ReZoom

In the 1970's, Arthur Reuther sold his motorcycle and settled down with his family. But once the kids were grown, it was time to gas up and go.

Talk about your happy holidays: In 1974, 14-year-old Arthur Reuther found a brand new Honda CB 360 standing next to the Christmas tree. Amazingly, he lives to tell the tale.

"I never crashed," Reuther said, knocking wood. "You know, riding a motorcycle is not as dangerous as people make it out to be."

But as Reuther slashed through the streets of middle Tennessee, time marched on. He found work in the automobile industry and got married. Soon enough, a child was on the way. Then another one. Somewhere in there, the bike got sold, and Reuther slowly resigned himself to a lifetime of gazing down the open road through a windshield.

Of course, inner rebellions are the hardest to quell. When he was 24, Reuther owned and maintained a Honda Shadow, which he kept at his grandmother's house so that the wife wouldn't find out. "Whenever I wanted to ride," he said, "I'd go visit grandma."

As the kids grew older and Reuther came into some money — after selling a property he co-owned with his uncle, Bob — the itch to ride came back with a vengeance. As a matter of fact it was Bob, then approaching 70, who wooed him back to the riding lifestyle.

"My uncle bought a Harley so I thought, ‘Yeah, why not?'" Reuther said. "Then I just bought another one and another one and another one. It wasn't cheap, but these bikes have great resale value. It's not like buying a car."

As of this writing, Reuther, 47, owns a 2005 Harley Electra Glide Classic (a revamped version of the bike made famous in the 1973 Robert Blake thriller, "Electra Glide in Blue"), a 2007 Harley Heritage Soft Tail, a 2004 Harley Screaming Eagle Deuce, a Yamaha 2006 FZ6 (which Reuther calls, "kind of a toned down crotch rocket"), a Suzuki 800 and, yes, a 1974 Honda CB 360, the same bike he received from his mother on that fateful Christmas day.

"I found a replica in a little hock shop," he said. "It was titled to the father of a girl I went to high school with. Maybe I sold it to him, I don't remember."

But while the Honda was bought in tribute to his past, the Harleys were bought for riding. Every summer for the past five years, Reuther and a group of fellow cycling enthusiasts go on a trip. The group has been all over the southeast, west, northwest and, of course, the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally — the mecca of motorcycling.

"I've been all over the place on these things," he said. "Your vision on a bike is totally different than your vision in a car, even a convertible. It's a 360-degree view with nothing blocking it."

Which begs the question, with this 360-degree view, has Reuther ever seen any trouble on the road? After all, Harley-Davidson riders have a certain reputation for, shall we say, indiscretion.

"I'm sure there are certain riders out there that don't mind trouble, but I don't run across them," he said. "Harleys create a kind of weird brotherhood. It doesn't matter if you're upper or middle or lower class. You got a Harley, it's all good."

When asked about how much longer he plans on riding, Reuther shrugged.

"I figure I can do it for at least the next 15 or 20 years," he said. "My uncle Bob is 79 and he's still cruising."