The Toronto Star -- Ontario
WHEELS Saturday, June 23, 2001 G26

Bikers on a mission
Eclectic mix of people helps Los Silverados do charitable works

Donna Jean MacKinnon
The TORONTO STAR ; David Cooper/TORONTO STAR

"To make a contribution and enjoy the ride."-

Motto of Los Silverados

Exactly 87 sparkling bikes, most of them Harley-Davidsons, are parked in a Gerrard St. E. lot. And there's some real big guys with tattoos, leather and pony tails strutting around.

So what's the big deal? It's Regent Park. A tough neighbourhood.

Things aren't as they appear. Yes, for sure there are bikers. But there's also face painting, gooey cake, pancakes and a cute doggy.

The motorcycle group known as Los Silverados _ not Desperados _ has gathered, on a Saturday, to have their bikes blessed before heading west on their hogs to the Stoney Creek Dairy for ice cream. (Dairy prez Rob Harrison is an El Silverado.)

Yonge Street Mission has organized a pancake breakfast as a thank you to the 640 members of Los Silverados, who raised some $250,000 for the mission's work.

Club member Eli Freedman, a hulk with a vest saying "Bad to the Bone" and a tattoo, has other bikes, but he's riding a Harley this day. He turns out to be a gentle guy in the computer recycling business. He donates computers and fixes them for a computer training centre at Doubletake, a used clothing store on Gerrard run by the YSM. The computer program is for needy kids from Cabbagetown.

Nathan Jacobson, a tough-looking hombre, hugs Chloe, his favourite riding companion. Chloe, sports a classic Harley peaked cap. She's a Jack Russell terrier and thinks she's a biker. Chloe has a paid up membership and receives her own Los Silverados newsletter. She rides in a doggy snugly, with Jacobson and his wife on a Harley Road King.

Los Silverados, was founded by Bob Graham four years ago, as a fundraising initiative for the YSM. Graham calls it a virtual reality motorcycle club because it runs on the Net.

"There are no meetings. Nobody has to do anything _ just what they can," Graham says.
Rumour has it, the club's name came from the Silverado pickup Graham was driving at the time.
Graham describes the red paint job on his Ultra Classic Electra Glide as "Campbell's tomato soup with milk." It was painted by The Wizard, an artist who charges thousands for the work.
His wife, Jane Graham, perfectly coordinated in black leather fringed chaps and fringed saddle bags, is riding on a snazzy Heritage Springer, a 1949 Harley replica.

The other force behind Los Silverados is Rick Tobias, the executive director of the mission. In his motorcycling gear, he looks mean enough to eat rats for breakfast, not like a man who received an Honorary Doctorate of Divinity from McMaster University.

Tobias a Baptist minister, has 18 years at the YSM and Evergreen, a service, on Yonge St., that feeds street kids. The mission has succouredthe indigent since 1893. In recent years, it has partnered with business.

"Los Silverados encompasses diversity and is a multi-faith group," Tobias says.
Tobias always dreamed of riding a motorcycle. On his 40th birthday, his wife presented him with a 750 Honda Shadow. He now rides a 1940s-looking Honda Arrow. Mindful of his position as a mission director, Tobias, feels an ostentatious Harley would not be appropriate.

Freedman says he joined the club because "you can't say no to Rick Tobias. He aspires to make the world a better place. Who can resist Rick?"

Back on Gerrard St., after scripture, ecumenical prayers and a prayer for the bikes, offered by Rev. Kerry Bowser, the pack suits up to move out.

Michelle Gebhart, a tall chick with long legs, lengthened by high heeled boots, is riding a V-Star 1100. She tends bar at both the Silver Dollar Room and on the Airport Strip. She has two hours between shifts and can't do the ice cream run.

Gebhart is everyone's heroine. She organized a fundraiser at the Silver Dollar Room featuring top blues musicians. The evening brought in $10,000 for the Evergreen drop-in nursery, a haven for struggling teenaged mothers.

But Gebhart wants to talk about her bike. The first winter she had it, she parked it in her dining room and lovingly took it apart. She cleaned and polished the bits and reassembled the machine more to her liking.

At the dairy, it looks like a rumble is about to happen, but instead all that passersby see are a bunch of leather-clad middle-aged guys licking ice cream beside some very shiny machinery. A Norman Rockwell scene.

But there is one real tough dude present _ Al Duffy, former mayor of Richmond Hill and now a consultant for developers involved in the Oak Ridges Moraine controversy. Duffy wants to build houses all over God's country, according to The Toronto Star.

Duffy was brought up in Regent Park. He was one of 10 children, in a working class family, stuffed into an apartment unit. Now he wants everyone to have a house with space.
Duffy was recruited by Graham and owns two Harleys, which he describes as "two-wheeled stress-relievers."

This day, Duffy is riding a Deuce.

"It's all engine _ very little bike. It's noisy," he says, with delight.

Joan Parkinson fusses over her Softail, a 50th birthday present from her husband, Barry Parkinson. Her candy apple red motorcycle has been "taken back" to 1962.

"It was this or a mink coat," says Joan Parkinson.

She has gone to town with a ton of "shiny shit," including studded saddle bags and a chromed tire pressure knob with a Harley monogram.

Graham frets about the bad boy biker image and wants the world to know there are riders who do the right thing.

Even now, members of Los Silverados are polishing up for the 9th Annual Cappy Day (Child Abuse Prevention Charities) in July.

Membership costs $100.

For information, call Jane Graham at 416-921-6011 or visit www.lossilverados.com

ILLUSTRATION
David Cooper/TORONTO STAR LICKS: Besides leather-clad middle-aged guys licking ice cream, the event featured some very shiny machinery.