Meet The New Rider # 1093 Paul Denton

 

 

My name is Paul Denton.  I’m 54 years old and retired from both the United States Army and the United States Marshals Service.  I’ve been riding motorcycles since 2010 and have had four bikes since then.  I currently ride a 2012 Victory Cross Country Tour (my ride for the 2022 Hoka Hey Motorcycle Challenge) and a 2013 Victory Cross Country.  I also ride a 2018 Polaris Slingshot.  I have a 14-year-old daughter.  I love listening to audio books and podcasts.  I’m a big movie fan and spend way too much time watching TV and movies.  

 

 

 

In 2019, three friends of mine discussed riding in the 2020 Hoka Hey.  They invited me, but I couldn’t take the time off from work to do so.  They rode the 2020 Hoka Hey and had some amazing stories to tell.  After hearing their tales, I knew that I had to participate in this amazing challenge.  I want to ride the HHMC in order to challenge myself both physically and mentally in a way I’ve never done before.  I’ve camped and ridden on long trips, but never combined the two to such an extent.  I also want to include the reliance on maps and directions in a way I’ve not done in many years.  I have grown soft on the use of GPS and would like to feel what it’s like to navigate with a map and “dead reckon” once again.

 

I expect to see things and places I’ve never seen before.  I expect to ride in conditions, and a combination of conditions, that I’ve never experienced before.  I expect to be both physically and mentally challenged while dealing with all those new experiences.  My expectations from the challenge are to provide me a well-thought out, challenging route that puts my mind and my equipment to the test.  

 

The best advice I’ve heard is to not treat the challenge as a race and to make this an individual event.  My biggest concern with an older model bike that is now out of production is to trust it to get me to the end.  To that end, I have ensured that I have a good set of tools, the skills to do my own basic repairs, and a couple of end items that I might need if a major repair needs to take place.