Spirits were high as the Hondas and Harleys thundered into a parking lot near the Neiman Marcus department store to the tune of ”Born to be Wild” and lined up for a nice suburban ride from Oakbrook Center mall to Waubonsee Community College.
Even the few who sported leather jackets and shaggy beards were not renegades: These were electricians, engineers and office managers on their day off.
And all of them were there to help a good cause, the American Brain Tumor Association.
”Motorcyclists are babies. They`re all softies,” said Arnold Duran, 50, a rider and a resident of Worth, Ill., who works in Chicago as a data processing manager. ”They`re cowboys, but gentle cowboys, and eager to help.”
Neither the occasional shower nor the dark clouds could dampen the spirits of more than 500 motorcyclists who gathered early Sunday at the Oak Brook mall to participate in a fundraising ride for brain tumor research.
”They say that motorcyclists are hardy individuals and that rain doesn`t bother them,” said Gail Segal, president of the Chicago-based American Brain Tumor Association. ”So it should be all right.”
It was more than all right. By the time the day was over, the riders had raised more than $60,000 for the association, which disseminates information and supports research on brain tumors-a cancer that afflicts about 20,000 people a year, 75 percent of whom die, according to Mike Traynor, coordinator for the ”Ride for Kids.”
”It`s the best event I ever rallied for,” said John Blanchard, who had driven from Griffith, Ind., on his Kawasaki to participate. ”This is a great cause.”
Many were there simply to revive a feeling motorcyclists are familiar with: the feeling one gets when saddled on a leather seat, thundering down a long stretch of highway, with the ground whizzing less than a foot under your boots and all your friends around you.
”It`s just a rush,” said Willie Wiegel, 43, an engineer from Villa Park. ”The feeling of riding with other people.”
One of those in for the cause more than the ride was Gov. Jim Edgar who admitted to an amused crowd that he`d never ridden a motorcycle. Edgar, who was stopped several times for people wanting to take pictures with him, rode in a sidecar.
”Government can`t do it all,” Edgar said, congratulating the crowd for turning out to support a worthy cause.
The money raised from the Honda-sponsored ”Ride for Kids” will go toward tumor research, said Don Segal, executive vice president of the American Brain Tumor Association.
Although the research is certain to benefit anyone, the ”thrust is toward pediatric,” said Segal whose own son was diagnosed with a tumor in 1975 and is still living.
The reason is that the treatment involves radiation and chemotherapy-partic ularly devastating for kids because it sometimes leaves them without hair or with puffed-up faces, Segal said.
American Honda Motor Co. paid for the event and donated two motorcycles for a raffle, Traynor said.
