Why We Ride Page #7

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this next leg, this 350 miles,

you're going

to do it together.

You may have just found

a friend for life.

A lot of times

when a guy buys a motorcycle,

there's nothing more

then he wants to meet someone

and find a buddy to ride with.

You just roll in

on a motorcycle,

amongst other cyclists, and

they treat you like an equal.

You can go to the

Rock Store on a Sunday and see

a wide swath of

demographics of people.

Everybody that's in motorcycling,

they're there because they wanna be.

They love it, and they

understand that love

when they run into

another motorcycle rider.

Your point of reference is always

with the people that you're meeting,

and the place where you are,

and I think there is a degree

of respect that comes from that.

Bike night is a night

where there'll be a place,

it might be a restaurant,

might be a bar,

might be a coffee shop,

might be a parking lot,

and for whatever reason,

bikers meet there.

You park your bike, you talk

bikes with other people,

you plan rides,

maybe go out for a ride.

You know what I love about

going to a bike night?

I don't have to explain why

I have four motorcycles.

A lot of that heart and

soul of the motorcycling community

comes from the gatherings,

and you get everybody together,

you think, really, could you put

customizers in with road racers?

Are they really gonna

talk to each other?

Come to find out the common

denominator of two wheels

is so much deeper than any

of us could have ever guessed.

We all do indeed

share the same passion.

I think some of these

club events to me,

they're the real heart and soul

of the sport and the hobby.

My husband's in a

motorcycle club. It's like a family.

They all know each other,

they all ride together,

they all they all watch

out for each other.

It's passion, passion fuels

everything about motorcycling,

and camaraderie is the glue

that holds it all together.

When they come to a major event,

like Daytona,

there's a connection and I think

they lack that the rest of the year.

The first Daytona Bike Week I ever went

to, I was just like, "What is this?"

I just couldn't believe the sheer number

of motorcycles and motorcycling people.

All brands, all styles,

all ages.

If you look in that scene in Star

Wars, the bar scene, that's Bike Week.

I enjoy going to Daytona, but for me

Sturgis is... Sturgis is my homecoming.

Sturgis is Mecca

for motorcycles.

If you own a motorcycle

you have to come here

at least once,

if not all the time.

Upwards of a half a million

people having a good time.

Sturgis is a lot of

different things to a lot of different people.

To some people it's where they take

their vacation every single year.

This year will be

the 41st year in a row.

To some people it's

an opportunity

to meet up with friends who

they don't see any other time.

We have a big

block party every year.

People come visit us

from all over the place.

It's a good time

surrounded by motorcycles.

For some people,

it's about the racing.

Sturgis started out as racing,

but it stayed successful

because the riding in

the Black Hills is fabulous.

To me it was made

for motorcycling.

I think there's a reason why

Native Americans held it sacred.

There's something about the Black

Hills that is absolutely magical.

Guys come in

from all over the country.

Over 30

different nations.

Getting there is just beautiful.

We go and ride with

friends from all over the country,

sometimes the world, we've got buddies

from Italy and Australia riding with us.

You're almost

sorry sometimes when you arrive,

because the ride's over.

Every time you get on a

motorcycle you feel grateful.

You just feel grateful that

you've got the ability

to get on a motorcycle

and go be free.

And I think with a

lot of that gratefulness

comes the thought of, you know, I

should be doing something about this.

Let's help.

I just think it's a byproduct

of how the bike makes you feel.

The motorcycle community

is the most open, inviting

community that I've ever known.

They're always

raising money for charities,

and almost every time they get together,

they're doing something for somebody else.

There's millions of motorcycles

come together for different toy runs,

for burn camp runs,

cancer runs, you name it.

It's a spirit thing,

and to be charitable, uh,

it comes from within,

it comes from the soul,

it comes from the spirit, and

I think that's a common thread

is that a lot of

us ride motorcycles.

Once we started getting records, we

got opportunities to go speak to women,

and I got a chance to speak

at a troubled girls' home

in Mitchell called

the Abbott House.

It's a residential treatment

facility for girls ages 7-17,

and I spoke to these girls

and got hooked on 'em,

and I thought, what if we

take a damaged motorcycle,

literally parallel to what's

happening in their lives,

into the classroom, and help

them face and repair the damage,

transform it into

something incredible,

which is what they're doing

with their lives.

And the Abbott House gave

me a chance to do that.

Now I wrote a curriculum

in my kitchen,

and have other places licensing, so

we've got, like, five of them running now.

Mert's Hands is a nonprofit

group where I'm able to take donations

and then help people

that can't afford a hand.

This attention that he's put

into these prosthetic devices,

ways to find amputees

to get back on motorcycles

and go out and feel the wind

again in their face,

is just, you know, if that isn't

passion, I don't know what is.

Jake McCullough,

he was born without a hand.

He was a guy that was trying to motocross

and the kids are making fun of him,

"What are you doing today, gimp?"

You know, and stuff like that.

And it caused him

to be real withdrawn.

And so they called me and

purchased one of my hands.

Well, in about eight months

he was on the podium.

It has completely

turned his life around.

Getting anybody back on wheels

is a real pleasure for me.

To me, going out the

to desert is such a release,

you know, you can just kind

of get away from things.

We go out there

with a bunch of recreational bikes,

usually 30, 40 people, extended

family, cousins, aunts, uncles,

and we just have a ball.

If you go

together, it's the best thing,

because you're camping together.

Everybody's involved.

Dad's putting

the gas in your bike

while Mom's making

you a sandwich.

Made a whole weekend

out of it, a whole family thing.

Nowadays there's a

product almost for everyone in the family.

You could get a dirt bike,

you could get a couple quads,

and then just all go out

and have fun.

I get all my gear and warm up

the bikes and then I'm gone.

There's nothing better than

watching your kids absolutely play all day.

All my sons and my

daughter all rode motorcycles.

We went with my dad out

to the desert, riding,

and my husband,

and we all... took off.

It was the best time ever.

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