ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, July 28, 1996 TAG: 9607290059
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DIANE STRUZZI STAFF WRITER
HOP ABOARD and hang on. The Roanoke chapter of the Harley Owners Group is raising money for breast cancer research.
The peach-and-black Harley-Davidson is your ride. Its motor rumbles. The chrome glistens in the Saturday morning sun.
You pull on a helmet and step on above the idling engine - your body squeezed between a biker in front and a low seat back.
Your Harley moves forward, another Hog falls in line, and then another. Soon there's a cluster of eight bikes, engines revving.
You say you've never ridden a Hog before? No problem. You're in the capable hands of Ron Bailey and about to negotiate the first turns of a five-hour, 123-mile ride.
"Just sit up straight," says Bailey, the director of the Roanoke Valley Harley-Davidson Owners' Group.
As one of about 70 bikes that roll out of the Roanoke Valley Harley-Davidson shop Saturday, you're part of the first poker run for breast cancer research.
Sponsored by the 10-member local chapter of the Ladies of Harley, the benefit will raise about $2,450 for the American Cancer Society. Riders donate $5 a hand each and pick a card each time they stop.
Susan Lipes, director of the Ladies of Harley in Roanoke, organized the event. Seven years ago, the sound of the Harley - that low-note grumble that is heard long before the bike is ever seen - captured her heart. It's been a love affair ever since.
The benefit is a way to combine fun with a good cause, she says. With her fellow "ladies," she fashioned a tour that took bikers from the commercial strips of North Roanoke County to the rural hills and towns of Franklin, Patrick and Floyd counties.
Everything looks and feels a bit more real on the back of a Harley. It's tempting to reach out and touch the monstrous 18-wheelers that pass along Interstate 581 on Saturday's run. A look down reveals asphalt whizzing by in a blur of black, white and gray. Along a two-lane country road in Floyd County, the tall grass on the shoulder nearly brushes your arm as the bike leans into a turn.
"Every time I get out on bikes, it's an inspiration," says Cheryl "Ricki" Brooks, 64, of Reston, a passenger on one of the bikes. "I don't know how to ride, and I want to know so badly. ... I've always thought of bikers, Harley people, as negative. But these people are terrific. They are so dedicated and willing to do things for other people."
Brooks' daughter, Terri Joe "T.J." Rothmeier of Roanoke, always wanted to ride a motorcycle. She started when she was 14, hopping on a neighbor's minibike.
"I never had the fear," says Rothmeier, 39, who sports a tattoo on her left shoulder that proclaims part of her philosophy: "Harley a way of life."
The other part is written on her bike, "Serenity."
"It's the oneness of the higher power and with Mother Nature," Rothmeier says of her yen for motorcycling. "It helps me get rid of all that outside crap."
Brooks admires her daughter.
"She achieved her dream, and behind her I'm able to" as well, Brooks says. "That's the joy of having kids."
On the way to your destination, you see another Harley owner. You don't wave, just raise your hand in a salute.
"I think everyone who rides wants to ride a Harley," says Bailey, who's been riding for 22 years. "There's sort of a mystique."
Pulling into the Hollins Tavern on Peters Creek Road, bikes lined up in the parking lot like kids on their first day of school, you take a deep breath. The sun has scorched your shoulders. But a game of pool and some chow are waiting inside. Four ``10s'' is the winning hand. The prize: a gift certificate to the Harley shop just down the road.
Rothmeier is there, and so is her mom. The place is packed. And everyone is a friend.
"It's the brotherhood of it," Rothmeier says of riding a Harley. "And the serenity of it."
Anyone who wants more information about breast cancer can contact the American Cancer Society at (540)344-8699 or (800)ACS-2345.
LENGTH: Medium: 90 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: PHILIP HOLMAN Staffby CNB1. Terri Joe "T.J." Rothmeier of the Roanoke chapter of the
Harley Owners Group greets almost every motorcyclist she passes
Saturday on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Rothmeier participated in a
charity ride that raised more than $2,400 for the American Cancer
Society. The money will go toward breast cancer research.
2. More than 70 riders, some with friends in tow, participated in
Saturday's five-hour, 123-mile ride. color.