Motorcycle that drifted to Haida Gwaii now a museum piece
Japanese owner, who lost three family members and home to tsunami, wants battered bike kept on display in honour of victims
A Harley- Davidson motorcycle from Japan that washed ashore in Haida Gwaii after the March 2011 tsunami will be preserved in the Harley- Davidson Museum in Milwaukee, Wisc.
The plans were announced Friday morning, after the Japanese owner decided to preserve the motorcycle as a memorial to lives lost in the disaster rather than taking the bike back.
Masset resident Peter Mark found the 2004 FXSTB Softail Night Train on Graham Island on April 18 after it drifted 7,000 kilometres across the Pacific Ocean in a Styrofoam- lined storage container.
The Harley- Davidson Motor Company offered to ship the bike back to its owner, 29- year- old Ikuo Yokoyama, and restore it to running condition.
Yokoyama — who is still trying to rebuild his life after losing three family members and his home in Yamamoto, Miyagi Prefecture, said he’d rather see the bike displayed in the museum, in honour of those killed, injured and displaced by the earthquake and tsunami. Miyagi Prefecture, on the east coast, was one of the areas hardest hit by the disaster.
“It is truly amazing that my HarleyDavidson motorcycle was recovered in Canada after drifting for more than a year,” Yokoyama said in a statement released by Harley- Davidson Friday morning. “I would like to take this opportunity to express my heartfelt appreciation to Peter Mark, the finder of my motorcycle.”
Yokoyama said he has discussed with many people what to do with the bike. “I would be delighted if it could be preserved in its current condition and exhibited to the many visitors to the Harley- Davidson Museum as a memorial to a tragedy that claimed thousands of lives,” Yokoyama said. It is estimated that more than 18,000 people died in the disaster.
Harley- Davidson has offered Yokoyama the opportunity to visit the museum and he said he hopes to eventually do so. He said he would also like to meet Mark, to express his gratitude.
News of the bike’s recovery made international headlines. Tofino Harley enthusiast Ralph Tieleman, a friend of Mark’s, helped deliver the battered bike to Steve Drane’s Harley- Davidson dealership in Langford on May 11. Drane had originally offered to collect donations and restore the bike in Langford before sending it back to Yokoyama.
“As soon as I saw the bike, I thought, ‘ There’s too much of a story to be told here,’” Drane said Friday.
He said about 1,000 people flocked to see the bike when it was on display outside his dealership. “That motorcycle the way it sat, it was so powerful. I watched people looking at it. The expressions on their faces told me, you’ve got to leave it the way it is.”