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The Honda
Valkyrie and the internet
hit just about the same time. I was logging on at 14.4 at the time and
there wasn't a whole lot out there to look at, and if you did find
anything it took for ever to download. It was real hard to find any
info on the Valkyrie
at all, and forget about after market parts.
Then one day I was searching the web, and I
found "The
Valkyries Lair", The Valkyries' Lair (appearing
September 1, 1996) was the first internet site dedicated to the
Honda Valkyrie.
The guy who ran the site (Craig
Buhl) had a little statement that said "
For those who Ride the Dragon". He also had this cool
little gif on his site that had a Dragon on it.
The reason for calling the Valkyrie the Dragon is the definition of a Dragon.
"*Dragon;(n.) A
legendary fire breathing beast of great size. Renowned for its
immense power and ability to fly."
This is why we call the Valkyrie the "Dragon", it just sort of caught on.
Shortly after Craig started his website, Gale aka (oZ) started F6Rider Webzine. He was one of the first ones to sell killer t-shirts for the Valkyrie. His art work was great and he worked hard building the site. It was one of the only websites that changed on a regular basis. It was a learning site for Gale. The place where he worked let him build the site so that he could start building a website for his company. He kinda blazed the trail for the rest of the Valkyrie websites to come. F6Rider is still up and running and receives over 2 million hits a month. It is still the premiere site for Valkyrie information. Of course you knew that. The next killer Valkyrie site to come along was Bob's F6 Valkyrie Page. This guy really did a bang up job on his site. He put down information from his experiences riding and working on the Valkyrie. He had lots of great information on his site, and still does! He is a great guy too. I know that he was an inspiration to oZ and I. Valkyrie Clubs At that time there was only one real club where us Valkyrie riders hung out, and that was the GWRRA. Unfortunately the GWRRA did not take to the Valkyrie right at first. We could be members but we were "Booster Members", that didn't set to well with most of us. A lot of us hung out on their message boards, but never joined the club. There was one guy who really pushed for the Valkyries to be excepted as full members in the GWRRA and his name was Rich Doell. Through Rich's work the GWRRA started the Valkyrie Special Interest Group, or the S.I.G. We still did not have full membership at that time, but we were recognized as a club. The first Valkyrie only club was started by a guy named Jon Proctor. He decided to put together a website with a message board and chat room just for Valkyries owners. He recruited folks to his site from the GWRRA message board, this was before it was a club. Then one day while in the chat room the idea of starting a Valkyrie only club came up. I was there that day and was not sure if I wanted to be apart of it or not yet. I kinda hung around to see how it was going to go before I jumped in. At that time I was not sure if there were much more than a 100 or so Valkyrie owners on the web. It wasn't long before the Valkyrie Owners Association, or the VOA was up to 100 members and the things that had concerned me at first had been resolved. I was VOA member #113 when I joined. The VOA grew like wild fire and a lot of really good things came out of that club. When the Honda Valkyrie Interstate came out, a lot of Gold Wingers started selling their Wings and buying Interstates. I think this may have gotten the GWRRA attention because soon after the GWRRA allowed Valkyrie owners to be full members in the GWRRA. The damage was done, and most of these folks just joined the VOA instead. The VOA had some problems that almost killed the club, but there was a strong following and the first National Ride-In was just a month away and after the ride-in the membership of the VOA was reinforced. The VOA maintained a web presence on F6Rider until they could get their leadership back in order and their own web server up and running. The VOA Labs were formed and got the website back in shape. They are now called the VOAI and their web site is at www.valkyrie-owners.com One of the things that grew out of the VOA was local Valkyrie clubs. Most all of them started out as VOA chapters, but then they broke off on their own. One of the biggest of these groups is the "Valhalla Six Guns" in Texas. It is a very active group that has grown to love one another. There are many more of these groups that you can see on "ValkyrieRiders Hot Links" Having a strong web presence on F6Rider already, oZ and I kicked around the idea of starting our own Valkyrie club. We learned quite a bit about the down falls of other clubs and decided that we could run a club without the political structure that seemed to be a hindrance in other clubs. We felt that we could do this free of charge if we could just sell a few shirts and patches to support the website. We both had a passion for the Valkyrie and figured that with our html skills, and the love of the Valkyrie, we could really put together a great website. The question was, if we build it, will they come? We told a few other folks what we had planned on doing and the response was great. I called the then acting vice president of the VOA (Animal) and told him what we were going to do, and he said go for it, and sign me up. He is VRCC# 0006. At that time the VOA was still on the F6Rider server. oZ and I were running the VOA website and helping out Animal with the transfer to the new server and building the VRCC at the same time. It was a pretty crazy time. A lot of changes have taken place at the VOAI and things are looking pretty good over there. They have a great webmaster working hard to get the site in shape. When we started the club we were not sure what to call it. We thought about calling it F6Riders, but we had heard a rumor that Honda was going to change the Valkyrie to a flat 8. Well that would mess up our plans for sure. We sat down and kicked around a bunch of names and we finally settled on the "Valkyrie Riders Cruiser Club". The VRCC had a nice ring to it. Next we had to come up with a logo. We decided to go with the Viking Warrior with wings and a sword going through the middle. oZ put it together and we called that our logo. Right away folks were asking why the sword? They felt that was divisive. Hey the sword was no big deal to us so we got rid of it. Then the next thing we had and got rid of was a members only board. We decided that we didn't want anyone to think that anything was going on there that couldn't be said in public. I think that was a good move too. oZ and I never felt like we were quite done with the logo. oZ would change it from time to time just to see if anything would click with us and the members. Then one day I was riding with my Bro Brad, and he had on one of oZ's 1520 shield shirts and I got to thinking that maybe we could take the logo that we had now and incorporate it into the shield. oZ started working on the art and when he showed it to me I knew that was it. It really looked cool. Once again oZ nailed it. We were able to keep with to our vision of having a free club by the new support of sponsors, Direct Line being our first sponsor. The club grew faster than we had ever imagined, and the additional support of the other sponsors really helped us to grow. We are able to give a discount on Valkyrie parts to our members and it still doesn't cost them a dime to take advantage of the purchasing power we now have as a club. At over 22000 (as of 2004) members to date, it takes a lot of resources to run a club this size. When ever we have asked for help, the VRCC members jump right in and give a hand. That is one of the best things that has come out of building this website. The friends we have made here will last a life time. How can you put a price on that? Like the commercial says "VRCC members, priceless" It took awhile but Honda has taken notice of the great fellowship that we have built here, and they seem pleased at the way we run this club. They invited us to join them in a "Valkyrie Charity Custom Cruiser Show" as co-sponsors. This was a great event that helped raise money for the "Ride for Kids" First prize in both shows is $10,000! Did oZ and I ever think this is where we would be right now when we bought our Valkyries back in 1996? Not even! Did we think we would have over 14000 members in just over 2 years? Not even! Did we think we would have so many new friends because of putting up a website like this? Not even! (As of July 2004 we've had over 22,000 join.) This has been a great ride with more Valkyrie history in the making. This is as complete of history of the Valkyrie, and those who were the forefathers of it's web presence that I can give you. I hope this will help some of the new folks that have come to love this bike to see where the roots all started. Who knows where it will end up, but you know if you are on a Honda Valkyrie, it's going to be good. Written by LaMonster & edited in 2004 by oZ ValkyrieRiders.com F6Rider ShopTalk Just Pics Valkyrie Hot Links This is the statement on Craig's web site now. Notice!! The
Valkyries Lair has officially ceased operations. I have not been able to spend any non-working time on the internet since the end of March 1999 and it has finally become obvious that commitments to family, work, clubs, and riding the Dragon do not give me enough time to properly maintain all of my personal internet projects. I have finally made the long postponed decision to stop updating The Valkyries' Lair and remove portions that are consuming a large amount of my storage space. I will leave this reduced version of The Lair up, (at least for a time) for historical purposes. The Valkyries' Lair (appearing September 1, 1996) was the first internet site dedicated to the Honda Valkyrie. As such I felt it provided an important place for people who were interested in the Valkyrie to get at least some information 'on demand' rather than having to wait for it to appear piece meal in the press. However there are now a number of sites dedicated to the Valkyrie including a Valkyrie Owners Association (which appears to have undergone some major modifications since I was last on in March). Several of these sites are providing far more information than I was able to do and I feel that internet fans of the Dragon are well provided for. While sometimes time consuming The Valkyries' Lair has been a great deal of fun. The Lair and a growing number of other internet sites have shown that the internet provides a mass communication device which gives the people who buy the products as great a voice as the people who sell them. I am proud of the fact that The Valkyries' Lair has been non-profit, non-commercial, and never attempted to generate revenue. The Lair never accepted advertising, gratuities, or donations and I congratulate all other sites that continue that tradition. The Valkyries' Lair has been a great experience for me and I hope it has been of some value to other fans of the Dragon.
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