Hollister
– Georges and Laurent Vie have been to Bike Week in Daytona,
Florida. They’ve attended the motorcycle rally in Sturgis, South
Dakota. But they’ve never made it to Hollister – until this
year.
Hollister – Georges and Laurent Vie have been to Bike Week in Daytona, Florida. They’ve attended the motorcycle rally in Sturgis, South Dakota. But they’ve never made it to Hollister – until this year.
The Vies, a French couple who have been motorcycle riders since 1974, are planning a classic American road trip from Texas on rented bikes. Their ultimate destination? The Hollister Motorcycle Rally, scheduled for July 6-8.
“During our previous trips, we always have very good relations with American people and we always have been welcome,” Georges Vie said. “For a European biker who likes the U.S.A. and Harley-Davidson, it is very important to share with the American people during a big rally like Hollister.”
According to organizer Seth Doulton of Horse Power Promotions, the Vies aren’t the only rally attendees from far-flung locations.
“They come from all over,” he said.
Doulton added that there has been some doubt about whether the rally can really claim to be a national event. He said previous rally organizers haven’t tracked visitors’ origins, but Horse Power plans to get more solid data at this year’s rally.
“We’ll have some info. to prove … that it’s good for the town,” Doulton said.
Until then, he has anecdotal evidence from the more than 800 V.I.P. passes that Horse Power has sold. Of those passes, more than 50 are from out-of-state visitors, and there are people signed up from the Canary Islands, England, Spain and Australia.
In March, several local hotel managers reported rally awareness was still relatively low – at Gilroy’s Hilton Garden Inn, for example, guest services manager Rebecca Sanchez said reservations were lagging compared to previous years.
On Thursday, however, Sanchez said the Garden Inn has been completely booked since early May. Once people were sure that the rally was coming back, the reservations started flooding in, she said, and the Garden Inn is still directing calls to other local hotels.
“We weren’t really sure what was going to happen … but it sounds like there’s going to be really good turnout this year,” she said.
Desk clerk Sarah Mendolla said the 33 rooms in the Posada de San Juan are also completely booked, and many of those reservations are fairly recent.
“They just accumulated over the last month and a half,” Mendolla said.
