The making of a Harley-Davidson convert

An eventful road trip into the B.C. Interior inspires an unlikely transformation

By Robin Esrock

For each of the past five years, I’ve joined a group of bikers on a long-weekend road trip, riding the sole Harley-Davidson^® among a horde of imports.

While the variety of our bikes is impressive, it’s always been my H-D^® – first a Heritage Softail^™, then a Road King^® and now a Road Glide^® – that receives the most curiosity and attention.

But from my friends, there’s always some good-natured ribbing about the Harley-Davidson growl. I take the gripes with a knowing smile because my bike has never sputtered and died on the highway. Nor have I complained, as the others have, that I need more power for the steep mountain passes.

This year, after a faulty stator resulted in hot hours of waiting for a tow truck, Steve had to continue our journey as the passenger on my Road Glide. It was the first time he’d been on any Harley^®, and as we continued our journey into the mountains and valleys of B.C.’s beautiful Okanagan, the bike would do all the talking.

“Look, breakdowns can happen at any time – it’s just part of it,” Pete said that evening, downing an IPA on the patio of Revelstoke’s excellent Grizz Hotel. He was trying to cheer up Steve, who was obviously bummed at having lost his bike (not to mention the cost and effort it would take to return it home). But something else was going on as well, because I could see Steve’s brain doing motorbike gymnastics.

Earlier that afternoon, after a few hours in the saddle, I had invited him to take the handlebars of my Road Glide and feel the bike for himself: the power of the 105-horsepower engine; the roar of 175 Nm of torque up the hills; how the Sharknose fairing slices wind like a fin through water; the comfort of the wide footboards; and the clear, booming sound from my fairing speakers. I could see Steve liking the bike.

The renowned roads of British Columbia had been putting on a show since we kicked off from Vancouver along Highway 99. No matter how many times you ride the Sea to Sky Highway, it never gets old. Once we got through the traffic of Whistler, the spaghetti mountain passes leading up to Lillooet opened up as the topography got drier and more arid. Highway 99 to Highway 97 was riding bliss, merging onto the Trans-Canada to Kamloops, where we left Steve’s bike behind.

The riding was crisp and scenic all the way to Revelstoke, where we traced the glimmering Columbia River on Highway 23 to catch the Upper Arrow Lake Ferry at Shelter Bay. Standing at the bow with riders and RVers, we heard superlatives in all accents. It doesn’t matter where you come from – this is a beautiful part of the world.

Then it was on to Highway 6 towards Nelson, where the parking lot of the Adventure Hotel was full thanks to an Italian biker brand owners group. Steve and Pete find those riders snobby, but Steve’s perception of Harley-Davidson riders was starting to transform. “Harley riders are definitely cut from a different cloth,” he told me.

“More like a different leather,” I corrected him.

“I mean, Harley riders are always coming up to you to talk about the road and the bikes,” Steve said. “There’s just way less pretentiousness. Oh, and Harleys don’t sound like they’re whining mosquitoes.” Steve was starting to get it.

Continuing on a meandering Highway 3, I once again invited Steve to take the handlebars, a small sacrifice on my part knowing the scenery would inspire a lifetime of road dreams. Steve said he couldn’t feel me on the back of the bike at all, and over beers that night, he was singing praises that would have been impossible just a few days earlier.

“I’m telling you, Harleys are just made for these kinds of trips,” Steve told the group.

Steve’s repair bill came in a few days after our trip, and along with the cost of retrieving his bike from Kamloops, it danced that fine line between repair and replacement.

“I wonder if I could get a good used Harley,” he messaged me soon after. It was just the confirmation I needed that his Harley-Davidson conversion was complete. Next year, there will be two H-D bikes in our group.

Robin Esrock is the bestselling author of The Great Canadian Bucket List and a contributing editor at Canadian Geographic.

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