Love Ride will return to Castaic Lake on Oct. 23

One of the nation’s iconic motorcycle charity events will return to Castaic Lake this year. Led by “Tonight Show” host Jay Leno, Love Ride 28 will take place Oct. 23 and revisit the venue that helped grow the ride into an event that has drawn as many as 18,000 bikers and raised as much as $1.7 million for charities annually.

The Love Ride went on an economy-induced hiatus in 2009 and returned last year as a radically scaled-back event limited to 1,000 riders who traveled to Calamigos Ranch in Malibu Hills. The last time the Love Ride was held in Castaic Lake was 2006.

Peter Fonda, Larry Hagman and Willie G. Davidson are among the celebrity bikers who will participate in Love Ride 28. Country duo Montgomery Gentry will perform. Autism Speaks, an autism science and advocacy organization, is the designated charity.

New to the event this year is a 22-dealer support network that will allow individual Southern California Harley-Davidson dealerships to serve as launch points. Previous years’ rides have left from Harley-Davidson of Glendale, the dealership that started the Love Ride in 1984.