Florida, April 2022
It wasn’t at all apparent what lay ahead in Maja’s future when she climbed onto the pillion seat of a rented Street Glide^® in Miami. Cruising downtown, the streets were far from smooth, and her initial excitement was bounced out of her by the time they had reached the city limits; plus, the bike was red and not black as she had hoped for. However, the beauty of their route heading south to the Florida Keys was certainly a distraction.

This was the first time that Maja had been a pillion rider or even sat on a bike at all, apart from the odd photo opportunity here and there. She soaked up the scenery and reminisced about scenes from old movies as they crossed the Seven Mile Bridge in the sunshine, miraculously dodging the rain showers, but she nevertheless couldn’t get used to sitting still for hours and not being at the controls.

Portugal
Some months later, Maja found herself in Europe, sitting on the back of yet another Street Glide (this time it was black!), touring the ancient sights of Portugal. On this occasion, it felt like something had changed and she was enjoying the moment – still not liking the lack of control but enjoying the ride and the memories it was producing. She had become more relaxed but also more focused, because she now had a vision in her mind, together with a defined image which she had installed as her phone’s screensaver: her own Harley-Davidson in black, which she had named Vlad and which would be dressed with the ‘Wild One’ accessories collection.

England
In April 2023, a couple of days into a two-week trip riding through Spain and France to England in the pillion seat, Maja decided that enough was enough. Staring at her screensaver, she swiped open her phone and posted on social media the words “Born to be a solo rider”. She then promptly found herself an instructor and riding school and booked herself on a riding course that would take her licence from 50cc to unlimited. By the time days 13 and 14 of the trip came around, back in Lisbon, she sat in the hotel lobby in the afternoons listening to the mandatory four-hour online lectures on new rider techniques. She had started her next chapter.

Slovenia
A few full moons later, after flying through the theory test and carefully navigating the cones on the school playground, Maja was on the road on a 700cc learning bike, followed closely by her instructor Marian shouting into her earpiece. This love/hate relationship would endure for 42 hours of lessons, road after road and street after street. Whilst chasing each other through the Slovenian countryside during the many hours of training, they had discovered a family connection: Marjan’s mother, a milliner, had trained as a young girl in Maja’s grandfather’s master milliner workshop in the ’60s. They reminisced while drinking tea on a pit stop at Maja’s mum’s house before jumping back on the bikes for more kilometres of Marian shouting into her ear. He was pushing her, pushing her hard; he knew that winter was around the corner and the snow was coming.

Then, finally, one very cold late autumn day that same year, whilst dodging torrential downpours, the shouting came to an end with the words, “you’ve passed!”

The rain was replaced with tears of elation, joy and relief; Maja had ridden her way into a new life behind bars.

Lisbon
November 29, 2023, 10am. Maja was excited but also unsure and nervous; she had ridden her new bike before on a short test ride, but today she would throw her leg over and have to make her way through the city traffic and then ride 260 kilometres south for her first free run. The traffic, the hills, the cobblestones – let alone navigating her way out of this unknown city in its weekday chaos – were not obstacles that she had seen in her dreams. As her panic built and as the finishing touches were made before the official handover of her new Sportster^® S, she looked down the street and heard the sound of other Harleys arriving – bikes that she recognised! What were they doing here?

Director Mike and his sidekick Jules, from the H.O.G. Algarve Chapter had ridden up early through the cold morning fog to escort Maja on her first run. She was relieved to see them.

Together, they rolled out through the busy city streets, negotiating the endless intersections and roundabouts. Relieved to leave the city behind and elated and relaxed as she crossed the 16km Vasco de Gama bridge, she settled into the journey and her new ride. Surrounded by her posse escorting her south, she found a moment to reminisce about her journey to her achievement with a warm smile, as she realised that she was living her dream.

UNITED WE RIDE!