ReZoom

You can hear it at the Great Wall and on Wall Street, in the surliest ghettos and the snobbiest gated communities: potato-potatopotato-potato-potato. The idling of Harley-Davidson's iron horses – about the most sensuous sounds America has ever loosed on the world.

Last year the company rode out the biggest herd of new motorcycles in its century-old history. With baby boomers collectively coming into the greatest amount of disposable income the world has ever seen, most of the tens of thousands of bikes Harley sold went to the "Easy Rider" generation.

"There's a mystique about bikes," says actor Mickey Jones. "Nostalgia is a huge part, but there's a lot more to it." If you can't place Jones, just imagine any beefy, bearded biker in any movie within the last 25 years, and you're probably thinking of Mickey.

"There'll always be an outlaw element that draws a lot of people to start riding," he continues. "They may be poseurs, but on a bike they can at least look like bad boys, I guess. But when it comes right down to it, we ride because there's just nothing better than the wind hitting your face on the open road. Hell, if I could drive my truck with my head out the window, I would."

Committed to Cool 

For as long as boomers have been going to movies, Hollywood has fueled their motorcycle worship. From "The Wild One" to "Motorcycle Diaries" to this year's "Wild Hogs," starring John Travolta, Tim Allen, William H. Macy and Martin Lawrence, Hollywood always framed cycles as a catalyst of cool. And baby boomers have always been committed to cool.

"There's something very unique and liberating about a motorcycle and its throwback to the Old West," explains Walt Becker, who directed "Wild Hogs."

Men on a Mission to Find Their Cool

Becker's modern-day tale of midlife crisis follows Travolta and his cohorts who set out on the open road astride massive (not to mention expensive) motorcycles when their high-stress suburban lives threaten to strangle the last vestige of humanity, and masculinity, out of them.

"My dad went on this same journey," Becker says. "During one of his midlife crises, he and a bunch of friends, stock brokers and lawyers, went on road trip. He bought a new Harley, full leathers, even got his ear pierced, the whole deal, so I saw this whole thing in person."

Straddling Thunder

Be it the call of the wild or just a passion to straddle 700 pounds of rumbling thunder, boomers love their bikes. And the filmmakers are counting on that.

"(‘Easy Rider') inspired the country. This movie is kind of (its) second coming," says screenwriter Brad Copeland. "This is ‘Easy Rider' 20 years later," adds Becker. "These are the guys who didn't make the trip with Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper."

Industry trends indicate a lot of boomers lament not making that trip (though they're probably forgetting how the movie ends). Registered cycles in America shot up to nearly 6 million by 2004, thanks largely to boomer bikers, who increased almost 50 percent from 1990-2003.

In contrast to the Hells Angels' stereotypical image of who rides a motorcycle, most of the weekend riders cruising the highways of America are more likely to be Wall Street traders dealing in Harley stock than town-sacking thugs. And fittingly, the generation that filled the first ranks of the Peace Corps managed to mix a little compassion in with their new passion.

"I think more money has been raised by bikers than just about anybody else," says Jones, whose benefit rallies have raised more than $1 million for children's charities. Jay Leno's "Love Ride" pulled 20,000 riders last November, raising $1.7 million with celebs like Steven Tyler, Larry Hagman, Jones and even Pat Boone sliding into black leather for charity.

"It's not just the rich yuppies, but Vietnam veterans and even the outlaw guys – everybody comes out for charity," Jones says. "It's really something to see a row of hairy-legged bikers crying outside a children's cancer ward at a benefit ride."