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GOING THE DISTANCE

"ONE YOU CAN COUNT ON"

by Genghis


PHOTO BY GENGHIS







The world's out to get us. The world seems to be pregnant with malignant negativity these days. You know the drill. You turn on the TV or turn the page of the newspaper, and here's what confronts you. The stumbling economy. The president by dint of his delusional worldview, inexperience and personal weakness, naively reveals classified information that makes us less safe in the face of terrorism. The out of touch and incompetent White House committing its far left mind to insane, out-of-control spending, using the recession as an excuse to install every exhorbitant social program that Karl Marx would love, with a now unshackled congress aiding and abetting social engineering in America like we've never witnessed before---and bankrupting our country while they're at it. GM on the brink of bankruptcy and Chrysler in backruptcy. The Swine Flu swarming the world. In the cacophany of this precipitation raining down on us like a thunderous flood of tears, there is one thing in the world that you can count on to get you through life. There is only one reliable entity that can insinuate a positive charge into this shockingly volatile inclemency we find ourselves trapped in, through no fault of our own. You know what it is. It's your Harley, man. There is only one sound that can drown out the oscillating waves of despair and the futility of it all. You know what it is. It is the sound of your Harley-Davidson motorcycle.

"Whir....whir...whir....BRRRRRRUMMMFFFFFAAAaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh....."

It is the sound that makes everything allright. When all else is disintegrating like a house built on corrugated styrofoam, it is the one relationship that a biker can count on to lick the wounds inflicted by the World-At-Large, and heal the deep injuries left behind by what we now laughingly refer to as our "significant others." Hey man, FTW! Does "FTW" ever have greater meaning than it does in these dark days? Does any other acronym make "FTF" seem trivial by comparison? Ask yourself this question. What has always been there for you, when the chips were down? What were you able to fall back on when people you loved and trusted turned their backs on you? Should Snow have tried to salvage the FU? Forget it, it wasn't a Harley anyway. These are all the burning eternal questions that must be addressed. Getting back to the point, what aspect of your life has acted as your Quiet Place, even though she's ironically and thunderously loud? Loud pipes may or may not save lives, but loud Harleys definitely save your mind and salve your chapped soul. You know the answer, and no matter what loving name you have conferred on her, her true initials will always be "H.D." Yup. You got it. It's your righteous Harley-Davidson, baby! We've all been there, done that. Our Harleys have been there for us through, how many failed relationships? Perhaps many of us have been fortuitous enough like I have, to finally have found a mate whose fidelity equals the fiercely consistent loyalty that our Harleys have shown us over the years. Many have not. With human mates, it's....roll the dice, baby! With our Harleys, it's as good as you make it by the sheer determination on your part to keer 'er good, and by the intensity of your dedication to her. With your Harley, it's as simple as that, man. If only human interaction between men and women were as simple to regulate, then life would be one sweet orgasm of contentment.

You can't control the world. You can't lift the economy by yourself. There's absolutely nothing you can do to effect change in the White House or congress until the next elections. Even Tea Parties are sneeringly ridiculed by the elitist president, instead of respected for the grassroots discontent, that it truly is as exhibited by a loyal opposition that recognizes that something is really wrong and un-American with the direction of this current government. You can't micro-manage all of the facets of your personal life. All of these storm-like elements swirling around us are out of our immediate control. There is however, one component of your existence that you can exert control over, and that is the viability of your Harley-Davidson. Keep her ambulatory, and she will matriculate you down the field forever. Harleys, which have been the lifeblood of the biker subculture, have given us something very precious. Harleys are a lever with which to offset the weighty odds that have been affecting our ability to control our destinies. Our Harleys have put proportionately more mass and weight on our side of the seasaw, tipping the scales in our favor. As bikers, we are more fortunate than most. As bikers, we have been handed a gift in the form of our Harley motorcycles, as a device to deal with life, and life's unforseen turns.

Your Harley-Davidson is profound enough for this task, because of the primary role of the Harley-Davidson motorcycle in the history of the biker subculture. Harleys have been the traditional standard-bearers in the overall scheme of our subculture. The vanguard of the culture have always ridden Harleys. As Harley riders, you are linked with more than eighty years of storied tradition, when bikers that lived and rode during this vast span of time loved their righteous Harleys, and depended on them for their very sanity at some point in their long ago lives. Through thick and thin, the dedicated members of the biker subculture found out the hard way that there were times when only their Harley-Davidsons sustained them emotionally, enriched their existences, and served them with a loyalty unmatched by few people in their lives. You can count on your Harley. Cherish your Harley, and she will take care of you. This has been the lesson learned by countless fellow bikers, whether contemporaneous or our ghost-relatives that rode in the distant past. We're all egotistical enough to believe that we that exist now, are somehow special, somehow differentiated from those that preceded us. I'll tell ya what, man. The bikers that came before us, were just like us. They had the same frailties and strengths, and enjoyed the same victories and losses in life's mysterious game. Like us, their triumphs in terms of maintaining peace of mind occurred in no small part, because of their relationships with their Harleys-Davidsons. Now you know why only Harleys will do. A hundred years from now, nobody's going to recall how bikers of our era, were sustained by their aftermarket rigids powered by Harley clones. Tradition counts.

Bikers' allegiance to their Harley-Davidsons is legendary within the biker subculture, and perhaps derided outside the culture. Straights wonder what it's all about, and how a motorcycle could possibly inspire such life-long fealty. This loyalty to the Harley motorcycle is so strong, that many have the Harley-Davidson name tattooed on their bodies that indelibly demonstrates this dedication to the outside world, in the most unambiguous terms. What citizens don't get is this: the Harley-Davidson motorcycle, powered by a Harley motor, is the iconic equivalent of the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor, or the U.S. Constitution. Like these monumental phenomena, the Harley-Davidson is the very Heart and Soul of the biker subculture. If anyone ever asks what being a biker is all about, just tell 'em that our relationships with our Harleys is almost religious in its intensity and nature. It has ever been so in our subculture for the greater part of a century. Later

Harleys are like heaven, hallowed be their names. Their exhaust notes come, their speed will be found, on Earth just like it is Heaven.

FINITO