Good Vibrations : Motorcyclists’ ‘Love Ride 9’ to Help Fight Muscular Dystrophy Roars Through Piru

The normally quiet town of Piru reverberated Sunday with the sounds of more than 11,000 motorcycle riders gunning their bikes up Main Street on their way to Lake Piru Recreation Area.

But these were not just ordinary motorcycle riders--they were bikers with a cause.

The motorcycle riders were raising money for the Muscular Dystrophy Assn.’s “Love Ride 9,” an annual event that has grown from 600 riders in 1983 to become the largest charity motorcycle ride in the country.

The charity ride begins in Glendale each year and previously ended at Malibu Creek State Park, but organizers said the crowds had outgrown that location, so they moved it to Lake Piru.

And, while other communities throughout the nation have protested being the site of various motorcycle-riders’ conventions, Piru residents appeared to welcome the invasion.

Dozens of residents lined the yards of the older, wood and stucco single-family houses along Main Street in the late morning and early afternoon to see and greet the bikers as they poured into Piru after starting from Glendale at 10 a.m.

Some residents shot pictures of the event, several waved American flags or black POW/MIA banners and a few displayed signs saying unkind things about the state law requiring motorcycle riders to wear helmets, signs sure to appeal to the bikers going past.

After reaching Lake Piru, the bikers were treated to an afternoon of live entertainment, a picnic lunch and beer.

Comedian Jay Leno was grand marshal for this year’s ride, and other celebrities, including country-and-Western singer Dwight Yoakum, entertained the crowd.

Many of the motorcycle riders, who each contributed at least $40 to ride in the event, said they appreciated the welcome from Piru residents and other bystanders and motorists who had waved and honked at them during the morning’s trip.

But Darin Morse, a longhaired, leather-clad 26-year-old from Lomita, said people tend to forget that bikers participate in such charitable work.

“People don’t remember stuff like this. They only remember the bad things that bikers do,” Morse said.

Sunday’s event raised $900,000 that will go to operate six Muscular Dystrophy Assn. clinics in the Los Angeles area, a summer camp for children and for medical research grants.

Oliver Shokouh, a Harley-Davidson dealer from Glendale who is the founder and sponsor of the event, said he blames Hollywood movies and motorcycle riders’ apparel for the stereotype of bikers as rowdy outlaws.

“The actual fact is bike riders are just like everybody else,” Shokouh said. “They look different because they wear leathers and boots just like skiers look different” in their sports outfits.

Indeed, most of the crowd wore at least one article of clothing identifying themselves as bikers--a black leather jacket, a Harley-Davidson bandanna tied around their heads or the seemingly requisite pair of cowboy boots.

One woman decked out in full biker regalia was Trudy Beach, 31, a blonde manicurist from Northridge, who rode on the back of her boyfriend’s Harley-Davidson.

Beach, dressed for the event in a black leather jacket, black slacks and boots, said this was her first Love Ride.

“I wanted to feel those 10,000 bikes,” said Beach. “It definitely was worth it. It really was a rush,” she said, adding that she got goose bumps when all the motorcycles revved up at the starting point.

Beach and other women at the event appeared to nearly match the number of men, and there were also children sprinkled throughout the crowd. But this was no ordinary family-style picnic.

Shouted expletives punctuated the air and off-color humor dominated the conversation among many of the groups eating, drinking and lounging on the grass.

However, Lake Piru Recreation Area officials said there were no arrests or disturbances at the event. In addition to eight park agents, there were six California Highway Patrol officers, 15 U. S. Forest Service workers and at least 10 Ventura County sheriff’s deputies at the lake Sunday helping to direct traffic and keep an eye on the crowds, said park manager Doug West.

Stacie Beranek, 33, who rode on the back of her husband’s motorcycle, said bikers try to outdo each other with their raucous humor.

“The more crude, the more crass, the more perverted, the more attention you get” from fellow bikers, Beranek said. “It’s all in fun.”

Beranek, who said she has a 3-year-old son named Harley David after the beloved American-made motorcycle, came on Love Ride 9 even though she is visibly pregnant.

Such examples of devotion to motorcycle riding are found only in America, said one Italian who rode in Sunday’s event.

In Italy, said Guido Bracchetti, 27, motorcycle riding is a sport mainly for young people, but in America you see bikers of all ages, he said.

“It’s like a religion here.”