KEEP ON ROLLING

For H.O.G.^® member David Toste-Bello Dorta, riding has provided a form of therapy after family tragedy – and has also inspired a new creative project

I have always loved two wheels. I started out riding a bicycle – as a child, I rode all over the mountains of my homeland of Tenerife with friends, and we enjoyed every moment. Some years later, when I moved to mainland Spain to study, one of the first things I did was to purchase a bicycle. It gave me the freedom to go further. However, it wasn´t until 2012 that I heard the intoxicating sound of a new kind of freedom.

My father had enjoyed riding motorcycles from a young age. He started with a Mobylette, loaned by his brother-in-law until he could afford one of his own: a Ducati 750. He rode with my mother everywhere, in summer, winter, sun or rain. Soon, their family got bigger, so they had to change that beautiful machine for a car. Although we did not have a motorbike at home for a very long period, we always used to talk about them.

Years later, in 2012, my father had the urge for two wheels once again. I still remember when we went to pick her up – I was screaming in the car behind him! I could feel the emotion in every twist of the throttle in his new Sportster^® 883 Superlow.

From that day on, we had another thing in common. I went everywhere with my dad, and he showed me so many different places on our amazing island and on other nearby islands. Sometimes, I would join him when he attended meetings of the H.O.G.^® Tenerife Chapter. Wherever we went, there were always stunning views, strong emotions and special moments.

But then, in April 2018, everything changed. Out hiking Mount Teide, my father had almost reached the top of the volcano when he suffered a heart attack at the age of 58, and my world fell apart. I was living in England at the time, and it felt somehow easier to venture out into the unknown than returning home to the island. I came back to this place with its relaxed rhythm, where it often seemed that nothing was happening – until I understood how good it is to live in this way.

Weeks later, it was very difficult for me even to enter the garage. The machine resting there had provoked such deep emotions and provided such amazing moments with my father. But little by little, alone with my feelings, I could go in, lift off the cover and look at the beautiful motorcycle. I could not see her as something to be forgotten – I just had to get my licence, so I did, and more than one year after my father passing away, I found myself riding, all the while crying, laughing and screaming inside my helmet. It was an intoxicating mix of emotions.

Riding soon became an obsession, an extension of me. I rode the bike everywhere and discovered so many places on the island; I’m still discovering them today. I rode to the rest of the Canary Islands, and I also joined the Tenerife Chapter, where I have made a lot of new friends, as well as becoming part of my father’s old community.

Nowadays, I combine this Harley world with my passion for photography. I am aiming to capture a portrait of every rider I meet with his or her machine, noting down their full name and their motorbike model and year. My aim is to produce a photography portfolio to show the diversity of H-D^® lovers who live here, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

And what else? Later this year, to celebrate turning 30, I will embark upon a three-month tour of Southeast Asia with a friend, which will feature plenty of riding. I don’t know when all of this is going to end, but it is intoxicating. Every day is getting bigger and bigger.

​​​​​​​@harleydavidsonridersivemet

---

Tags: