STRICTLY BUSINESS: 1,500 HARLEY-DAVIDSONS AND COUNTING

Imagine, if you can, more than 1,500 Harley-Davidson motorcycles, all in a line, parading from the west side of Cape Girardeau to the downtown area.

That's a lot of bikes, and there may be more.

"It could go as high as 2,000 motorcycles," said Dan Tumbleson of Minor's Harley-Davidson/Suzuki Sales Inc., 905 Enterprise in Cape Girardeau. "We keep getting calls."

It's the annual Missouri "Hog Rally." Events are scheduled over three days, Sept. 7-9, with the kickoff event to be held at Southeast Missouri District Fairgrounds, at Arena Park.

"We're expecting as many as 3,000 to 4,000 people here," said Terri Clark-Bauer, executive director of the Cape Girardeau Convention Visitors Bureau.

There's no rooms at the inns that weekend.

About every motel from Sikeston to Perryville is filled," Clark- Bauer said.

The rally is attracting people from a six-state area.

A number of events have been planned for the visitors, including the 7 p.m. parade downtown on a Saturday.

The fall event will be the culmination of more than two years in the planning.

The local club here -- SEMO Hogs -- invited the Missouri Hog Association two years to plan its 2001 event for Cape Girardeau, said Tumbleson.

"This is a fun time for motorcyclists," he said.

Tumbleson explains a couple of the events:

"One is the ball drop," he said. Orange cones are placed along a trail. Motorcyclists have a passenger for this event, and the passengers have to place a tennis ball on top of the cone as they pass it.

The "Slow Poke" event is for drivers, "to see how slow they can ride down a 75- to 80-foot long, two-foot-wide lane, without getting out of the lines. We also have some non-bike event, like a three-legged race," said Tumbleson.

Tumbleson will take part in the events.

Also in the activities will be Sonny Minor, owner of the Minor dealership.

Minor and his wife, Barbara, are on a vacationing bike ride now, but will be back for the three-day rally.

Harleys have a lot of history

Somewhere every weekend, some Harley-Davidson riders gather for a rally, where they participate in a number of nostalgic activities. Hobbyists spent up to $2,500 for a few days of riding.

The Hells' Angels image has all but disappeared, and a new profile of riders has emerged, said Tumbleson.

Today's riders have grown into a legion of chief executives, bankers, businessmen, and high profile entertainers.

The "typical" Harley owner/rider today is in his/her 40s or 50s, and earns a salary of about $70,000.

Sixty-seven percent of the riders are married, and 50 percent of them are college graduates.

Ten percent of Harley owners are women, added Tumbleson.

And they all ride for recreation.

The price of a Harley ranges from $15,000 to $25,000.

Colorful stories

Harleys have much colorful history. Consider this story:

A cyclist riding through a rural area stopped at a garage sale.

He talked to the old man holding the sale, and the man proudly showed him an old Harley that, despite being garaged, was beginning to rust.

For $200, he told the motorcyclist, he would sell the Harley just to get the hunk of junk out of his garage.

The motorcyclist jumped on the offer. He had been looking for a bike to restore.

After getting the bike home, he eagerly began to work on it. He called the local Harley Davidson dealership to order some parts. Could they have the VIN (vehicle identification number), the store rep asked, explaining the number was needed to order proper parts.

The next day, the owner of the dealership called -- not to say parts were in, but to offer $250,000 for the bike.

Suspicious (naturally) the guy turned the offer down.

The next day, the offer was back on the table -- this time at $400,000.

Turning $200 into $400,000 in less than a week could buy a lot of rides on a brand new Harley. So the owner of the old bike took the offer and collected his certified check.

Seems Elvis Presley had owned this particular bike.

And, beneath the seat, it was engraved, "To Priscilla, Love Elvis."

Many variations of this story have floated around over the past half-dozen years, including an Associated Press story in 1995.

All are interesting, but are probably nothing more than a tall tale.

What is true, however, is that Elvis was a Harley-Davidson enthusiast, and owned a number of bikes. Graceland, Elvis' Memphis, Tenn., home and one of the two most visited houses in the United States, second to the White House in Washington, D.C., has three or four of Elvis' Harleys on display.

The Harley Davidson Motorcycle came into being in 1903, when William Harley, Arthur Davidson, Walter Davidson and William Davidson, built the "Silent Gray Fellow," in a shed behind the Davidson home in Milwaukee, Wis., to "take the work out of bicycling." Three of the bikes were built in 1903. A 25-cubic inch (410cc) atmospheric-inlet-valve single-cylinder engine powered the first Harley.

The H-D was an immediate hit, and during the almost 100 years (the idea started in 1901) of H-D production, the company has made almost every type of two-wheeled vehicle -- the giant cruisers, scooters, customs -- and is more widely popular now than ever.

Ray Owen is business editor for the Southeast Missourian.