In the forecourt of a fuel station, dozens of Harley-Davidson bikers rev their engines. There is a menacing roar as they peel off in groups of five, disappearing into the desert night.
The badlands of New Mexico perhaps? Or maybe somewhere in the distant Outback of Australia? Wrong. These guys (and girls) belong to the Riyadh Chapter of HOG – the Harley Owners Group – and are out for their usual Tuesday evening ride.
The Riyadh HOG might look mean and dangerous with their leather gear and eagle and skull insignia – but when not biking they are CEOs, doctors and nine-to-five men, many with wives and kids. More like angels – without the hell bit.
Take Ehad Al-Ibrahim, a quality management executive in his early forties. “I was inspired by watching Arnold [Schwarzenegger] in Terminator 2, one hand on his Harley Fat Boy handlebar and the other holding his shotgun.”
Ehad started dreaming about biking in his teens. But Harleys are expensive, and he was 35 when he finally went ahead and invested some $18,000 in a 1690 cc Harley Wide Glide, which he’s modified over the years with a windshield, engine guard, tool bags and Mustang seat to provide some extra comfort for those long rides across the deserts of Saudi Arabia.
“I enjoy it every day,” he says. “And every moment I’m looking forward to when I get out of work, get on my bike and cruise around a little bit. And waiting for the weekends to travel longer and go farther. I’ve cruised all over Saudi Arabia. It’s especially beautiful riding through the mountains in the south. The people are a little scared when they see a group of bikers approaching – but they are so nice when we stop and talk to them. They help us back to our route when we get lost. Or they tell us about some amazing back roads.”
“I was inspired by watching Arnold [Schwarzenegger] in Terminator 2, one hand on his Harley Fat Boy handlebar and the other holding his shotgun.”
Ehad Al-Ibrahim
That ‘we’ he mentions is key. Harley riding is a collective pursuit. Founded in 2004, the HOG Riyadh Chapter is the hub for a whole range of social activities – biking for sure (every Tuesday evening and Friday morning); but also training in safety and mechanics; fun activities like bowling and meals out; and supporting charity events.
Omar Al-Sheikh, a large and genial man of Saudi-Portuguese parentage, heads up the Riyadh Chapter in the role of Director.
Like Ehad, Omar was intrigued by the biker culture as a boy. Back in California, where his mother’s family had emigrated to from the mid-Atlantic Azore Islands. “I used to see them zooming up and down the highways all the time,” he says, “and when you watch them coming in formation, you think not only is it cool – but the discipline they have when riding and the staggered formations, knowing what they’re doing without having to talk to each other, it’s like a silent language between the bikers.”
And, again, like Ehad, Omar waited until his thirties until taking the plunge into biking.
“It was down to one day,” he says. “I was driving back to Riyadh from Bahrain when a group of about 10 bikes came by me. And instantly I had a flashback to what I used to see in California. I followed them, but not too close, not to annoy them. I was just watching. I was just so fascinated by it. Then I remembered one of my childhood friends was an officer with the Harley Owners Group in Riyadh. So I called him up later and he said I should pop into the dealership. When I got there I had no idea about the different options – Sport Glide, Dyna, Soft Tail.”
“I thought to myself, if I sit back and wait, I’m going to lose interest or lose the courage to do it. So literally two days later, I was taking bike riding lessons at the dealership. I got my license and bought a 1200 cc Sportster – one of the smaller Harleys. And upon signing off for the bike, I became a member of the Riyadh chapter.”
But within a few months, after seeing a picture of his six-foot, 85kg frame dwarfing his Sportster, “looking more like someone at a circus than a cool rider on the road”, he upgraded to the 1690 cc Dyna Fat Bob and ultimately, in 2017, to the 1868 cc Road Glide Ultra – described by biker site Ultimate Motorcycling as “commanding…iconic…and one of Harley’s most venerable touring platforms.”
“They might be surprised to see a female riding a motorbike. But before they have time to react, I’m in sixth gear and flying.”
Noor Al-Musallam
Meanwhile, Omar has cruised the length and breadth of the Kingdom, from the Dara mountain range of the Eastern Province to the equally rugged landscape on the Jeddah-Riyadh highway. He even shipped his bike out to London and took off across Europe, to St Petersburg and eventually back down to his parents’ place in the Portuguese Algarve – “a 70-day trip covering 20,000 kilometers and hitting 22 countries.”
With the combination of his heavyweight bike, ten years’ riding experience, and a natural and easy charisma, Omar was voted Director of HOG Riyadh Chapter in December 2021 – responsible for day-to-day administration, dealing with financial issues and ensuring that safety and training is in place.
Safety is as a priority, with fortnightly sessions at the dealership where experienced riders give advice, explain how to handle dangerous situations and pass on mechanical tips.
“I didn’t want to be that weak link,” Omar says, “but we want to get the point across that there’s really no such thing. You should never be embarrassed if you’re tired on the road. And if you’re the only one that’s tired, you take priority. We will all pull over for you. Don’t be worried…because it will be a lot worse if you don’t tell us.”
Omar and Ehab both describe the HOG as a way of life rather than a mere pastime, and that close-knit sense of camaraderie was in view at the Tuesday evening ride. It’s not for nothing that Harley riders call themselves ‘The Family’. There are no less than 1,400 HOG chapters in 90 countries across the world, all in touch with one another. Four are in Saudi Arabia: Jeddah on the western coast, Dhahran and Jubail on the eastern coast, along with the Riyadh Chapter.
“I personally find the benefits of being a HOG member are more on an international scale,” Omar says. “Anywhere I go in the world, it’s like I’ve got an extended family, and I tested this theory on my ride across Europe and Russia, stopping at random dealerships. All they had to see was the patch on my back and they’re like: ‘You’re a member! We’re going to show you around. And these are the best restaurants we’re taking you for dinner’.”
“When I traveled to Hong Kong for business, the chapter there refused to let me leave without doing a full day on the road with them. Someone gave me one of their bikes and said, ‘you’re coming with us’.
Back in Riyadh, that sense of family is no less strong.
“We have a lot of events,” Ehab says. “From camping trips to bowling evenings. Plus we work with charities – like going to see kids in a hospital.” Omar adds: “When those kids see all the bikes coming and they hear the noise, they have the same feeling I used to have when I saw those bikers in California and was like, wow, these guys are so cool and so organized!”
Often the bikers will take the children on little taxi rides; putting them on the back of their bikes and doing a few circles around the parking lot, to share the experience of what it feels like to be on the bike.
So much for the aggressive macho reputation of Harley riders.
But maybe that’s nothing unusual given the increasing diversity of the Riyadh Chapter. At least six members are ‘Ladies of Harley’ – a HOG subdivision found in every Harley-riding country on earth.
Indeed, one of the Riyadh Chapter’s Road Captains, responsible for scouting routes and ensuring safety during the rides, is Noor Al-Musallam. A banker by day with an MBA from New York University, Noor has biking in her DNA, having grown up with a biker dad and joining him on his rides across the Gulf and Europe from the age of ten.
When Noor returned to Saudi Arabia from her studies in 2018, women were still forbidden from driving – but things changed quickly with the Kingdom’s ‘Vision 2030’ reform initiative. Permission being granted in 2020, and she lost no time in purchasing a 1200 cc ‘48 Special’ Harley, and six months later moved on to a 1700 cc Sport Glide, which she still rides today.
“There’s still no clear approval for women to ride a motorcycle in Saudi Arabia”, Noor says. “But it’s not clearly forbidden either. There’s nothing to say you’re not allowed to ride a motorbike as a woman. However, I have International and GCC motorbike licenses. I’ve been stopped a few times by the police and it was fine. As long as I have a GCC license and the bike is under my name and I’m not violating the rules, I don’t think there’s any problem.”
The understanding is that the Kingdom will soon start issuing licenses for female bike riders. After all, Saudi women are already commanding deep-sea submarines, driving high-speed trains and working as pilots.
Along with her HOG activities, Noor cruises on Saturdays with a group of five female friends who ride an assortment of Harleys, BMWs and Indian Enfields.
And some 35 women are now registered for training courses at the Riyadh Harley-Davidson dealership—of whom Omar estimates that “15 to 20 will probably follow through and actually buy a bike.”
But how do people react to a lady biker in Saudi?
“Personally, I haven’t experienced any negative reactions so far,” Noor says. “I’ve seen a lot of positive and supportive signs coming from car windows when they see me riding. When I stop near a restaurant a lot of ladies will come to me and say, ‘That’s a beautiful bike, you are a brave person!’ They really love what I’m doing and if they want to join a group I take their number and advise them how to do it.”
As for men, “I get some negative comments on social media. But I would never allow that to stop me from doing what I want. Anyway, there are laws and rules protecting bikers – and we have cameras on our helmets and on the bike. So if they see me recording they stay away from me.
“They might be surprised to see a female riding a motorbike. But before they have time to react, I’m in sixth gear and flying.”
It’s not just female bikers that Saudi drivers are getting used to, but bikers per se. The culture of Saudi Arabia is changing incredibly quickly according to Omar. “It’s becoming much more tolerant and open to more foreign influences,” he says. “Five to ten years ago, people might have been thinking, ‘who are these people importing this alien culture to our country?’”
But attitudes are evolving, at least partly due to the efforts of the Riyadh Chapter to impress upon the Saudi population that they are safe and benign, contrary to their often negative portrayal in films and on TV.
“We’re always open to conversation with people about what biking is and why we do it,” Omar says. “We get a lot of the older generation asking us if we’re crazy – like, ‘why are you doing this? It’s so dangerous. You could die.’ And we say it’s no different than riding a horse or a camel.”
One thing is for sure: nothing is going to take the Riyadh HOG members away from their bikes. “It’s part of who I am now,” says Noor. “I cannot ever stop being a biker.” Perhaps Ehad sums it up best: “We just love the lifestyle of the freedom of the highways.”