From tearing up the road to tearing through paper: collage art inspired by Harley-Davidson

Swiss H.O.G.^® member Roland Bacher’s collages draw from a lifetime on two wheels – rebuilt bikes, motocross energy and a late, but powerful, turn to Harley-Davidson

“My collages are no accident.” So says Roland, whose collage art has been inspired by a lifelong relationship with motorcycles. Using stories and imagery from Harley life, he creates visual pieces that don’t show what a Harley^® looks like, but what it feels like.

Long before he ever rode a Harley-Davidson^®, he was buying discarded, decommissioned bikes, rebuilding them, converting them and repainting them. In the process he learnt not only how to ride, but how to understand a machine from the inside out. “Engineering, form and character were always equally important to me,” he reflects.

Over the years that passion took him through a wide range of brands and models. Intensive motocross riding sharpened his sense for dynamics, motion and raw energy – the same ingredients that now drive his visual language.

The Harley turning point
Roland came to Harley-Davidson later, but when he did, it landed with real weight and marked a distinct turning point. His Harley journey began with the iconic Fat Boy^®, then the Fat Boy 110 S, then one of the early Road Glide^® Ultras.

Riding those bikes, he says, changed how he understood the Harley-Davidson story.

“I finally understood what people mean when they say, ‘God would ride a Harley,'” he smiles. For him, Harley is not a simple idea you can pin to one word. “Harley isn’t just freedom – it’s attitude, history and an echo of the roaring ’70s.” Those are the emotions he tries to hold onto in his collages – “the untamed, the timeless, the adventure.”

Coming full circle with the Pan America
“With the Pan America^™, the circle closed,” he says, explaining how the model reconnects him with the pure joy of enduro riding while combining it with modern, cutting-edge technology and advanced safety. It brings together different sides of his riding life into one bike.

It also reflects how he approaches art. As something of an outsider among traditional chrome-heavy Harleys, the Pan America feels emblematic of his creative mindset – deeply rooted in tradition, yet deliberately independent. Or as he puts it, “respectful of tradition, but consciously independent.”

From rider to collage artist
Harley-Davidson is more than a brand to him, it’s “a lifestyle that I live and breathe every day.” He is fascinated by the unique engine technology, the rich history and what he calls the incomparable myth of these motorcycles.

That passion sparked the idea behind his creations: transforming reports and stories from motorcycle and Harley magazines into a living collage, purely for his own pleasure and artistic expression. “With this visual communication I want to make the pulse of Harley life felt around the world and carry on the fascination that is Harley-Davidson.”

Roland explains that his collages are built by bringing a few core Harley ideas together. When he can combine them in one piece, he says he can “capture the essence of Harley-Davidson” and communicate both “the history and the passion behind the Harley-Davidson brand”.

He’s drawn to “Harley meetings, rides” and the “exuberant atmosphere at the events/festivals” – the “dynamics and the community of the Harley riders”. You’ll often see people in typical Harley clothing because, for him, the riders and the shared mood are part of the story.

Conversions of new and old
Roland looks for “modern as well as classic conversions” that show the “diversity and creativity of the Harley community”. He particularly loves detail, such as close-up shots of distinctive parts like custom tanks, handlebars or exhaust systems.

To anchor the work in what came before, he uses historical photos, documents and old advertisements to show the development of the brand over the years, including key milestones in Harley history.

Then there’s the layer he calls the myth – iconic images that capture the brand’s spirit of freedom and attitude to life: endless highways, wild landscapes and Harley riders living the American Dream.

Bring those themes together, he says, and the collage starts to do what he wants it to do – not describe Harley literally, but carry the feeling of it.

Roland is clear that his collages are not depictions of real situations. Instead they compress memories, dreams and riding sensations into new visual narratives. They are expressions of his own creativity and how the brand inspires him, through riding, through community, and now through art.

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