PART FOUR
WHO RIDES?
Motorcycles represent different things to different people. For some folks, they represent basic transportation. To others, they represent the exhilaration of power and speed. To the humorless, they are a social irritation.
—DARWIN HOLMSTROM
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The motorcyclist of a couple of decades ago [circa 1910] was a rather peculiar sort of fellow, who seldom thought twice before attempting to ride his little two-wheel steed over next-to-impossible obstacles, and [this] writer was no exception. In fact, in those days my greatest ambition was to see just how far my sleek machine would carry me into country never before penetrated by anything—a pack mule, a dog team, or an experienced man on foot. And, needless to say, it got me into plenty of trouble on numerous occasions.
—IVAN J. STRETTEN, FROM MOTORCYCLE THRILLS
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The sun has coated the trees and the grass and our cycles with a translucent yellow sheen, and we are all mesmerized by how we feel together; like a gigantic, roving thunderclap, leaning into the road, making the whole world tilt, eating up the macadam and concrete that snakes out in front of us.
—LEE GUTKIND
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I found myself flashing on the idea of doing this forever, riding motorbikes in our old age together.
—EWAN MCGREGOR, ON MOTORCYCLE RIDING WITH HIS WIFE
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I’ve never ridden on a motorcycle before. It’s fast. It scared me, but I forgot everything, it felt good. Is that what you do?
—MARY MURPHY AS KATHY TO MARLON BRANDO’S CHARACTER, JOHNNY, IN THE WILD ONE
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Black leather jackets were popular with American motorcyclists by the early 1950s, and hit the big time with the release of The Wild One in 1953. Marlon Brando’s character, Johnny, epitomized this classic style.
—ROLAND BROWN
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Milwaukee experienced more than a little hand-wringing in [the late 1960s], confronted by the fact that, in terms of public perception, the bad guys all rode Harleys.
—TOD RAFFERTY, FROM HARLEY-DAVIDSON: THE ULTIMATE MACHINE
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Why do motorcycle gangs wear leather?
Because chiffon wrinkles so easily.
—OLD JOKE
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The 1950s and 1960s saw the explosion of the American “motorcycle culture,” with black leather jackets becoming not only a statement of fashion, but of a preferred lifestyle.
—HARLEY-DAVIDSON PRESS RELEASE (1992)
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Bury me in my leather jacket, jeans, and motorcycle boots.
—SID VICIOUS
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Remember to rebel against authority, kids!
—HOMER SIMPSON, AS HE RIDES OFF ON A MOTORCYCLE IN EPISODE 11, SEASON 8 OF THE SIMPSONS
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Ever since World War II, California has been strangely plagued by wild men on motorcycles.
—HUNTER S. THOMPSON
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Gotta stop reading those hot-rod magazines, buddy. “Sickles” are out—it’s either a “bike” or a “motorcycle.”
—ELVIS PRESLEY IN ROUSTABOUT
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During those early years in New York, I often got on my motorcycle in the middle of the night and went for a ride—anyplace. There wasn’t much crime in the city then, and if you owned a motorcycle, you left it outside your apartment and in the morning it was still there. It was wonderful on summer nights to cruise around the city at one, two, or three a.m. wearing jeans and a t-shirt with a girl on the seat behind me. If I didn’t start out with one, I’d find one.
—MARLON BRANDO
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The first thing you have to remember about motorcycles is that Marlon Brando can’t possibly be riding every one you see.
—RAY KONKLER, MOTORCYCLE DEALER (1956)
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Billy (Dennis Hopper): Man, everybody got chicken . . . Hey, we can’t even get into a second-rate hotel, you dig? They think we’re gonna cut their throats or something.
George (Jack Nicholson): They’re not scared of you. They’re scared of what you represent to em.
Billy: Hey, man, all we represent to them, man, is somebody who needs a haircut.
George: Oh no. What you represent to them is freedom.
—FROM EASY RIDER
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Valentino Rossi . . . thinks only of winning. It is why he is so good. Even at speed his mind is sedate enough to see the yellow flag. Focus. Think. Ride.
—RICK BROADBENT, FROM RING OF FIRE
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I love beating my opponents on the last lap. It’s the most exciting way to win a race. . . . You’ve studied your main opponent’s trajectories, the way he takes every turn; you know where he’s strongest and where his weaknesses are. You know where he’s vulnerable if you attack him. . . . It’s the ultimate rush.
—VALENTINO ROSSI
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I was a tomboy, the best at riding skateboards and bikes. Now I like riding motorcycles, riding them fast, doing wheelies and slides.
—MOTORCYCLE STUNT RIDER DEBBIE EVANS
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My Dad rode motorcycles and he taught me how to ride when I was six years old. I was so little I don’t even remember learning how to ride. I’ve just always been able to do it.
—MOTORCYCLE STUNT RIDER DEBBIE EVANS
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I was just a kid walking to school when I saw this guy get hit and this motorcycle guy was there just lying in the middle of the street. I went up to him and he had blood coming from behind his head. My first thought was: I’ve got to get a motorcycle. There’s something messed-up with my brain. . . .
—RYAN GOSLING
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You’re a Storm Rider 24/7. You may get a call at 2 a.m. from a brother in need, and you better be ready to roll.
—A MEMBER OF THE STORM RIDER [ILLINOIS] MOTORCYCLE CLUB
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Trials riders are the musicians of the motorcycle world, tremendously skilled at what they do.
—BRUCE BROWN
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The biggest hazard to a desert racer is another desert racer.
—BRUCE BROWN
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[The rider is] the upper half of the motorcycle.
—BERNT SPIEGEL
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I said that I wanted to get a motorcycle and one of the guys said, “You can’t, girls don’t ride motorcycles.” I thought, “He shouldn’t be telling a temperamental redhead what she can and cannot do” I had my permit within a week.
—MAGGIE MCNALLY, BOARD MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN MOTORCYCLIST ASSOCIATION
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I hate riding on the back of a bike. It’s a lot more fun being in control.
—CAM ARNOLD, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE MOTORCYCLE INDUSTRY COUNCIL
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I kind of feel like I need to take on a role of getting it out there in public knowledge that women can ride. People assume that we’re on the back of the bike making sandwiches.
—TRICIA HELFER
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They’ve heard it before from mothers, friends, brothers, and opinionated others: “Proper ladies don’t ride on the backs of motorcycles” But no one ever said anything about riding on the front.
—COURTNEY CALDWELL, AN ACCOUNTANT, MOTHER, AND PROUD OWNER OF A 55O-POUND, 700CC STREET CRUISER
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I need your clothes, your boots, and your motorcycle.
—ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER AS THE TERMINATOR IN THE TERMINATOR
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If a typical worker makes a mistake seated at his job, he will likely not be thrown into a fence or have a half-dozen coworkers pile on top of him. This is why dirt track [motorcycle] racers often transition to other occupations.
—KRIS PALMER
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I act. I am with my wife and kids. And I ride motorbikes. That’s it, that’s all I do.
—EWAN MCGREGOR
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In LA, I have two cars and two motorcycles. In Italy, I have three motorcycles because other people want to ride and you can’t ride them all at the same time.
—GEORGE CLOONEY
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Owning a motorcycle used to be a lifestyle. Now, it’s more a lifestyle accessory, like a cell phone or a fanny pack.
—JAY LENO
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This is my anonymity. . . . With it, I’m just another a–hole on the streets.
—BRAD PITT, ON WEARING A MOTORCYCLE HELMET
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Today, people have a lot more money to spend, and they’re not learning how to ride. . . . It’s like you just buy this rocket ship that you sit on.
—JAY LENO
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In that moment of seamless happiness . . . the liberating joy of being astride a machine that would carry you like Odin’s eightlegged horse in a whirl of noise and disapproving stares from straight folk was beyond my wildest dream.
—JOOLZ DENBY, FROM BILLIE MORGAN
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And then there’s the competitor. He lives and breathes motorcycles. Eating, sex, things like that—all are secondary. He exists only for Sunday, when he can brutally punish his body for the privilege of winning a $283 trophy.
—BOB SANFORD, FROM RIDING THE DIRT
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I wanted to have a motorcycle, but I didn’t want to miss the process of getting to that point. There was a lot to learn about myself and others before I would ever . . . ride in the open wind on a motorcycle. The journey matters.
—JOSEPH FEHLEN
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Having spent ten years as an amateur . . . motorcycle racer, I know this from experience: racers see only what they need to see.
—MARK GARDINER, FROM RIDING MAN
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There are times I prefer the solitude of a quiet day ride. Sometimes one needs some alone time to sort out the frustrations and puzzles of day-to-day life. Riding by yourself is an excellent way to accomplish this.
—STEVE REED
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The [Honda] 350 was tight and smooth and revvy and fast. The little engine did all the right things. It was summer, in the Lakes region of New Hampshire and even though we were riding two up, which is not so cool, we didn’t know or care any better.
—GORDON BUNKER
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I don’t ride a race, even today, where I don’t feel like throwing up.
—MALCOLM SMITH
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I never enter a race where I’m not counting my winnings a week before the event.
—MALCOLM SMITH
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On the day of the race [the Baja 1000], the press was told that the first rider would arrive at the halfway point at around 5 a.m. Malcolm [Smith] arrived at 5 p.m., a full twelve hours earlier, and eight hours ahead of the next vehicle.
—DANA BROWN, FROM DUST TO GLORY
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If a white guy wants to ride with a black club, most have no problem with it. The bikes and love of riding usually override everything else. Color is a weird thing. It just sort of goes away when you ride on two wheels.
—THE DIRECTOR OF MARKETING OUTREACH FOR HARLEY-DAVIDSON’S AFRICAN AMERICAN SEGMENT.
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I know great people who have big bikes.
—A VATICAN SPOKESMAN AFTER POPE FRANCIS BLESSED 35,000 HARLEY-DAVIDSON RIDERS IN 2013
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