Motorcycle riders are always a rowdy group, but the thousands who gathered at the Harley-Davidson Museum on August 29, 2013 made a roar that hadn’t been heard in Milwaukee for 12 months.
Almost a year to the day in 2012, hoards of bikers gathered at the same spot while Willie Davidson (cofounder’s grandson) started a large digital clock to countdown the next 12 months — marking every moment of Harley-Davidson’s 110th Anniversary. Starting from that massive party a year ago, American’s most popular motorcycle make set out on a celebratory journey around the world. Labor Day Weekend 2013 meant that global rally was over and the riders were back in H-D’s backyard to wrap up the celebration.
The proud cheer that split the air as the countdown clock expired was answered by a simple message that replaced the ticking seconds: “Welcome home!”
Looking Back at #HD110: New Zealand
As the 110th anniversary kicked off, I asked myself a question. How much of the around the world rally tour could I cover? And, how badly did I want to make that coverage happen?
The second answer was easy. With monthly rallies planned for Austria, New Zealand, South Africa, China, Australia, Mexico City and Sturgis, 2013 would be a legendary year for motorcycle riders and a once in a lifetime opportunity for an automotive and travel writer.
So, with the help of some good people and generous organizations (listed at the end of this piece), I scraped together enough resources to make a stop in a majority of the global rally spots.
I kicked off the tour in Auckland, New Zealand – marveling at the city’s natural beauty as it nuzzles in between two bays. I rode my 2013 XL-1200 Sportster to Ellerslie Horse Racing Grounds for the 1,000 motorcycle Thunder Ride with clubs from Auckland, Christ Church and Wellington lined up alongside Australian riders. It seemed a huge gathering at the time, but I had no idea it’d be the smallest parade of the #HD110 tour.
It was in New Zealand where I left my mark in stone. I departed the rally and rode the Sportster up One Tree Hill. One of the primary tourist attractions in New Zealand, it’s the final resting place for the founding father of Auckland. His grave obelisk stands atop a dormant volcano, and the valley below is studded with lava rock — enough that the locals like to arrange it into words and sentences, such as “I love sheep.” I trudged through a few piles of sheep dip to arrange my own lave rock farewell message to the Auckland Rally – leaving the #HD110 Twitter handle in 20-foot letters for all to see.
Looking Back at #HD110: Berlin
The Harley-Davidson media tour headed to Berlin, Germany next and provided a study in freedom and community overcoming oppression and hate.
A visit to the Mauer (Wall) Museum at Checkpoint Charlie explored the tragedy of the Berlin’s division by Communists. The shut down of the checkpoint and construction of the wall were so sudden and so unforgiving in its finality that families were split. If lovers were visiting friends on opposite sides of the border, they would be permanently cut off from each other. If children visited grandparents on one side of the border, they would never be allowed to reunite with their parents on the other side. No appeal. No exceptions. No compassion.
A tour of The Topography of Terror Museum on the exact site occupied by the Headquarters of the Nazi regime from 1933 to 1945 (the original office buildings that housed the Gestapo and SS) records the rise and fall of Hitler’s fascist regime with photographs, artifacts and documents, including the printed agenda of the Wannsee Conference. The Holocaust grew from Wannsee, where the Nazi SS hierarchy met to decide the Final Solution to the Jewish Problem.
After this painful exploration of bleak history, Harley-Davidson gathered international media, artists, musicians and motorcycle lovers of all ages and backgrounds at the Berlin Gibson Guitars Showroom. The repression and inhumanity of the city’s past was left outside while a celebration of life and freedom got underway within the unified realm of motorcycles and guitars.
I proposed a theory then that might’ve been pretentious, but I stand by: The Berlin visit showed me this is how humanity survives insanity — one motorcycle and one guitar at a time.
Looking Back at #HD110: Africa
A 22-hour, 14,000 mile flight to South Africa dropped me in Margate for Africa Bike Week. It’s an annual event, but H-D used this year’s edition as Africa’s #HD110 ground zero — and it served as another lesson in how a love of motorcycles and riding can bring people together.
Margate – a small, tourism-themed town on the South Coast in the region of Kwazulu-Natal – hosted about 2,000 riders gathered for the rally and the African parade. In a region scarred by Apartheid and troubled by recovery from its oppression, there was a healthy racial mix riding good-looking machines. All of those bikers mixed and mingled openly around their machines, at refreshment booths and in merchant tents set up to sell shirts, books, patches and anything else bike friendly.
Whatever growing pains South Africa still faced almost 20 years since the fall of Apartheid and the emergence of free elections, they were put aside that day to enjoy a warm autumn day and a ride along the seaside. I joined in the parade happily when I saw kids of every race standing shoulder to shoulder with each other to enjoy the show.
I realized then that I was seeing the future of South Africa from behind my tinted visor. By the time those children are our age, they will never have known of a segregated Margate, Cape Town, Johannesburg or Durban. They’ll just know they were friends since childhood and worked to build a freer country together.
Looking Back at #HD110: Rome
Rome would serve as the international climax of the #HD110 and greatly eclipsed the size of the previous international stops with 100,000 motorcycle lovers bringing about 30,000 bikes into town from throughout Europe, Russia, the UK and as far away as the U.S., New Zealand and Africa.
The event was all about two distinct faiths merging. A religion that’s about 2,000 years old met another one exactly 110 years young in Italy – and they got along. Rome wraps itself around the Holy See and Vatican City – the center of modern Christendom and one of the most important pilgrimage destinations on the planet.
In an era when religion is less accepted as a topic of open discourse, Harley-Davidson didn’t shy away from the spiritual aspects of this rally’s home. An estimated 30,000+ bikers joined the usual Sunday throng of worshipers as Pope Francis I said High Mass outside the Basilica in St. Peter’s Square.
It took a couple hours for the overall crowd of more than 60,000 people to stream in on a beautiful Sunday morning. Wheeled vehicles are not allowed on the cobblestone carpet of Vatican City, so an estimated 900 or so motorcycles filled the Ponte Sant’Angelo – the street leading up to the edge of St. Peter’s Square where Rome cedes to the separate nation that is The Holy See.
The crowd cheered as I expect it must every Sunday when the Pontifex Maximus appears to say Mass. Pope Francis arrived in his white Pope Mobile without any bullet proof glass to separate him from the adoring crowds reaching out to shake his hands. But, all of that cheering was drowned out this day by the grumbling revs sounded by hundreds of V-Twin engines.
Riders kept the engine noise coming as Pope Francis made his rounds, waiting for him to make his way to the edge of the Square. Finally, with the exhaust pipes roaring at a fevered pitch, Francis rode his car through the crowd to the edge of his domain.
With a beaming smile, he raised his hand, made the Sign of the Cross, and it was done. For the first time in recorded history, a sitting Pope had blessed a motorcycle rally. It was over quickly, but the Holy Father did have a Mass to say.
I was overtaken by a mix of amazement and gratitude that I’d been able to take part in the amazing international experience of #HD110 in 2013.
#HD110 Comes Home to Milwaukee
As Labor Day arrived, it came time to close out this journey and come home to Milwaukee. I was born and educated in that town, a city forever associated with America’s most iconic make of motorcycles – Harley-Davidson.
By now, it should be clear that I’ve been surrounded by motorcycles throughout my life. My uncles built Harley’s V-Twin engines. My best Marquette High buddy works on Harley-Davidson graphic design campaigns. I was brought up and sent to Marquette University by a father who taught me the proper admiration of Steve McQueen as he fled the Nazis atop a bike in a bid for freedom in The Great Escape.
Those influences and a College of Journalism education shaped me into an automotive journalist and travel writer. They also drove me to chase the international story that built up around this Harley-Davidson’s 110th Anniversary.
It was only fitting that the whole show ended back in a great motorcycle city like Milwaukee. For five days, a constant party consumed Milwaukee. From the Summerfest Grounds and Water Street to the Juneau HQ and multiple dealerships, the world’s riders descended on the city — providing a 24-hour, throaty soundtrack of horsepower.
Highlighted by performances of Aerosmith and Kid Rock, with Saturday night’s UFC 164 at the Bradley Center, the little City by the Lake became the epicenter of the pop culture world for a weekend. It was surreal attending the Milwaukee rally because — after being the road weary traveler in Auckland, Berlin, Margate, Mexico City and Rome – I was now the local expert talking to global out-of-towners. It was me being interviewed and sharing insider tips. For a few days, I was the hometown expert.
It didn’t really sink in that my journey was over until I found myself cruising in the 6,000 motorcycle parade (the largest of #HD110) that wound itself from Miller Park down to the lakefront. As spectators cheered us on, I realized what seemed impossible a year before somehow fell into place.
The Harley-Davidson folks assured me that no one — no rider, no journalist and no H-D staffer — attended as many rallies as I did. My frequent flyer account tells me I socked away more than 75,000 air miles. Still, what will live on with me are the good people I met — the friendly faces that showed how a shared love of something can break down all barriers and bring together people raised a world apart. I know I won’t see many of those faces again in my life, though I’ll do my best to stay in touch.
I walk away from that experience grateful for the opportunity, proud of the amount of work I put in to make it all happen and a little sad that I came this way but once. Still, “God willing and the creek don’t rise” (…as my Dad would say…), I might prove that sadness misplaced come #HD115.
Special thanks to the following sponsors and benefactors for making the HD110 World Tour possible: Harley-Davidson, Crave Online, IndieGoGo, Meguiar’s Car Care Products, The Iron Horse Hotel – Milwaukee, The Langham Hotel Auckland, Auckland Motorcycles and Power Sports, Hilton Daytona Beach, Hotel Casa Camper – Berlin, South African Airways, Margate Hotel, Protea Hotel President – Cape Town, Mexico City Marriott, Harley-Davidson Latin America, Samsung Galaxy, Harley-Davidson Europe, Sheridan Golf Parco de’Medici, Hilton Milwaukee City Center, Milwaukee Harley-Davidson, Todd Hall, Steve Harpst, Burbank Boxing Club, Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, Carla Gehrig, Eric Rogell, Traycee King, Joy Sapieka and Nicholas Kearney.
Check out the other stops along the #HD110 tour:
