Against all odds

How Piet and Nicole found happiness with their Tri Glide^®

Words by Knut Briel
Photos by Nicole Hoffmann, Chris Jones and Hagen Pietsch

Piet Marks grew up in the German region of Münsterland, in what he describes as a “very conservative parental home”. This set the stage for a fairly straightforward life for the young boy but, as is so often the case in life, everything turned out quite differently. A few unpredictable and rather challenging incidents caused some twists and turns, yet the now 60-year-old leads a fulfilled vagabond life: he and his wife Nicole tour Europe from their home on the East Frisian North Sea coast with their motorhome and their H-D^® trike, nicknamed “Bonnie”. This happy ending is certainly due to Piet’s tenacity and perseverance, but the Harley-Davidson brand and the Harley Owners Group^® play a significant role, too.

The first turning point in Piet’s life came when he moved out of his parents’ home at the age of 16 to attend boarding school and complete a two-year pre-school training course for aspiring nurses. “Although I finished my school education with a top average grade, I didn’t get an apprenticeship afterwards,” Piet explains. “Male nurses simply weren’t part of the plan at that time.” Nevertheless, Piet found a solution to his career aspirations: he enlisted in the German army as a regular soldier and trained to become a medical sergeant.

Piet has been interested in motorcycles since he was a child. He was already riding around on mopeds at the age of 14 – illegally, of course, which was rather problematic for the son of a policeman in a middle-class town. When he joined the military, he soon had enough money to make his two-wheeler dreams come true. At 22, Piet got his riding license and enjoyed riding a lot – even in poor weather. And so it was during one winter when his life’s journey took a second turn.

On 15 February 1989, he was on his way to the army barracks near Bremen on his motorcycle when he was hit by a car driven by a drunken young man. Piet suffered a double pelvic fracture, several broken ribs and his left leg was so badly injured that his lower leg was amputated and he had to wear a prosthesis from then on. Months of rehabilitation followed. “Of course, that was the end of my military career,” Piet recalls. “It took me three years to figure out how my life should go on.”

He then made two important decisions: despite his disability, he took on the arduous job of a geriatric nurse and bought a Harley-Davidson^® Electra Glide^® with sidecar, which he converted to a hand-shifter with the help of some friends. “It was a pretty rustic solution with a crowbar as a gearshift, but it worked!” says Piet. “I really enjoyed the bike, and I realised back then that I really liked the lifestyle associated with Harley-Davidson.”

Nevertheless, it took years before Piet was really able to indulge in his new passion – there were still too many things to sort out in his life. After 10 years of caring for the elderly, he retrained to work in administration at a children’s clinic. The Electra Glide had to make way for other plans and investments and was sold. Nicole came into his life and the centre of his world shifted to the far north of Germany. However, the longing for motorcycling remained. “I wanted to ride a solo bike again,” he explains. “Fortunately, technical progress never stops – neither in prosthetics or adapting motorcycles to the needs of people with disabilities.”

A newly developed prosthesis with a special knee joint has given Piet significantly more safety and mobility and encouraged him to order a Harley-Davidson Breakout^® in 2017 and have it converted: “It was a great experience to get back on two wheels. The only disadvantage was that I was constantly on the road when I had time and the weather was good, while my wife had to stay at home.”

In Germany, as a biker with a prosthesis, Piet is not allowed to take anyone with him on his motorcycle. So, the two of them got down to business and bought themselves a Harley-Davidson Tri Glide®. In Germany, you can drive a trike with a car driver’s licence – so Nicole can either follow Piet and the Breakout on the trike or ride the Tri Glide together with Piet. It didn’t take long for the two of them to decide on the Tri Glide. “I prefer to ride a bike with Nicole as pillion,” confesses Piet. “The Breakout is great, but the Tri Glide is also a lot of fun and it is the ideal tourer for the two of us.”

Both have not only been H.O.G.^® life members since 2017, first with the North Coast Chapter, and since its dissolution the Steelworks Chapter. It almost seems as if life in and with the Harley Owners Group is now just as important to Piet as his Harleys: “I think today it’s more the lifestyle that inspires me – the people to whom you don’t have to explain why you do this or that, why you wear tattoos, why you dress the way you do.”

Since Piet retired, the couple have been on the road. Even in 2021, the second year of Covd-19, they travelled Germany, Austria (including a visit to the European Bike Week^®), Switzerland, Slovenia, Poland, the Czech Republic and Italy. In the winter, their motorhome regularly pulls the trike in a trailer to Spain, where the two of them go on day trips from campsites on the Tri Glide. This summer, they’ve set their sights on the UK. Among other things, they want to take part in the Rally in the Valley in Wales for the second time, visit Thunder in the Glens in Scotland and take on the North Coast 500. They now feel at home everywhere in Europe and agree: “Wherever you go as a Harley^® rider, you feel that you are welcome – it’s almost like coming home. For us, no other brand embodies our way of life like Harley-Davidson does.”