Motorbikes: Harley-Davidson HOG RallyThe 15th European Harley-Davidson Hog Rally was held in Ireland last weekend. Jonathon Coburn was there
It has been said that there are motorbikes and then there are Harley-Davidsons.
There is a mystique surrounding these machines quite unlike anything else. Several other makes have their own annual gathering of the tribes: Harley-Davidson, BMW and Honda Gold Wings are the best know examples, but even the Russian-made Urals have one.
Hog stands for Harley-Davidson Owner's Group of which there are chapters in most European countries, in every American state and elsewhere around the globe. This year's Hog Rally was held in Ireland for the first time last weekend. Held at the Gleneagles complex and organised by Ireland's Celtic Thunder chapter, the rally catered for 10,000 people on 7,000 bikes.
During the four-day event visitors were met with bands, DJs, merchandising, demonstrations and organised rides around the Ring of Kerry and Dingle peninsula.
My day job is chief instructor for the Motorcycle Safety Associationand but the only time I had ever ridden a Harley-Davidson before this rally would have been when demonstrating a technique on a student's bike.
In terms of this event, my lasting memory will be the parade of bikes around Killarney town. So many took part that it took 40 minutes to pass by. Public reaction was really enthusiastic, with people standing four-deep on the pavement.
Along with a host of other riders we first went around the Ring of Kerry. I knew of course that these "Milwaukee Road Locomotives" as they have been dubbed by non-Harley-Davidson owners, were designed and built with the broad, straight, smooth highways and freeways of the US in mind.
The road surfaces on the Ring are altogether different, a severe test of any bike, even more so for a Harley-Davidson. The classic Harley-Davidson seating position is "laid back" with precious little weight taken by the arms or feet, virtually all being on the posterior. That is fine on a smooth road but over the bumps and through the potholes the constant spine jarring left my pillion partner and I feeling that the iron had entered our souls.
On the Dingle ride, now on better roads, I began to understand the Harley way of doing things.
I was riding a Heritage Softail Classic. Weighing in at 700 pounds of chrome-emblazoned metal with a 1.5 litre engine. It was vastly different from anything I had experienced before. It wasn't long before the brilliant sunshine and glorious scenery whizzing past at 95km/h had me enthralled on this heavyweight machine with its slow-revving brute of an engine.
With riders at the rally from all over Europe, and indeed further afield, it was an excellent opportunity to find out just what makes Harley-Davidson owners tick.
Just looking at the bikes - several thousand of them were parked in the complex - you notice that no two are the same. Each and every one has been accessorised or customised to reflect the individual owner's taste and idiosyncrasies.
Such is the wealth of after-market goodies available from Harley-Davidson, that there is no end to what, at a price, any owner can achieve in the pursuit of that sought after difference. No other make of bike has anything like the range available.
For some owners the many hours spent customising - often much more than the time spent riding - have become the be-all and end-all of their passion, the means of expressing one's personality with a motorcycle.
The Hog weekend was so very different from anything I had been used to previously - and all of it enjoyable. It has shown me yet another side of that wonderful experience of being a motorcyclist, in which owning a Harley-Davidson becomes a way of life.
- in conversation with John Wheeler