softail mountain bike

Softail Slim and the easy island

By Jim Freeman

Let me tell you the story of ‘Fat Derek’, a very, very stupid criminal,” says Paul Wren. “Fat Derek – he’s called that because he’s fat – was an illegal taxi driver. But he told the government he was unemployed so he could live for nothing on a government housing estate. The problem was that he’d done his house up so it was a multi-storeyed palace in a slum.”

Paul takes a swig of his Phoenix beer and watches carefully as a couple of youngsters flutter around the three Harley-Davidsons parked on the other side of the street.

“A couple of weeks ago, Fat Derek gets a visit from the cops who find 200 million rupees in his lounge. Fat Derek immediately confesses he’s a drug dealer and leads the cops into his back garden where he digs up another 400 million rupees’ worth of cocaine.

“He then gives them the names of everyone else involved in the smuggling ring… including police officers and politicians. The dominoes are still falling.”

Paul is dealer principal for Harley-Davidson in Mauritius. He, with One&Only Saint Gèran general manager Charles de Foucault and I, have pulled into a roadside shebeen the Mauritians call tabajes in the village of Trou d’Eau Douce for a couple of cold ones after a day’s riding round the northern part of the island.

It’s a ride that’s entailed us getting absolutely piddled upon by the Indian Ocean heavens as we near the dam at La Nicolière.

On Mauritian roads you often ride through tunnels of overhanging boughs and nowhere is this more beautiful than on the Old Flacq road past the Mount Sugar Estate. Or it would be if you could see more than a few metres in front of you.

But the piddle subsides to a dribble as we get to the dam and, by the time we’ve finished the baguettes we bought earlier at a deli-patisserie in Grand Baie, there are fleeting glimmers of blue above.

So it’s eastward-ho: up and over the mountain, into sparkling sun before descending through cane-fields to the coast and our sweet waterhole.

Eventually the father of the kids who’ve been fussing round the bikes comes up and shyly asks Paul if he would have his picture taken with the boys and his bike – a much-customised and flame-decorated Fat Boy Special.

They’ve asked him because he looks the “baddest” member of the trio. I’ve been labelled the least flattering of the “Good, Bad and Ugly”.

Charles “The Good” de Foucault is on an extensively modified Dyna Switchback. My standard 1690cc Softail Slim has such a power-band (132Nm@3 250rpm) that I’m effortlessly able to catch up to Monsieur de Foucault on those frequent occasions when he decides to Foucauf up the road.

The Softail Slim is a 305kg black beast.

“There’s a very limited market for new bike sales in Mauritius. That’s why rentals are so important for us,” says Paul.

“We currently have five bikes on the road for rentals – two Dynas, two Sportsters and the Softail you’re riding. The response from tourists has been so overwhelming that the fleet is certainly going to need to be enlarged in the next year.

“I’ll need between 15 and 20 bikes on the road by December.

“The intention is to put Mauritius on the map as a great biking destination. The scenery is fantastic, the road quality is good and, because riding is a relatively new activity on the island, the biker scene is still fresh and very friendly.”

Rentals range from 6 000 Mauritian rupees (about R1 860) plus VAT a day for a Dyna, up to 8 500 rupees (R2 650) when the dealership eventually puts a big touring bike such as a Road King into the fleet.

That’s for a 24-hour rental and includes unlimited mileage, insurance and riding gear – helmets gloves and rainsuits. They also offer half-day rentals; from 10am to 5pm.

There are discounts for card-carrying Harley-Davidson Owners’ Group (HOG) members and term rentals.

British-born Wren wants to station Harleys at each of Mauritius’s top hotels for rentals or guided tours for bike-qualified visitors.

“Albeit Mauritius is quite a small island, the riding is quite diverse and you need to be fairly adventurous if you want to discover the back parts. We see tourists getting the most benefit from guided tours.

“We currently offer tours for up to five bikes – that’s five riders with a passenger each – for a premium on the half-day rental amount.

“The tour includes lunch at a predetermined destination.”

There are three touring routes – on which you are typically riding 175-200km a day. Paul has a very willing accomplice in Charles, who’s been riding the Milwaukee monsters since working for RitzCarlton in California in 1999.

“My first experience on a Harley was riding from Laguna Beach to Yosemite National Park. We spent a whole week on the bikes and I was hooked!”

“Six months later I had my own Softail Deuce. I kept it for 10 years and moved it from Los Angeles to Korea to Bahrain to India.”

The next morning the three of us leave the resort early for an unforgettable experience: the monthly Mauritius HOG breakfast run.

Every trip has a defining moment: my time in Mauritius will forever be recalled by the sound of 30 big bikes – mainly Harleys but also a 1 200cc Ducati Multistrada and gargantuan 2 300cc Triumph Rocket – rumbling and revving at the start of the ride.

The vibrations set off car alarms. One rider has a sound system installed and he starts playing the Marshall Tucker Band standard Fire on the Mountain; “Took my family from our Carolina home…”

The three road captains leapfrog one another to traffic lights and circles, stopping traffic so the posse can move en masse. The mechanical thunder rolls and villagers line the streets – many with fingers in their ears.

When we finally pull in to the Le Preskil Beach Resort for lunch, I look at the tourists… even the gloriously shaped one dipping her toes in the Mauritian surf… and see them in a completely different light. Civilians, I think dismissively. Civilians.

l For more information, send an e-mail to pwren@harley-davidsonmauritius.com - Saturday Star