Vroom!

A Fat Bob Harley-Davidson. A Peugeut Django moped and a Kawasaki VN 1500 Classic. Three panning photos shot from the pedestrian bridge crossing Gudöbroleden earlier in the week. They are all riding down Söderbyleden. My first panning photos this year.

Vroom!

A man enjoying the Summer weather while driving his Ford Galaxie and an Easy Rider guy on his Harley. Two photos I took while standing by the side of the busy Dalarövägen road a couple of warm days ago.

Big Red Lone Wolf

We had a seriously beautiful Autumn day yesterday. Blue sky, very calm, and warm, at least if you stayed in the sunshine. So together with a friend I went for a walk in Nynäshamn. We took the picturesque Strandvägen walk and made a pit stop at the Lövhagen cafe for coffee and a waffle. I took around 100 photos during the walk, although in reality it was more like 40 as I always shoot at least two snaps of every scene. It is one way traffic here and most people walk, run or bike so when I heard the sound of an Harley Davidson I turned around and snapped a few quick shots. The guy looked familiar but I couldn't place him so when I came back home I had a look in my flickr stream and realised that it was Christer and that he now rode another bike. You can see my previous blog post about him here.

Harley-Davidson

There was a big bike meet at Tyresö castle yesterday. It's within bicycle distance for me, so I was thinking about going, but in the end I decided to check out a local festival instead, but I also figured that I could probably get one or two motorcycle photos from the pedestrian bridge that crosses the Gudöbroleden, that some of the bikers would have to pass and this was one photo I took.

Harley-Davidson Police Motorcycle

A 1948 Harley. Used as a police motorcycle before it was imported to Sweden. The current owner bought it 25 years ago for 50 000SEK. Since then he has spent 100 000SEK to keep it in mint condition. He visits lots of bike meets and I'm sure i will see him at the Easy Rider Festival next month.

Harley Riders

The Harley Davidson club in Sweden is the biggest independent club in the world. It has more than 8000 members. They have a big meet every Summer and I have been to one of them. Here are two recent photos of Harley riders. First one is a Road King. Second snap is of a Dyna Wide Glide and that guy seems to have more than one hobby. He is a keen fisher and he enjoys playing the guitar.

1940s Harley Davidson

The second biker from the cafe the other day. Patrik. His bike is a green Harley Davidson from the 1940s. It had a lot of interesting details, one of which you can see here, a skull.

Cool dog of the day

I sometimes take photos from a pedestrian bridge that crosses a busy road in Handen. You don't have to wait long before something interesting comes by. Like this cool dog riding shotgun in his humans Harley. It says Kastro on the sidecar so I'm guessing that is the name of the cool dog.

The Harley Guys

We had the warmest day of the year so far today. I'm guessing around 15C. This is Linkan, (whom you have met here before), and his neighbour and friend Martin (Yellow Fat Boy). They took advantage of the great weather and took out their Harley's for a ride.

The Biker Babe

Arriving to the Easy Rider festival at Vegabaren in Handen yesterday I knew beforehand that I would see a lot of gray-haired bikers. Nothing wrong with that of course, but I also wanted something different. Something a bit more colorful, so when I spotted Carina talking to a few friends I walked over and asked her for a portrait. She was a bit surprised that I wanted to shoot her so I had to put on the Steffe charm, and it must have worked because a minute later she had walked me over to where her Harley Softail Deuce 01 was parked. Carina is not a member of any club, but she is often out riding the roads, sometimes with friends but often on her own. I just grab a map, look for a nice road and then head off she told me.

Object of Desire

This Harley Davidson was white when it rolled out of the Harley Davidson Motor Company factory in Milwaukee back in 1948. Sixty four years later it has a new look. I had the intention of finding an object of desire at the recent Easy Rider Festival in Handen for a Utata project. I noticed this bike a few kilometres from where the festival was held. A small group of bikers were standing around it. A little later I saw the owner arriving on the Harley, and so did everyone else at the festival. The owner had entered the bike into one of the best in show contests so I asked him if he could give me a few minutes to take some photos before he added the contest sign on the bike.

Big Red Lone Wolf

I shot my second portrait for the UTATA color project earlier this week. I noticed the red Harley Davidson parked outside the Port 73 shopping mall and decided to wait for the biker to come out. This is Big Red Lone Wolf from Nynäshamn. His real name is Christer. He is not a member of any motorcycle club, hence the Lone Wolf epithet. But he has a lot of biker friends and often rides with a club based in Nynäshamn. Christer tries to visit at least one Super Rally meet every year, and has been to meets all over Europe, including, The Netherlands, Finland, Italy, Greece and a few more. These days he rides with a GPS which has made navigating much easier. Christer has designed the vest with the wolf himself. The bike is a softail.

The Rocker®

I was at a filling station in Handen taking photos of a Ford Fairlane a while back when I heard this Harley drive up. It was Stefan, from Stockholm. He is a technician, and works at Com Hem. He was out riding with a friend. It was a very warm day today as you can see on his outfit. They were heading to Rosenhill, and a very popular biker cafe there. To get there they would drive a road nicknamed Slingerbulten. There's at least one motorcycle accident on that road every week, but Stefan told me that they were out cruising at a somewhat slower pace. Sure was a good day for that. I asked him if he had been to the big Harley meet at Gålö last summer. It rained most of that weekend, but Stefan had been there.

Mission Accomplished

Closing in on a roundabout in Handen today I noticed a photographer dressed in leather in action. It was Carina who was busy documenting the thousands of tulips that are growing in the roundabout. When she and Totte (who owns the Harley), passed by here a few days ago Carina told him that she needed to document that and that was what she was doing when I met them today.

Oh, and please don't forget to read about the young banker in the post that disappeared the other day!

Three Harley Davidson Riders

Here are a few more portraits of some of the bikers I met at the big Harley Davidson meet at Gålö Havsbad. On the top photo you can see Gott&Blandat. Although his real name is Thomas. He is originally from Gothenburg, which his accent gave away as soon as he started talking. These days he lives in Örebro. Gott & Blandat drives a 1948 Harley-Davidson WL. And by looking at his outfit I think it's safe to say that he has visited the Philippines. Second photo shows Maria. She's Thomas girlfriend. Maria's bike is a Sportster. She's been a rider for a decade. If you look to the left you fill find part of the Sportster's exhaust system. I hope they were able to fix that before the ride back home to Örebro. The tired biker sitting on his 1993 Harley Softail is called Fredrik. He is from Vasa in Finland. He was at the big Harley meet with a friend, who was still sound asleep in a tent nearby as we talked. Fredrik got his licence last year, and that's when he bought the bike.

The Viking Biker

I took a bunch of portraits at the Harley Davidson meet at Gålö on Sunday. The first person I talked to was Håkan. He drives a Harley Davidson Fat Boy as you can see on the third photo, where he is on his mobile trying to call his girlfriend. The tattoo on his arm is an old Viking. Håkan didn't have a long way to drive to get to the meet. He lives in Nacka, and works as a truck driver in Stockholm. When he is not riding his bike, you might find him and his girlfriend out with the boat.

How To Build A Very Cool Chopper

That could be a good title if the people on the top photo ever decided to write a book. This is Conny Fransson and Elisabeth Johansson from Falköping. They were on their way to the big Harley Davidson meet at Gålö when I met them in Västerhaninge on Friday. The orange chopper (2200cc), is one of three Harley bikes that Conny has built. And he still owns all three of them.The customised fork on this one is 24 inches longer than the original. He figured that the bike had costed him around 270 000 SEK. Money well spent. His girlfriend Elisabeth works at Volvo Penta and is a very good mechanic, so she has been working on the engines together with Conny. The weather was horrible on Saturday, but I am planning to jump on my bike on Sunday morning and head out to the Gålö peninsula where I am hoping to get a few photos of the Harley bikes. I talked to a couple of bikers who had already been out there and they were hoping to see something like 3200 bikers there, sounds like fun!

The Biker

Sometimes it's very easy to get good portraits of interesting people. Shooting a couple of photos of this rough looking biker (check out the tattoos), was dead easy. I say rough looking, but it's pretty easy to notice his big smile behind that impressive beard that must have taken a few years to grow. I was at home when I heard the motorcycles drive up the road. A minute later my brother told me that it was probably time to get the camera ready. And a minute after that I was talking to Tony. A long time member of Slackers MC, and he sure looks the business, doesn't he. Tony drives a 1999 Harley Davidson Roadking. If you want one, expect to pay around 170 000 SEK. Slackers MC has nine members, and their headquarters is only a couple of kilometres away, at Håga. I mentioned some of the other bikers and people that I have met since I started shooting portraits, and sure enough Tony knew all of them. And I'm quite sure I will meet Tony again, later this year at the big bike meet at Vegabaren. If you live locally and like cool bikes, be sure to get up to Handen on the fifth of September. I'm guessing you all really want to know what Tony was up to when I met him. The answer is that he was waiting for his girlfriend who was buying some flowers from Blomorado. They got the laugh of the day when I said that I thought Tony would stand out a little in a crowd. Just a little you say? Yes, just a little.

The Harley Man From Hofors

I noticed a biker at the parking lot near the commuter station in Västerhaninge and headed over for a photo. This is Göran. He had just arrived to Haninge after a 250 km ride from his home in Hofors, Gästrikland. He is in town to meet his brother Bengt. The bike is a Sportster 1200. Göran is my second my second Harley Man since I started shooting street portraits. Back in March I met another biker, The Vulcan Rider. Fun Facts:There's a club for Swedish Harley owners with 11 000 members. Apparently the biggest Harley club in the world! All in all there are around 249 000 motorcycle owners in Sweden.