Harley Davidson bikers always have big bushy ginger beards

Maybe if you think of Harley Davidson Man in the abstract  ( if that’s your thing ) the image of the ‘hairy biker’ is probably what you come up with. However in real life if ever you come across a rally or a convoy of them and see lots of them together you’ll find that bushy ginger beards are in the minority although there may be a higher percentage of them than in the population at large. To insist that all bikers should have bushy beards as a mark of their calling is to deprive moviegoers of that wonderful moment in films which open with the biker in crash-helmet and leathers  karate-chopping their way though an entire Chinese tong and then removes the helmet ,  coolly flicks the hair loose  and  –  surprise surprise   –  it’s a girl. Wow, bet the screenplay-writer was proud of himself when he came up with that one.  The ‘hard look’ is certainly what goes with the territory but there are many other ways of achieving it, though underneath they are sweeties.  Leathered and booted bikers are the natural successors to the hardy pioneers of the wild American West  – those hornswoggling cowboys toughened in the transition from horse to motorbike by the many accidents caused by  digging their spurs into the back wheel spokes .  (*****)

(Alex Swamps, Chiswick) - eject