Kernow Harley Riders.

admin · Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2007 8:37 am Post subject: Harley lovers love Fairview too.

by Chris Zwick
Tuesday July 03, 2007
A group of Harley-Davidson lovers from Australia rode through Fairview last Friday as part of a month-long road trip through B.C. and northern Alberta.
Six ‘middle-aged’ couples, all from the Sydney area rolled into Fairview and stopped for ice cream at Burger Baron.
“We like to visit the little cafes, we like the feel of the small businesses,” said biker Graham Lees, who spoke on behalf of the group.
Councillor Jim Reynolds spotted the riders from his shop across the street and went over to welcome them on behalf of the town.
“I could tell they were silver-haired devils just like me,” said Reynolds. He approached the bikers and offered them some pins and momentos from the town.

The Aussie bikers are officially part of HOG, the Harley Owners Group, which has one million members worldwide. Lees however, calls the group AWA, also known as ‘Alzheimers with Attitude.’ “We’re spending our kids’ inheritance,” he joked.
Harley-Davidson organizes a number of tours all over the world for members of HOG, as part of the Harley Fly-Ride. “We find somewhere new to go every year,” said Lees, who is on his fourth Fly-Ride.
The Harley convoy started its 5,000 km trek in Vancouver more than two weeks ago and is now headed back to the coast. They have visited every Harley-Davidson dealer along the way. The bikers were in Slave Lake on Thursday and were told about NAIT’s Harley-Davidson program. They were eager to sneak a peak at the shop, said Lees.
NAIT graciously opened the Trev Deeley Building to the bikers and took them on a small tour of the facilities.
Lees is part of the middle-aged, Harley riding, niche group, the town would be targeting in their plan to market the ‘World’s Largest Motorcycle.” Reynolds is on the committee investigating the tourist possibilities related to the monument and sees the Australians’ visit as only a start.
“Once I started talking to them, I found out that even without the ‘World’s Largest Motorcycle,’ these people came to Fairview because they had heard of the Harley-Davidson program at NAIT. They’re our biggest ambassadors to the biking community in Australia right now,” said Reynolds.
When asked if he would visit a potential ‘World’s Largest Motorcycle’ monument in Fairview, Lees said that would be something he would like to see, and added that Australia has many of the world’s largest monuments such as the ‘World’s Largest Prawn,’ and ‘World’s Largest Banana,’ among others.
“We’ll be back,” said Lees, before departing to Grande Prairie, where they will head to Fort St. John and then south to Prince George and eventually back to Vancouver to finish their trek.