Utah - Varied backgrounds come together on the open road
Bikeriders have changed since the days of Danny Lyon.
Today, in Park City, the Treasure Mountain International School vice Principal hits the open road on his VTX 1800.
To kick off the "Danny Lyon: Bikeriders" exhibit, the Kimball Art Center hosted a Poker Ride, dinner at Butcher's Chop House and showing of Easy Rider at the Sky Lodge. The event, like motorcycle culture in general, attracted a range of participants, from Kevin McIntosh, the TMIS vice Principal, to Cowboy, a Utah native pictured in the Bikeriders exhibit.
Bikeriders, on display at the Kimball Art Center now through July 26, shows the lifestyle of the Chicago Outlaw Motorcycle club in the American Midwest from 1964-1967. The photos depict the fringe culture associated with motorcycle riding in the '60s and, compared to the crowd that showed up on Saturday afternoon on all types of bikes, it seems that culture has changed significantly over the past half century.
Parkite Dave Vangeison grew up in Pawnee, Ill., near where Lyon shot the series.
"Culturally, it's changed substantially," Vangeison said about motorcycles.
Lyon's photos portray what Vangeison, and the motorcycle community in general, call "the one percenters" or gang members. [The term was coined to emphasize that 99 percent of motorcycle riders were law abiding citizens and only one percent were outlaws].
One of the subjects of Lyon's work is Cowboy, or Ivan Dunsdon, a Utah-native who lived in the Midwest for a few years after he was drafted into the army. Cowboy attended the event at the Kimball, chatted about the exhibit and signed photos of himself. Born in Bingham, Utah, Cowboy now lives in Salt Lake City. He has been riding motorcycles for his entire life and continues to ride with the Sundowners Motorcycle Club, a long-range motorcycle club that has members in seven states across the country.
"We ride free. We don't have to hide nothing. We don't have to hide our colors," Cowboy said of the Sundowners.
Cowboy said he had first-hand experience of the motorcycle culture's evolution. He thinks Lyon exhibit "portrays the Midwest in a unique way. There was no friction between clubs.
"We had our parties at these AMA [American Motorcyclist Association] events. All the clubs would go to the events."
Cowboy said Lyon's photos show a time before gang violence became the norm between motorcycle clubs.
"That's how we got to know each other from other groups We supported each other like that," Cowboy said.
He said that relationships between motorcycle clubs grew more violent and tense, but recently tensions have started to ease as gangs become more respectful.
"We get no friction 'cause we make no friction," Cowboy said of the Sundowners. "Respect begets respect." Cowboy said the community has learned over the years that violence and crime "draws jail, and you can't ride if you're in jail."
While able to separate gangs, motorcycles also have the potential to provide a basis for unity. "Motorcycles bring us all into the same frame of mind and it's a brotherhood."
Throughout the years and experiences, Cowboy has continued to ride and said he will always have a motorcycle-mentality. "I structure my time to make my free time available to ride and be around people who ride."
He loves riding in Utah because "you can ride 100 miles on the Interstate and everything changes around you. It's one of the most colorful states."
Other Utahns, especially those riding out of Park City, have had different experiences with motorcycles in their lives. McIntosh, who rides with VTX Riders out of Salt Lake, said that growing up in Los Angeles, he thought bike riders were "scary; something that was unfamiliar." He has had his current bike for six years and has driven it all over the West, from California to Glacier.
"It unleashes a different side to my personality; a good side, don't get me wrong, he said. "What it does for me is it gives me a release."
Vangeison, a software salesman, attended a motorcycle event in Elko earlier this month and said he found "everybody from the toothless wonders to bank presidents and they all have one thing in common and that's biking."
When asked what draws him to motorcycles he responded "one word: freedom."
Ivan Radcliff, a local U.S. bobsledder, also came out on Saturday for his first time on the road since the weather cleared up. Growing up in Houston, Texas, he has been around bikes for most of his life and feels there's no place quite like Utah to hit the open road with friends.
"When you are with experienced riders and when you are able to just go through turns and you know what that person's going to do and he knows what you're going to do, it's just a great feeling to have and to see and observe," Radcliff said.
Julie Hooker, a school teacher at TMIS, is new to the motorcycle scene. After attending the Evanston Rally, her first motorcycle event, the previous weekend, she said her attitude toward bikers had changed. The first thing she noticed at the rally was the expensive Hudson jeans worn by another woman, and she saw there were "very different cultures coming together."
"When you start to look at it, there's these really different groups of bikers," Hooker said. "They look rough around the edges but they're really good people."
Vangeison even bonds with his daughter, Allie, over bikes. A Park City High School junior, Allie has her own chaps and wants a motorcycle.
"It's hard to find something to get a 16-year-old to enjoy," Vangeison said.
When asked if he was concerned about introducing his daughter to the counter-culture behind motorcycles, his response was, "No. She likes the fringe."
But there's something about the open road that only bikeriders can understand.
According to Vangeison, when it comes to why people love motorcycles, "If you have to ask, you'll never know the answer."
Disclaimer: The opinions in this article are solely those of the writer, and may not reflect the beliefs of anyone at Outlaw Biker World.
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