Mild Ride

On Sunday, George Sepulveda felt he was among equals.

He didn’t care whether the guy next to him was the chief executive of a large corporation or a blue-collar worker. As long as they rode Harleys, they were in, said the 44-year-old contractor from Orange.

“It’s a great equalizer,” Sepulveda said. “Who cares what you do for a living?”

Never mind that there was hardly anything equal about his $55,000 customized motorcycle and the nearly 5,000 other Harley-Davidsons from throughout Southern California that descended on San Buenaventura State Beach for an annual fund-raiser. It was a Harley, and that’s all there was to it.

As the leather-clad bikers slowly turned the state beach parking lot into a sea of chrome handlebars and customized gas tanks, organizers said they hoped Beach Ride ’96 would raise about $150,000 for the Exceptional Children’s Foundation, a 50-year-old nonprofit organization that serves people with mental and developmental disabilities.

“Bikers are ordinary community people who love to ride and feel free on their bikes,” said Art Naddour, president of the foundation and organizer of this year’s ride. Now in its fifth year, the Beach Ride, which raised $90,000 last year, is a living proof of bikers’ community spirit, Naddour said.

On Sunday, there were plenty of tough-looking tattooed bikers with scraggly graying beards, their heads wrapped in bandannas.

But while the image of the outlaw biker is still in, bikers are more likely to show up at a charity fund-raiser than wreak havoc, said Gregg Daniels of Agoura, associate editor of Easyriders Magazine.

“The old days when bikers came into town tearing things up don’t happen any more,” Daniels said. “Bikers these days are just looking for respect. Treat me right and I’ll treat you right.”

Well, not all agreed. At least one biker at the Beach Ride prided himself in his gang keeping the police busy. Even so, state park officials said Sunday’s event passed without incident.

Early Sunday morning, bikers gathered at 16 Harley-Davidson dealerships across Southern California for the trek to Ventura. The show attracted biker groups ranging from the legendary Hells Angels to the Christian Motorcyclists Assn. and the RUBS--Rich Urban Bikers.

The event featured a biker-wear fashion show, a tattoo contest, custom motorcycle contests, motorcycle workshops, a swap meet and several rock groups, including headliner Blood, Sweat & Tears. Sepulveda’s bike--with its intricate paint job, high-polished chrome and custom wheels--won best in show.

Cruising along the state beach in a wheelchair, Ray Nachtway looked like an unlikely biker. But the 38-year-old Vista Mar artist, who broke his back 15 years ago in a motorcycle accident, still rides. On Sunday, he hopped from his wheelchair onto a customized side-car that is equipped with a steering wheel and is attached to a special motorcycle. With Angel, a long-hair Chihuahua, sitting on his lap, Nachtway rode to Ventura and paid the $20 admission fee.

“It’s a good way to raise money,” Nachtway said.

Since his accident, Nachtway has ridden more than 150,000 miles in trips around the United States, Europe and North Africa and the Middle East. His specialized bike was featured at the World’s Fair in Seville in 1992.

He wasn’t the only cross-country rider at the Beach Ride.

Julie Harvey, a 30-year-old software engineer who lives in Encino, rode her 1996 Harley-Davidson Fatboy to California from her former home in Virginia just this winter. Harvey was one of many women at the beach ride who said sitting on the back of a motorcycle just won’t cut it. On Sunday, she rode to Ventura with two of her girlfriends.

“It’s a lot of fun riding Harleys,” Harvey said. “When people see a bunch of girls on bikes, they give us the thumbs up.”

Harvey said she joined the beach ride both because it was a good fund-raiser and it was fun.

“It cracks me up just checking out the diversity of people,” she said. “It’s amazing. You put on a Harley jacket, and there’s a great spirit of kinship with all these people.”