Weekend bikers are a far cry from Hell’s Angels

Saturday, May 24, 2008
Last updated: Saturday May 24, 2008, EDT 8:13 PM

BY EVELYN SHIH

Staff Writer

Raymond Brunelle of Upper Saddle River is vice president of a Chicago-based food packaging company, but he has something to look forward to during the workweek in the Windy City. Every weekend, Brunelle flies home to North Jersey, dons a leather jacket and rides the region’s twisty back roads on his sports bike.

Picture: ALDO MARTINEZ Jr. / SPECIAL TO THE RECORD

“Why do some people play golf every week?” said Brunelle when asked why he goes to such lengths to ride his motorcycle. “Instead of playing golf, I ride.”

Gone are the days when motorcycle riding was equated with skull-and-wings insignias or long hair. Today, North Jersey motorcycle enthusiasts rarely fit the traditional stereotype of The Biker: They range from single moms to Wall Street traders to computer programmers. Many are baby boomers who choose biking as a lifestyle or hobby — not for an identity or a gang affiliation.

A new breed of cyclist takes to the road for pure enjoyment and “the mastery of it,” said Brunelle, 50, who leads a group of local sports bikers from April to October on two-hour rides that can cover up to 80 miles.

And weekends are their thing.

Teaneck resident Dwayne Pierce, who got his first bike almost two decades ago, said that in recent years the Internet has enabled riders of all stripes – from owners of pricey Harley Davidsons to fans of powerful sport bikes, the young to the middle aged, men and women – to connect and ride in weekend groups.

“When you’re riding on your own, it’s you and 300 cars,” said Pierce, 46, an insurance company sales representative who stopped riding for two years after he got married, but resumed when “the feeling came back.

“When you’re riding together, people know you’re there.”

Group rides are simultaneously a solitary act — each rider on his or her own vehicle — and an exercise in group movement. Good organization is key to group rides, said Jerry Volpe of Ramsey. He should know.

Seals friendships

Volpe, a retired elementary and middle school music teacher, rode a motorbike for the first time on his honeymoon in Bermuda 11 years ago and got his New Jersey motorcycle license on a whim. Today, though, he is a road captain in one of the local Harley Owners Groups (or HOGs), which organize informal weekly weekend “meet-ups” that can swell to as many as 60 riders.

“If we want to move into the left lane, I’ll tell the rear captain,” said Volpe, 61, referring to a rider at the end of the pack. “He’ll move to the left lane to block it off, then signal me. I’ll check my mirror to make sure it’s OK, signal, and move the whole group over.”

Whether it’s the effect of group-think or the simple joy of pulling off a beautiful ride with a convoy of bikers, you grow closer to people after you ride together, said Volpe and others. Pierce, for example, recently attended the wedding of a friend he met through weekend rides.

“It’s social also, when you’re off the bike,” he said. “You become close friends with many of your riding buddies.”

On a more public level, bikers band together to organize charity rides, such as the FealGood Foundation benefit on May 10, which paid tribute to those who perished on 9/11. Sponsored by the Bergen County Harley-Davidson/Buell dealership in Rochelle Park, the ride involved hundreds of cyclists and briefly closed the George Washington Bridge .

Women bikers

Local bikers also come together in faith: One of the region’s largest mass bike blessings was held earlier this month by the Christian Riders Motorcycle Club at St. John’s Church in Paterson.

Image: A "biker chick," courtesy of Spaceg.com.

“I’ve never met a bad person biking,” said Diane DiSavino of Pompton Plains, a former road captain for an all-woman riding group called the Riding Divas. She’s currently a member of the Ladies of Harley and takes trips as far as Milwaukee and Myrtle Beach, S.C. She also sees riding as a more informal tool for socializing.

“Want to meet the ladies for ice cream? Make it 8 o’clock,” she said. “Let’s go.”

A former passenger on her ex-husband’s Harley, DiSavino is one of a burgeoning number of North Jersey women moving into the driver’s seat. Nationwide, women make up a projected 11 to 12 percent of all motorcycle owners in 2008, and their numbers are growing.

DiSavino, who quit her job in January as a mortgage underwriter to join the Bergen Harley-Davidson/Buell dealership staff, finds women-only rides helpful because some female riders can be intimidated by men.

“I see couples walk in, and if the woman looks interested, the husband or boyfriend will be like, ‘Are you crazy? You can’t do that,’ÿ” said DiSavino, who runs a motorcycle safety course. Often, the woman customer will leave, and some come back – alone.

She herself loves everything about biking, down to its superstitions – like the rider’s bell. “When a new rider gets a bike, someone has to get them a bell to hang from the bike – they can’t get it themselves,” DiSavino said. “It wards off the road demons.”

E-mail: shih@northjersey.com