Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

FEATURE H LEY A ID O AR -D V S N95TH ANNIVERSARYREUNION Dear Mom, Just had to w rite you and tell you about the experiences that I had on the w ay home to Milwaukee for HarleyDavi dso n's 95th Anniversary celebra tion. I cou ld tell you that it was great, that it was fun - there are so many single words tha t could be used to dismiss the en tire adventure as jus t ano the r trip. Bu t they wo uldn' t do it justice. It' s so fu nny h ow th e w ho le th ing came together so qu ickly despit e the fact th at since th e 90 th a nni versary I ha d been telling everyone th a t I was defi- nitely going to go home for th e 95th . The r ea so n s for th e trip w ere valid enough. It would be a media spectacle, which meant that Cy cle News would pick up the tab, and it wo uld give me the opportunity to visit the family and friends tha t have remained in Mil waukee while we have been a way for so man y years. Bu t I figured that I'd be flying back for the 95th Anniversary, until a cha nce phone ca ll abo u t two week s o r so before the event ch anged all of th a t. See, I though t it mi ght be coo l to a t By Scott Rousseau Photos by Joette Rockow/Harley-Davidson Moto r Co. and Roussea u ' least have a Harley- Davidson to putt around on while I wa s in Milwaukee, you know, to help me gain a little perspective on the atmosphere. So I placed a call to Natalie Roser in Harley-Davidso n 's public-relations departmen t to ma ke the request. Natalie, 28, can be a jou rnalist's bes t friend . She is act ua lly th e as sis ta n t to Steve Pie h l, Ha rley's h ead of p u blicrela tions, and she always see ms to have im med iate a ns wers to th e que ·tions ! req uests that-I have for her. In my opinion , Natalie is very goo d at her job. Anyway, I asked her if I could have a bike for Milwaukee, but she must have thought that I meant a bike fo r t h e grou p ride to Milwaukee from Riverside, Californ ia, which was. goi ng to be led across the country by several of the top execu tives fro m Harl ey-Davidson - (Left) Celebration bound : Harley-Davidson executives lead a throng of riders toward Milwaukee for the Harley-Davidson 95th Anniversary celebrati on. (Below) Wisconsin State Fair Park. This is one of s ix parking lots that filled to capacity on Saturday, opening day of the national Hog Rally. (Bottom) State Fair Park. This abou t s ums it up. 26 incl uding the entire Davidson family i fo r a whol e week before th e tour reached its final destination in Milwaukee on June 9. Before I knew it, I had lined up a '98 FLH RI Road King fo r th e rid e, a nd 1 fou nd m yse lf plunged into m y usual hasty 11th-hour planning , Loose ends in the office meant that I wo uld n' t be able to make th e Rive rside depart ure of Tu esday, June 2, w hich saw the gro~R h ea din g n orth throu gh A ri zo na a nd th en wi n ding in to Co lora do's ROCKy' Mountains befo re th ey dropped back onto the Kansas plains aro u nd Friday or Satu rday. They wo uld finis h u p wit h;a run through Iowa and Illinois and then home ac ross the Wi scon's in b order , Instead , I would be leavin g on Friday and playing cat ch-up. My biggest co ncern was th e bike' s minimal lug ga ge capacit y. A ft er all, even th ou gh Harl ey' s hard sad d lebags are rather ca pacious, th ere' s o nly so much yo u can put into tw o of them . But after a little thou ght and a little stan di ng on them to ge t the m sh u t, I had managed to cram in the bare essentials: on~ extra pair of jeans, soc ks, toil etries, a sw ims u it and a pair of flip-fl ops, rain gear, a light jacket to replace my leather jacket in case of warm conditions, and.; o h ye s, a d ozen Harl ey-Da vid son TA shirts; one must be prepared. After that, it was just a matter of figuring ou t where and wh en I cou ld catch the gro u p. I su rve ye d th e ro ute she e t and saw that the rid e had planned a sto p a t th e new Kansas City Sp ortst er facility on Sunday, followed by a party a nd th en a layover for th e night. The g rou p was e xpec te d to be th e re b y arou nd 12:30 p.m., so I figured that if all we n t well, and if I was in Kansas City by 1 p.m. on Sunday, then I wo uld meet the ride the re. And so it wa s that with my two overs tu ff e d sa d d le ba gs an d my 95th Anniversary backpack st rapped on, 1 rolled o ut of my driveway in Laguna Beach a t 8 a.m . on Friday. I jumped on the 73 and then mad e the crossover to the 55 No rth, and then onto the 91 East to Riverside, and I was tru ly on my way. For the first hundred -and-some-od d miles, I was conten t just to listen to the muted V-twin dron e ema na ting from 4IZF' s (tha t was th e fac t o ry li cens e number) twin exhaust pipes while keeping an eye on the conges ted traffic that is th e bane of a lmost e ve ry Southern Californian's ex is tence . But we rolled along smoo thly, and before I kn ew it I had negotiated the 15 or th toward Las

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