84-year-old still cruising strong

Love of motorcycles becomes a family affair

KOOTENAI - A while back, Jesse Vanhorn got a new motorcycle. His son picked it up for him from a man who had turned 60 and decided it was just too much bike for him to try and manage at that age.

As money exchanged hands, the man took a last, long look at his Honda 750 and admitted that it saddened him how the advancing years had forced him to let it go.

“I'm getting too old to ride it,” the seller said.

“I hope you enjoy it as much as I have,” he added, pocketing the cash with a sigh.

“Oh, I'm not buying it for me,” the son replied. “I'm buying it for my dad.”

The seller shot a look at his wife and back to the man with whom he had just sealed a deal.

“Well, how old is he?” the surprised fellow asked.

The son grinned, picturing the man who would no doubt be straddling the motorcycle before the end of the day.

“He's 73,” he said.

That was more than 10 years ago and, at 84 years old, Jesse Vanhorn is still climbing onto that bike for his annual cross-country trips.

“This family has more or less grown up around bikes,” he said. “We all ride ‘em.”

His oldest son, Gene, plans the road trips and Jesse gladly rolls along for the ride. Most times, it'll be Gene and his wife, Arlene, on the lead bike, another couple bringing up the rear and dad cruising in center position. In that configuration, they've traveled down the California coastline, explored the winding roads of British Columbia, visited Mount Rushmore a number times and motored into Sturgis, SD, for the yearly gathering of Harley-Davidson fanatics.

Last year, the event drew more than 500,000 people - not all of them riding Harleys. Still, Honda owners like the Vanhorn group are in the minority.

“Sturgis is just a little hole-in-the-wall and the main street is only about six blocks long,” Jesse said. “For all that way, it's solid Harley-Davidsons.

“We end up parkin' our Hondas way off the main drag, because we're ridin' oddballs,” he added.

Until recently, bikers on anything but one of the throaty, two-cylinder Harleys would never get the motorcyclist's traditional highway greeting from those riders - a subtle lift of the fingers off the handlebar to say hello in passing.

“There for a while, those Harley-Davidson riders wouldn't even wave at us on the roads,” Jesse said. “But now, we've kind of made friends.

“I think it was because they'd be ridin' along with their hair flyin' around and eatin' bugs while we were cruisin' behind windshields with our radios on.”

On average, the Vanhorns spend about 10 days on their annual cruises. As far as Jesse is concerned, it doesn't much matter where they go, as long as they're going.

You can almost smell the salt air and feel the chill of fog in the breeze when he talks about riding down Highway 101 over the Golden Gate Bridge and through the redwoods. The prairie wind and the power of the bike come to life as he describes barreling along a straight stretch of road on the way to visit the Little Bighorn Battlefield.

It's those stops - whether at museums, national parks or tourist stops along the way - that make a trip worthwhile, according to Jesse. And nearly all of the best spots are found well off the freeway, he added.

“You pull into one of those small towns that only have one restaurant and you'll get some of the best meals you ever ate,” he said.

Jesse's first memory of big bikes was being a 4-year-old clinging to the gas tank for daredevil rides on his oldest brother's side-shift Indian motorcycle. A year or two later, his brother would sling him onto the seat behind him and tour the dirt roads around the Colorado farm where they grew up. He later continued the family tradition by teaching his own grandchildren to ride.

“I sponsored my grandkids in motocross for three years,” he said. “We used to have a good time every Sunday takin' a picnic lunch up there to watch ‘em.”

“It was a thrill - everybody would be hollerin' and yellin' when those little kids came across the finish line.”

These days, though, Jesse Vanhorn doesn't take riders. He's not as comfortable as he used to be with the responsibility of having a passenger on board, but still feels confident handling the big 750 on his own. And his family doctor has pronounced him fit for this year's ride.

“After he looked me over, he told me to keep bikin',” Jesse said.

Once again this year, he will gladly follow that advice.

“We've taken a long trip every year since I retired at 62,” he said. “I'm 84 now - you figure it up.”

His son is looking into trading over to a three-wheeled “trike” for the long trips. Jesse said that, someday, such a move might make sense for him.

“If I get any older,” he joked, “I might have to put training wheels on mine, too.”

After more than 20 years of cross-country motorcycle trips, Jesse Vanhorn has experienced challenges brought about by weather and mechanical failure - his son once towed him and his Honda all the way back from Canada on the end of a piece of rope when a transmission froze up - but the people are universally friendly and fine.

“You run into the most wonderful folks you'd ever want to meet on the road - people from Mexico, wheat farmers from Kansas, riders from New York, he said. “It's a wonderful world, this bike ridin' world.”