Page 158 - A Life - my Live - my path

Harley-Davidson trips

17.1 The big bikes - Harley-Davidson
It's 1995, I'm well into my forties and the urge to ride a big
motorcycle is on my mind. When I was young, I had ridden
a little on a moped in Belgium, and a few times on vacation
with my aunt and uncle in the Ain region of France.
As I had no knowledge of the subject, I spent the best part
of a year buying motorcycle magazines to read up on the
models and performances of the time. Right from the start,
my choice was Harley-Davidson, because if you're going to
ride a motorcycle for the sake of riding a motorcycle, it might
as well be a legend! That was my opinion.
The choice of Harley-Davidson was not an insignificant
one. Americans systematically associate it with "The way
of life", which refers to the American ethic embodied in the

Declaration of Independence: life, liberty and the pursuit
of happiness. This seemed to me to be almost as important
- if not more so - than the search for the Holy Grail.

After a brief period of exploring, I decided to take a course
at a motorcycle school. The person at reception had
suggested I take 6 hours of lessons, so I asked for 10, as I
really wanted to feel at ease on a big bike. The lessons were
superb. We began - in slow motion - to slalom around cones
spaced 10 meters apart. Then we had to turn around every
other cone and move on to the next ones. Once you'd
completed this exercise, you had to repeat it, holding the
handlebars with one hand only, the right and then the left.
Here, you quickly realize that the two hands don't have the
same dexterity - at least, not in my case. We ended this series

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