The year was 2005, and my aging father had caught the biker bug again. Having ridden motorcycles since he was about 14, through my own childhood years, it had been a few decades since Dad had owned a street bike himself. He had always wanted to own a Harley, so he visited a nearby dealership. He rode out with a beautiful 2005 candy apple red Dyna Super Glide that day.
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I briefly spoke with motorcycle racer Kayla Yaakov last year, in the Rahal Ducati Racing paddock area at Road Atlanta. She was cheerful, chatty, smiling ear to ear, diminutive in stature, but 10 feet tall in passion and drive. If you didn’t know she was a professional motorcycle racer, and a very successful one at that, you would be forgiven for merely mistaking her for an enthusiastic teenager. Her wide-eyed wonder, combined with her laser-focused skills on a race bike, have propelled her to stardom in the MotoAmerica road racing series, and she deservedly has become the talk of the track.
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As a kid, I loved watching the coverage of the annual Bonneville Speed Trials, whenever one of the networks would feature it. The sight of all kinds of speed machines, from motorcycles to rocket cars, going flat out as fast as possible down the miles of flat salt, just captured my imagination. I dreamed of pinning the throttle on a long, low, two-wheeled, fire breathing beast, roaring through the speed traps, head down, tucked in behind a small fairing, the finish line faint in the distance ahead, breaking 200+ mph while hanging on for dear life.
Yeah, Bonneville captured my imagination.
“Oh yeah, I remember this well.”
Such was my reaction upon taking the 2025 Harley-Davidson Street Glide out for a check ride, once I got it back home. On loan from our friends at EAGLERIDER, the 2025 Street Glide would be my steed for our trip to the spring Thunder Beach Motorcycle Rally in Panama City Beach, Florida. Having ridden the 2024 model down at Daytona Bike Week back in 2024, I felt instantly familiar with Harley’s popular touring motorcycle.
Good thing too, evidenced by how our trip began the following morning.
Celebrating its 26th year, the Thunder Beach rally has been held annually since 1999. Originally called the “Bike & Beach Bash”, the event was first organized by the HOG chapter of Macon, Georgia, along with local PCB organizers. By year two, the name was changed to Thunder Beach Motorcycle Rally, and has since become a twice yearly event, in April-May and the fall rally in October. The week-long event has grown into one of the largest free motorcycle rallies in America, with its own flavor of vendors, stunt shows, custom bike contests, concerts and scenic day rides.
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You hear them before you see them.
I am down by the wall on the front straight at Road Atlanta, as the King of the Baggers riders approach the hill and bridge after turn 10B. The bikes haven’t come into view yet, but their growl is already wafting through the paddock and down pit lane. Suddenly they are visible, one by one diving under the bridge then plunging down the hill and throttling hard right onto the front straight. I set the pit board over the fence, displaying Harley-Davidson Factory Racing team rider Bradley Smith’s position, gap to the rider behind him, and laps left. He’s holding off Indian’s Troy Herfoss for 3rd, as the whole field of bikes roar past at over 160 mph, then lean right up the hill at turn 1.
I feel them in my chest, as they blast past me at speeds these bikes shouldn’t be capable of.
Pulling into our church parking lot Sunday morning, no sooner had I found a space and pulled off my helmet, when an elder gentleman (pony tail, braided beard- clearly a fellow biker) and his wife chatted me up. “That’s a beautiful old Triumph you’ve got there… oh wait, that’s not a Triumph!” he exclaimed. “A Royal Enfield! I haven’t seen one of those in years! What year is that?” I replied, “A 2026, if you can believe it.” It led to a pleasant conversation into the church building, about the beauty and nostalgia of so many motorcycles in Royal Enfield’s lineup, and particularly this gorgeous new Classic 650.
We’ve only had this motorbike for a week now, and it has elicited this kind of response everywhere we’ve ridden and parked it.
Aprilia is actually producing a limited run of commemorative motorbikes, mostly for the American market, but a few to be offered worldwide. The Aprilia X 250th is a drop-dead gorgeous facsimile of the GP machines the Trackhouse Racing team are rolling, and for a cool $150K you can own one yourself. Of course, it’s not street legal, running a V4 65°, 1099cc mill with SBK racing specifications. It’s clearly meant to make the same technology developed in racing available to those who intend to compete at top levels in factory derivative series, or for those who want to own an RSV4 or Tuono V4 with top tier performance.
And who want to shout “‘Merica!” every time and everywhere they ride or display it.
The annual worldwide distinguished gentleman‘s ride celebrates 15 years this May. This yearly charity ride raises awareness and support for men’s prostate cancer research and treatment, as well as men’s mental healthcare. Benefiting the Movember Foundation, this ride is near and to our hearts here at Road Dirt, as several of us have found ourselves dealing with those issues in our own lives.
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