Upscale, midstream
Motorcycle mystique is old news. Ever since the biker flicks of the ‘50s and ‘60s – “The Wild One” with Marlon Brando’s “Johnny” and “Easy Rider,” with Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper and Jack Nicholson – the general public has been awed and curious, and just a little afraid of bikers. What has changed in the past decade is not the profile of the typical biker, but public perception and acceptance.
“Back in the ‘90s, when we’d pull up to a stoplight alongside a family van, we’d see all the windows immediately go up, and you could just hear the dad whispering, ‘Don’t make eye contact, kids. Just keep looking straight ahead,’ ” says biker Dan Ertz.
“Nowadays, the kids are hanging out the window to wave, the dad’s giving us a thumbs up, and the mom is climbing over her husband to get a better view.”
Biker demographics have gone upscale and mainstream.
According to motorcycle maker Harley-Davidson, the median age of the motorcycle buyer in 2004 was 47, with a median income of just over $80,000. The typical bike owner is 40 to 65 years old and has a professional, managerial or technical job, according to the Motorcycle Industry Council.
“This compares with the typical owner in 1980, who was a 24-year-old earning $17,500,” a status report states. “So more and more riders don’t hold up to the traditional stereotype of the biker as a young rabble-rouser.”
The baby boomers were those 24-year-olds in 1980 and have now reached “biker” age. They are established in their careers, free of child-rearing responsibilities, have more discretionary time and income, and are, according to Scott Lyon, owner of Easyriders Road House, wanting to “do what they used to do that made them feel good. They can afford it now.”
The number of bikers is the highest ever, because there’s never been a demographic group as large as the boomers.
Sheri Herberholz and her husband, Larry, are co-owners of Cruisers, a biker bar at Stateline. They bought the bar on April 6. They opened at 5 p.m. on April 9, and 400 bikers showed up.
Sheri Heberholz is known as the “Warden.” She wears a whistle around her neck and carries a megaphone, “to reel people in. I have to clear the roadway occasionally.”
A paved road runs the length of the bar, and when the garage doors on both sides of the building are open, sometimes up to 500 bikes drive through the bar in a night.
“It’s friendly here,” she says. “It’s home. … Absolutely everyone is welcome here. But come early. On Saturday nights the bands start at 7, and they’re done by 11 or so … We’re all old, and half the guys have church in the morning.”
Sheri Herberolz is an expert promoter and puts together a monthly fund-raiser/party at Cruisers to benefit various charities. Last summer, at a one-day bash, Cruisers and the biker community raised $100,000 for Shasta Groene’s education and therapy. This month there will be a toga party, with proceeds going to the local food bank. In December there will be a luau, and in January, a travel-package to Vegas, to benefit either the Ronald McDonald House or the Vanessa Behan Center.
“This is a tight-knit group,” says Dustin Thurman, a member of the Axemen, a club made up of active and retired firefighters. “It’s all about brotherhood and camaraderie. They’d give you the shirt off their back.”
Herberholz agrees that the bikers stick together and help each other out.
“One day one of the guys hit a deer on his bike,” she said. “He continued on into town and rode up to the bank. When he got off his bike, his leg collapsed and his bike fell on top of him. He’d broken his leg but didn’t realize it. He called the bar, and immediately about 10 guys roared off on their bikes to help him. They took him to the hospital, fixed his bike, and then took him casseroles every day for a month, did his laundry, kept his house clean. It’s great seeing these big, burly bikers coming into the bar with their loaves of homemade bread or a pot of fondue.”
About 20 percent of bikers belong to a biker club and there are clubs for “every segment of society,” according to the “Complete Idiot’s Guide to Motorcycles.” There are clubs based on profession, age, locale, age, spirituality and touring, just to name a few. Clubs that frequent Cruisers are the Real-Life Riders and Christian Brothers, both Christian biker clubs; the Mountain Tribe, a club of Native Americans; the Vietnam Vets; and Renegade Pigs and Iron Pigs, both groups of active and retired policemen.
An extensive list of area biker clubs is available at spokanebiker.com. Rules, bylaws and meeting times and places are listed. Herberholz keeps her clientele up-to-date via weekly e-mails.
Lucky Lawrence, owner of Lawrence’s Motorcycles in Coeur d’Alene, and according to his peers, one of the best riders in the Northwest, recalls a man in a suit and tie coming into his shop one day.
“He asked me what one of these bikes cost,” Lawrence says. “And then he asked me if they were hard to ride. Turns out he was a psychiatrist, and one of his patients had just told him that he wasn’t coming back for therapy because he’d just bought a motorcycle. Long story short, the doc eventually bought himself a bike and came back to tell me he couldn’t believe how therapeutic a ride around the lake was. There’s an old saying that goes, ‘You never see a Harley parked in front of a psychiatrist’s office.’ “
No matter what the source, the common themes that emerge are camaraderie and the fact that biking is a social equalizer. The proverbial “playing field” is leveled dramatically when everyone’s dressed in black leather. It’s reminiscent of private school uniforms.
“We’re all in one great big club,” says biker Scott Lyon “The biker becomes simply a biker. Doctor, lawyer, shop owner – it doesn’t matter. Most people are just people.”