Bob Collins
Harley-Davidson and Ryder, N.D., have a love affair going.
The motorcycle company needed a town to use for a promotion showing how easy it is to learn to ride a motorcycle. The town’s water tower needed a coat of paint.
So the two got together last week. All motorycle-riding-able residents of the town agreed to take motorcycle lessons; the water tower got a new paint job with Harley-Davidson emblazoned on the side.
Only a handful of residents have Harleys. But 85 are learning how to ride one, Forbes reports.
“Some citizens thought it was horrible that I was inviting Harley-Davidson to town,” Mayor Jody Reinisch said. “All we knew about motorcycles was biker gangs in movies, so they were scared. But Harley came and made a bunch of videos and took a lot of photographs, and before the event on Saturday, 100 percent of the town was behind us.”
What about that water tower?
“I said, ‘Go for it,'” Reinisch recalled. “We didn’t have the money to do it ourselves. In a small town with no economic development, we couldn’t turn that down.”
It’s got some now, apparently. Forbes said Harley fans have shown up in town to have their picture taken with the water tower.
For the promotion, Ryder unofficially changed its name to Rider.
