To hear it from the faithful, there's no way to truly understand their love of Harley-Davidson motorcycles unless you've personally straddled the storied iron horse of the modern road.

Then you'll feel the power driving through your feet, your backside, your palms. And you'll feel the sound.

Oh yes, that sound. Not the whining angry bees of an import sport bike, but a deep, unearthly rumble. Harley-Davidson calls it primeval, a heart-racing call to the chase.

"You come down the street on a Harley-Davidson, you can hear it. Harley-Davidson patented the sound. Potato, potato, potato," said Gus Harper, of Honolulu, an avid Harley rider since 1989.

Harper, a 63-year-old youth sports coordinator for the U.S. Army, takes his Harley sound very seriously. He's changed the exhaust pipes on his bike three times to make it louder.

"All the adjectives you use, you just have to be on the bike to understand it," he said. "There is a whole thrill of being on a Harley-Davidson. A whole camaraderie."

The two-wheeled lure of the open road is the premise behind the latest Hollywood look at motorcycle culture — "Wild Hogs."

Tim Allen, John Travolta, Martin Lawrence and William H. Macy star as four middle-aged friends from Cincinnati who are bored with their jobs, families and responsibilities.

Although they ride their Harleys every weekend, the friends decide they need an extended road trip to spice up their lives. When they hit the highway, the trip becomes a slapstick sermon on the angst of midlife crisis, adventure and friendship.

The movie opens today nationwide, but nearly 200 O'ahu Harley riders were treated to a special screening Sunday in Kane'ohe.

A MILLION STRONG

They formed a rumbling, rolling statement on a global phenomenon. More than a million people from Dubuque to Dubai belong to the Harley Owners Group, which started in 1983.

There are three HOG chapters in Hawai'i with a membership of about 400 men and women who ride on a regular basis.

Their members have helped push Harley-Davidson to a $5.34 billion-a-year company with shares traded publicly on the New York Stock Exchange.

Its shieldlike logo is instantly recognizable and available on everything you'd expect — jackets, ball caps and leather accessories — and a few things you wouldn't, such as boxers, pickup trucks and denim clothing for dogs.

But that's all pupu before the main course: the motorcycles. They can cost from $9,000 to $20,000 and up for "the bigger, dressier bikes," said Mark Schneider, sales manager for Cycle City and a Harley rider.

Riders are "an older crowd," mostly men in their mid-30s and older.

"When you are hitting a crowd in that age range, they are guys who are settled career-wise and have money," Schneider said.

These riders aren't the Hell's Angels stereotype that Harley owners have been trying to live down since the '70s, he said.

But that was still the attraction when ridership began to change in the 1980s. Riders wanted to pretend they were rebels and dressed the part, he said.

"Even today, you will have a guy come in on the weekend and he is dressed in leathers and jeans," Schneider said. "Then he will come in during the week to get something and he is in a suit. All week long he is the business guy in a suit and on the weekend, he is Marlon Brando from 'The Wild One.' "

'JUST A GOOD FEELING'

No one would mistake musician Harold Chang for an outlaw biker, but the 78-year-old drum teacher proved his mettle a few years ago during an annual group road trip on the Big Island. He ran over a cardboard box and lost control of the bike.

"I went down at 55 mph," he said. "I felt my helmet on the road going click, click, click. Imagine if I had no helmet. That would have been my head on the road."

Except for minor road rash, Chang was uninjured — and undaunted. He continues to ride almost every Sunday with his club, Hui Makai.

"There is just a good feeling of being a member of a motorcycle group," he said. "You talk, you eat, you drive motorcycles."

But there's a solitary aspect to riding, a focus that University of Hawai'i football coach June Jones finds exclusive to his Harley. He'll use it as a tonic for a stressful game, roaring out of his Kahala home on a Sunday to get shave ice in Hale'iwa.

"When you are on the bike, your mind is not on anything else but what is around you," the 54-year-old Jones said. "My mind doesn't wander when I am on it. I guess it's a release."

One of Jones' riding buddies, sportscaster Jim Leahey, sold his Harley a few years ago but missed it so much, he bought it back.

The 64-year-old Leahey can remember asking himself if it was a passing phase, "something you do and move on."

The answer surprised him.

"I was wrong," said Leahey, who rides with the Makule Motormen. "It is more than a middle-aged thing. It is really a part of you that you can get out and still do something that is kind of dangerous, but not really."

Like a lot of Harley riders — including Jones — Leahey doesn't wear a helmet. He said it's safer this way, as long as the rider respects the road.

But if you've never tried it, the reasons may fall flat.

"Even the wind is good," Leahey said. "The wind is fresh. You go through the H-3 tunnel. You can glance up at the mountains and see the vistas that you can't see in a car."

Reach Mike Gordon at mgordon@honoluluadvertiser.com.