Harley Owners Group anniversary rides
These motorcycles are important in H-D and motorcycling history, not for who owned them, but for what the rides achieved.
These motorcycles are important in H-D and motorcycling history, not for who owned them, but because they represent the thousands of Harley-Davidson motorcycles that traveled millions of miles to celebrate the company’s four major late Twentieth Century anniversaries: 85th, 90th, 95th and 100th. They are also important for what these rides achieved, not only for the company, but also for the respect shown toward motorcycle riding. They happen to have belonged to Rich Teerlink, former CEO of Harley-Davidson. (He is the only known former executive to have kept all four.)
As the 85th Anniversary approached in 1988, Harley-Davidson had much to celebrate: debt control (survival), market share and product reliability. The time to celebrate was apparent. But how? How does a family celebrate a birthday?
The idea of a massive birthday party was formed. More importantly, rides led by company executives and trained district managers would lead groups of riders from 10 major cities, riding the iron machines to their birthplace in Milwaukee. Vaughn Beals and wife Eleanore led one of the rides, another by Rich Teerlink with me as passenger.
Numbers in one ride sometimes reached 200 motorcycles. The public had been informed, but one trucker was overheard on his CB warning fellow drivers that he was aware of an approaching “motorcycle gang.” Rich’s group was the “gang.”
Scheduled stops to visit MDA children were made along the way. At one there was a little boy who begged to be on the bike and could be safely placed in front of Rich: “Vroom, vroom, I’m going to be a biker just like you.” (Sadly it would never be, but with donations to MDA made at each stop, there could be hope for a cure.) The last night of his ride, in an auction, Rich’s sweaty, worn shirt raised $5,000 for MDA research. There was a surreal quality to it all; life-long relationships were built during the miles of travel. The H-D family was growing as hoped.
Total mileage of all bikes arriving in Milwaukee was in the millions: no accidents, no reported incidents, tired but happy riders converging upon the Summerfest Grounds in downtown Milwaukee. A magazine photographer lined up the ten bikes with their riders in place, photographed them, and they appeared on the cover of the next TIME magazine. Visibility and exposure for the brand as cannot be bought. When the rides ended, the birthday party began.
What had these rides accomplished? Motorcycles and riders had been visible to people, shredding preconceived ideas about who actually sit on those saddles. Flags waved and there were cheers along the way for the success of this American company. To an extent the rides had been a gamble, but the presence of the bikes and riders on the road and in communities introduced the unfamiliar to the machine and its riders. People’s increased awareness caused them to want to be part of the fun, the camaraderie.
Building upon the success of 1988, the other Anniversary rides were demanded by the riding community, growing in size with each celebration that followed, culminating with the 100th. Each anniversary a special motorcycle was designed and produced, loved and many times with its owner joined one of the rides leading “home,” introducing themselves to the public and inviting them to join the fun.