KEY POINTS:
It happens as Mayor Keith Rhodes winds up his welcoming speech. The walls of Coffs Harbour's elegant new art gallery shake to the sound of a black cruiser, parting the crowd as it thunders down polished hardwood floors to the speaker's dais.
The leather-clad rider steps off, removes
her helmet, sits at a Yamaha grand piano - the same make as her motorcycle - and stuns the audience with Debussy's Claire de Lune.
The audience, also leather-vested bikers, stand and listen, sipping chardonnay, shiraz and champagne: hardly the sibilance of rebellion, and for good reason. These are the national organising committee for the annual meeting of the Ulysses Club, the over-40s motorcycle association that has brought 6000 members and their machines to the booming north coast New South Wales city.
The pianist is local rider and international performer Renate Turrini, who produced a limited edition CD for the occasion, featuring such all-time biker hits as Scriabin's Etude Op 2 No 1, Liszt's Nocturne Op 9 No 2, and Debussy's Jardins sous la Pluie. They sell like hotcakes.
As Turrini's bike quietly cools, gallery director Leigh Summers is unfazed: "But then, you see, I know the motorcyclist."
Rhodes, in blue blazer and grey slacks, is like no mayor you have ever seen confronted by one of the world's largest mass biker invasions.
"What can you say except one three-letter word: wow!" he says. "You can't imagine how proud as a city we are to host you here.
"We'd like to see a lot of you move here and stay on a permanent basis."
Come again? What happened to the menace of Hollister, California, and the 1947 biker revelry that inspired Marlon Brando as Boozefighters' outlaw bike gang leader Johnny Stabler in the 1953 shocker The Wild One?
Much the same, really. The infamous Hollister "riot" was largely an invention of Life magazine's sensationalism and the site became home to an annual - overwhelmingly peaceful - July 4 gathering known as the Independence Motorcycle Rally. The Ulysses annual meeting is even more institutionalised as an annual event that cities are increasingly eager to host.
These are people who have time and money on their hands, part of a renaissance of motorcycling that has blossomed at both ends of the market: young riders, many more of them women, buying bikes and scooters for commuting, fun and excitement, and over-40s either returning to the fold after a break to raise kids and pay off the mortgage, or finally living the dreams of their youth.
"People here are at a stage of life where they really enjoy motorcycling" says Ducati's Australian general manager, Warren Leigh. "They're empty-nesters, gone through mortgages and children and are looking to enjoy life again."
Adds Mark Fattore, of Triumph Australia: "More people are coming back to motorcycles and staying until they meet their maker."
Stephen Dearnley, one of the founders of Ulysses in 1983, proves the point. Now 83, Dearnley hung up his boots after an accident six months ago, but remains an active member.
Fellow member Don,73, a tall, grey-bearded Ulyssian from Victoria, switched to one of the new breed of large scooters when he could no longer manage his huge Honda Gold Wing.
As he left Melbourne he was knocked down in a tunnel by a car: he dusted himself off, checked the bike was still working, and completed the 1400km ride to Coffs.
On the waterfront, Barry Cooper, 67, and partner Carla Hart, 55, are taking a break after a gruelling 4000km, 10-day ride from Bunbury, south of Perth in Western Australia.
Hart rides a Suzuki 1200 Bandit, Cooper a Honda ST 1300.
"When the kids are growing up you barely use your bike," Cooper says. "But once the kids are grown up ... "
It is a phenomenon that has turned statistics on their head. For the first time in three decades, motorcycle sales topped 100,000 in 2005, driven by a booming market for scooters - now including large, fast machines comfortable for ageing hips - affluence in the suburbs and baby boomers.
For the grey riders, the big sellers are cruisers - the big-engined, low-slung beasts sparkling with chrome and extended forks - fast, comfortable tourers, and large adventure bikes.
Harley-Davidsons continue to thrive among 35 to 55-year-olds, who grew up on the imagery of the 1960s cult movie Easy Rider and the rebel aura of the big American hogs. Challenging them are Japanese cruisers, a new boom in "retro" British and European models styled after famous 1960s marques but incorporating cutting-edge technology, and luxury tourers such as the big Honda Gold Wing, with lounge-style seats, heaters, multi-stack sound systems and intercom.
Trailers are becoming big sellers, and powerful off-roaders like BMW's 1200cc GS range are making big inroads into sales figures.
Manufacturers are thick on the ground at the Ulysses annual meeting, offering test rides that see a constant stream of convoys heading in and out of the showgrounds at the northern end of Coffs' CBD where as many as 4000 Ulyssians are camping.
At the Suzuki stand, the two big 1800cc VZR cruisers are the biggest drawcard.
"There has certainly been a big, big resurgence of interest in motorcycling among older riders who are now starting to get back into it after a number of years away," says Suzuki Australia's Gus Schroeder. "Cruisers are certainly the biggest market among older riders."
Britain's resurgent Triumph, a marque rapidly growing after decimation by the Japanese in the 1960s and 1970s, has parallel ranges of very fast, high-performance machines and retro models styled after the Bonnevilles of its heyday.
Triumph's Fattore says the average age of his buyers is 45 years, although decreasing as the model range expands and young riders turn to high performance road machines.
But among the boomers, his big sellers are the 60s-style Speedmaster and America cruisers and the huge, 2300cc, Rocket III.
Ducati also has a new retro range and tourers appealing to Ulyssians, But Leigh says most interest is focusing on the Multistrada, its big adventure tourer.
But with the boom in greying bikers come new warnings.
Most gained their licences when there was no two-wheel training at all, and have returned to the road with massive machines, slower reflexes, performance anxiety and a reluctance to admit failings that deters them from riding courses.
"What stops them is pride, ego you know, 'I've been doing it this way for years'," says Warwick Schuberg, head of the Stay Upright rider training company.
"If anyone's watching them or they can't do something they should be able to, they don't want to be shown up."
The statistics make grim reading. An Australian Transport Safety Bureau study says the improvement in motorcycle safety has been lagging behind that of other road users, with fatalities falling by only 6 per cent in the decade to 2001, compared to 18 per cent for the overall road toll.
Worse for born-again baby boomer bikers, fatalities among riders 40 years and over as a proportion of all rider deaths doubled to 27 per cent over the decade, pushed by the over-40s renaissance. Most will die or be injured in crashes on the open highway or rural roads.
Schuberg cites fatigue, deteriorating hearing and sight, slower reflexes - "no one wants to admit that" - and more time on the road, especially with groups that may push riders beyond their capabilities.
"Also frame of mind," he says. "Maybe they're just divorced, having an affair, things like that. Their frame of mind is absolutely stuffed and that's a major, major point. Sometimes it's the sense of freedom, the sense that on the road you've left that all behind."
That feeling is what grabs most riders. Kim Kennerson, 54, the Ulysses national president, has been riding since he got his licence on a Honda 175cc 34 years ago. He now has a 1520cc, six-cylinder Honda Valkyrie, an 1800cc Gold Wing and an undiminished passion for the road.
"Only a motorcyclist can describe this, but it's a feeling of freedom," he says. "You know, you're out there and the wind's blowing in your face, you're going down a country road and you can smell the eucalyptus trees - it's just a magical feeling. The bike feels like an extension of your body."
Kennerson's passion is replicated thousands of times over at Coffs.
The Ulysses Club was founded by a meeting of five men 27 years ago, and named after the poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson that has the ageing Greek hero straining at the bit.
With "juniors" admitted at 40 and full membership at 50, it now has more than 120 branches across Australia, with others in New Zealand, Britain, Canada, Norway and South Africa.
American greybeards are also interested.
At Coffs, organisers have been working on the AGM for more than two years, pulling in local councils, police, emergency services, tourism bodies and the like. The logistics are fearsome, but managed.
Direct economic benefit is estimated conservatively at A$8 million ($9 million), but probably rising to more than A$10 million.
Some people are wary of an invasion of 6000 bikers. Emissaries sent to outlying districts met nervous community and business groups to convince them that this will be good for everyone.
At the hippie haven of Bellingen, initial fears gave way to enthusiasm that saw welcome signs explode around town and a Harley-Davidson appear in the display window of the 107-year-old Commercial Emporium.
About 1000 bikes a day pass through, on their way up the famed and very twisty Waterfall Way highway.
In Coffs, shops display welcome posters and embrace the Ulyssians with enthusiasm.
One woman biker, filling her tank at a local station, has her petrol paid for by a local. Thousands line the route of the traditional parade, waving and cheering as an endless convoy winds its way through town.
There is no trouble, except for the theft of five Harley-Davidsons, one of which is found burned at a local beach.
Coffs property developer Anthony Cougle is outraged at the stain on his town. He donates a A$26,000 Harley to be raffled between the five victims: it is won by the rider whose bike was torched.
At the showgrounds, food tents, bars operate around the clock, with live music pumping. The vast marquee for formal dinners seats more than 4000 around a dance floor packed with thumping, jumping and twisting limbs defying the accepted norms of post-50s endurance.
Huge clusters of balloons soar to the top of the marquee, carrying icons and mascots with them: one is a kiwi. A New Zealand group is there, somewhere: a Kiwi Elvis impersonator brought the house down at one of the early live sessions.
As the night pumps on, condensation starts falling from the canvas roof like light rain.
Outside, more than 150 traders, sell everything from clothing, tattoos and massages to accessories to massive machines available for test rides. The growl of powerful motorcycle engines a constant background.
And Coffs loves it. Says local Scott Phemister: "Awesome. It's the best thing that's happened to Coffs Harbour."
Adds Julianne Ward: "Fabulous. Its been great for the community."
Eat your heart out Easy Rider.
