & defensive riding - road positioning & riding strategy (new)

3. Risk Awareness, Risk Accepteance and Risk Management

4. Preparing to ride and pre ride inspection

5. Basic maintenance, routine services and planning your parts & accessories (new)

6. Riding skill

7. Incident & crisis management (new)

8. 8 riding drill (new)

9. HOG Membership via hog.com (new)

10. Riding in Group

last 2nd & 3rd Feb, 24 new Harley owners have attended the HORE course. that was the biggest ever crowd we could get in a session so far. more sessions will be organized this year and this time not only it will be organized in HDKL PJ but will be in Penang too.

next courses dates will be announce soon and we do hope many more Harley owners will join. for those in other states i.e. Johor, Terengganu, Sabah, etc. if you interested to organized this course at your place, do let us know and we will be much happy to come and jointly organize with you.

in-addition to HORE, some good news that we would also wanted to share which are, this year we will be launching 2 more new courses to the fello bikers.

1. Road Captain & Road Marshal course

2. Initiating and organizing riding in group

till then, ride SAFE & continuously improve our riding skill ....

Roi