Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127950
FEATURE HARLEY·DAVIDSON 9 5TH ANNIVERSARY REUNION (Left) eN associate editor Sco tt Rous seau rolls through a blustery Iowa. Almost home and loving every minute of it! (Above) French stun tman Francois Schetelat was part of Wednesday's entertainment on the Milwaukee "Mlle. (Below) Opening ceremonies at the State Fair Park ' HOG rally Included a parade of banners, representing every HOG chapter in the world. (Right) World Famous ring announcer M ichael Buffer emceed the opening ceremonies at Staie Fair Park. 30 It was around noon w hen we saddled up to make the break to ward ou r fina l stop o f the day , Harl ey' s new Kansa s City Spo rtster plant. Once there, w e w ould be greet ed b y a throng of Harley fa ith ful , Kan sas HOG members and H-D employees . Th ere were d ispl ays and bands, and Harley-Davi dson even ope ned up its plant for everyone to tour through. That in itself was wort h making th is part of th e tri p . The paint facility insi de th e bu ild ing is really the most impress ive part, and proof pos itive that H -D is co ns ta ntly s triving to improve the quality of its mot orcycles. Tha t was th e fir st p la ce that I sa w Harley-Da vidson's director of sty ling, Lou Netz. I'd met th e 48-year-old Netz in Milwaukee a yea r before . Aside from ha ving the coolest job in the world - he ge ts to d esign and mock up mo torcycles that could very well be the next greatest Ha rley models, and he gets to hang wi th Willie G. every d ay - Netz al so has a grea t sense of humor. Case in poin t: The reason that I hadn 't seen him all da y was because he'd apparently stayed be hind and "gone to church " in one of the local taverns. A deeply religious man, Netz wa s reportedly filled with the spirits and had d e cid ed to s leep in a little before cat ch in g up to the group, Go d bless him. A nyway, tha t wa s th e e nd Df the day's riding , and th at was enough for me, so I headed down to th Hampton Inn - th is tim e I knew where the core group w a s s tayin g - and g rabbed a roo m. And it just so happened that 1 go t a room just d own the hall from Bill Davidson. And it just so happened that Bill was now stru ggling with the sam e all ergi es th at I'd had one d a y before th at. So 1 o ffe re d him a couple of my over-the-counter allergy capsules, and he g ra tefu ll y ac cep te d them . And he thanked me ag ain later because, apparen tly , they wo rke d as well for him as they had for m e . Af te r tha t, 1 took a quick trip up th e road to th e Cracker Ba rrel for a s ma ll bite, then returned and hit the hay. In re trospect, I really wis h it was the thunder of dozens of Harleys th at woke me up on Mo nday morning. Oh, it was thund er all right, bu t the real stuff, and I ope ned my hotel room cu rta ins to spy a black sky that was dumping bu ckets full of wa ter on the g round . at su rp risingly , there didn 't seem to be as much e nt h usiasm wit hin th e group as 'a ll d onned th eir rain gear for wh at wa s most ass ured ly go ing to be a wet portion of the journey. But we left on time , a nd pressed on u ntil the thund er and the light ning were so bad that ride captain Vince O ran ge elected to herd us off the interstate and onto a backroad. I was glad tha t he did, Mom, because I d on 't mind telling you that I wa s scared a little . All those moto rcycl es on the highwa y, and you cou ld onl y see th e tw o in front of you . Th e rest jus t sim ply vanished , mere shadows draped b y an opaque wall of fog and rain. We stopped off in a church parking lot somewhere and sat, and got weller, while Orange and the execs in the core group formulated a plan to get us mo ving safely again. In the end it was decide d that w e w ould s to p a t t he lo cal McDonalds, then break up in to sma ller g roups of five or six (w hi ch was easy, because our procession al had go ne fro m a 6.s- m ile li ne of m ach ines dow n to maybe 50) led by execs with knowledge of the ro u te. This divid e-and -conquer m eth od was th e best w ay to ge t our speed average up and, hopefully, get us ahead of the storm. Anything wo u ld be beller than this; I th ou ght to m yself . By now m y boo ts and gloves we re soa ked through , as wa s my bac kpack an d my camera ba g. It was miserabl e, but the plan worked . My subgrou p - led by Southern Ca liforn ia-area Harley di strict manager s Jim Sorensen o n a Ro ad King Cl a s s ic a nd Larry Mortensen, who was "iro n-bu tti ng" it o n a Buell - arrived at Zook's HarleyDavi dson in Des Moin es, Iowa , almost o n schedule - a nd a hea d of th e s to rm fro n t. The re , the loca l HOG chap ter treated us to foo d a n d re fres h men ts w hile the cas hiers we re overru n by folks seeking rain gear, dry gloves and socks. I spru ng for a pair of socks and, at the su ggestion of Kally David son , gra bbed tw o plastic ba gs to slip m y fee t into b ef ore ja m m in g t hem b a ck int o m y waterl ogged boots. It was a nea t tr ick, and it w orked well. Mv feet, a t least, were dry u ntil we reached Davenport, and another nifty street party. It was the end of ano ther day, with the big one, the triumphant ride into Milwaukee, on tap for tomorrow. " And tomorrow came, with more rain, and even more wind, but we toughed it o u t, my d ay being made all the m ore pl ea sant b y ride s a fe ty office r Jim Williams, a motorcycle-safety coo rd inator for the State of Kansas and a volunteer on this ride. Jim allowed me to run in fron t of his im m acu late, white 12sth A nniversa ry Shriner' s Editi on Tour Classic, thu s putting m e ba ck in th e execu tive gro u p, near th e front of th e ride. It also put me behind Pau la Goddard's He ritage Softail Springer, w hich had th e most pl easan t-soundin g aftermarket pipes. Paula is a nurse who lives in Wich ita , Kansas. Her hu sband, Larrv, was also a volu nteer on the 'safetv-and secu rity sq ua d. . ' I list en ed to th e throatv ru m ble of Pau la's ma chine as we cro;sed the Illi- nois s ta te li ne, o u r numbers g rowing s tro nger aga in ; th e h eadlights of th e bikes sho ne as far back as I could see in my rearv iew mirror. And then the re was mo re wi nd, a violent wind that hit every rider fro m th e righ t a nd threat en ed to blow us into the drai nage di tch between the sections of hig hway. It was as if th e d evil himself se nt a ga le in so me vain allem pt to blow us off course. But we made it to the Wisconsin sta te line after a stop a t Kegel's Harley-Da vid son in Ro ckfo rd , Il li n o is , th e la st Harley- . Davi dson dea ler visit that w e m ade while along the route. After two days of ho rrible wea ther, ther e we were at the Wisco nsin bo rder, wa iting to pi ck up a police escort that would lead us up 1 an d across SR894 -43 to Wisco nsin State Fair Park. The group shared an infectious excitement - no t as ones who were a nxious to ge t it over with, bu t as o nes ready to make a triumphant entrance o n to a sta ge . Th ey were made even more excited by a Milwaukee-area radio d isc jockey who was giv ing live rem ot e repo rts fro m astride his own 95th Annive rsarv Road Glide as w e neared town. Th at g uy look ed a r awful lot like Ha rlev PR ma n Steve Piehl for 1000 miles, but surely my eyes must have been d eceiving me. We head ed into Mil waukee durin g ru sh h our, wi th th e rain fa lling d o wn h ard a ga in , a n d we m ad e th a t tri"um phan t entra nce. Even th e rain cou ld not s to p thousands o f p eople from sta nding on the ove rpa sses and cheering