The Prague Harley Challenge – 2026

Saturday, May 9^th, 2026

When we got up, it was to a sunny morning, but it was definitely not a warm one.
We packed a veritable plethora of electronics into our saddlebags and, once again, we set off on the “Prague Harley Challenge”.

This is an annual event, organised by the Prague Harley Davidson dealership, which is a two-wheeled point-to-point ride in aid of charity.
In these events, the object is to visit each of a set of specified points whilst riding the shortest possible distance.
To enter costs 1,000 Czech Crowns for a private motorcycle and 10,000 Czech Crowns for a corporate entry.
I am assured that, for corporate entrants, the fee is Tax deductible 😃 ……

The total som of the collected entry fees are halved. One half goes to the nominated charity – and the other half to the winner.

The nominated charity is Nedoklubku (www.nedoklubku.cz) which aims to help premature babies.

The event is open to all motorcycles – and has been (rather embarrassingly) won on one occasion by a girl on a errrr…. moped !

In early years, the course was a big circle, which both started and ended at the Harley Davidson dealership in K Mechurce, in Prague 5.
However, Eva Pavlová, the wife of our President, General Petr Pavel, is the patron of the charity and the ride now ends in the grounds of Lany Manor, the President’s country residence.
There is an area of stables where there are some stalls and tasty food can be had for a small donation.
It is here that the “honourable” (and “dishonourable”, like who travelled the farthest, took the longest, etc.,) mentions are made, the Charity receives its donation and the prize is given out.

When affairs of State are not too pressing, the President likes to take part in the Challenge and even won one year (but, sportingly, did not scoop the cash !).

It has become customary for the winner to donate the prize to Nedoklubu.

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As usual, we all gathered at the Harley dealership.
When we arrived a large and highly polished black limousine was parked outside – it appeared we would, once again, have a celebrity entrant !

It was lovely morning and there were a lot of competitors milling about.

First, we all had to register and get our little red location transmitter.
This indicates, to the organisers, where we all go and what we all do. A route is recorded for each entrant and we usually get it sent a few days after the event so that we can all see where we went wrong. We were a little bit late arriving so we did not have to wait very long to be registered.
The blonde lady is Tereza Beldová who deserves a big vote of thanks for all the hard work she does on this event.

Then we sat outside in the sunshine waiting for the event to begin. Some entrants had a coffee ……..

There was a bit of discussion about the accuracy of what the boxes send – we were told by one guy that last year, he rode the course in a group. Despite that fact, each of their boxes sent a different figure and that the distance between the best and worst was over two kilometres. Lucie and I hoped we had a good box !!

The ladies from Nedoklubku were busily selling appropriately coloured merchandise !!

Then, Tereza appeared with her megaphone.

First, we got a few words of thanks from the Nedoklubku lady. Then we were all treated to a run-through of the rules. They are pretty self evident – long tunnels are out because the box cannot be tracked, for instance – but I do not understand most of what is said anyway……

The President stood, largely unnoticed, in the crowd with everyone else.

Then the “Road-book”, which details the points we need to visit was given out. This year, as usual, including the dealership (Point 1) and Lany (Point 12), there were to be eight interim destinations.

To keep things exciting, one point (number 9) on the “Road-book” is NOT pre-printed and a selected a victim from amongst the competitors to draw the final point from a selection.
Once the final inclusion was made, the “Road-books” were updated in biro (!) and the competitors retired to the variety of electronic devices we all now employ.

Lucie sat down and worked out a route on her iPad and I retired to our SatNav to type in all the addresses. People began to leave at intervals that were probably determined by the speed at which they could type and, eventually Lucie appeared too and we headed out. We do try and take it seriously, but some people just just go for a ride and see what happens.

Of course, after all of our preparations, we completely blew it all after only four kilometres !
We came to what is a one way street and, unsurprisingly, I obeyed the SatNav and turned right. Sadly, due to extensive roadworks, the road was (temporarily) two-way and, as I was moving, I made the turn without noticing that fact. Heavy coning meant it was over a kilometre and a half before I could turn around – making us three kilometres behind those that did notice.

In such a tight contest, we knew we were already done !

Still, we enjoy doing the evemnt, so we persevered. It became a ride, not a contest, although we obviously made it as short as we could.
This kept us pretty focussed and we forgot to take any photos at all.
So, all I can really show you is a map showing each of the “legs” …………..

After a lovely ride of about one hundred and forty-five kilometres, we arrived at Lany Manor.

The Nedoklubku ladies had really pulled out all the stops on the catering front and we stuck some cash in their box and pigged ourselves. Well, I did !

The results were calculated, the distances tallied up and the winner was identified.

We were nowhere near, but at least we did not miss any checkpoints and we got a Diploma to add to our collection !

The Prize giving went ahead and a cheque for 200,398 Czech Crowns was given to Nedoklubku by President Pavel. This represented half of the entry fees, some money from sponsors and various small amounts collected on the day.

Weirdly, the prize was scooped by the son of Jarda Vavřina, the Harley Dealer !
It was revealed that, of the top five people, the fifth had finished only 190 metres behind the first !!
His prize was 54,413 Czech Crowns. I cannot see how that is half of anything – but it does not matter because, as is traditional, he gave it to Nedoklubku anyway.

As an aside, principally because of my stupidity at the very beginning, Lucie and I were placed somewhere near the end – but not last by a long way !

Still, as I always say, there is always next year ……..