Lifestyle Cycles 2024 Joy Ride

Run! And so here's the cool part about what we do. Not only did we feed them all; it's not just a toy handout and you're gone—it's a full day event! Right, it's a full day event. It started out at Lifestyle Cycles with a pancake breakfast, all free. Then the ride left. When it got there, all the kids were given balloons. They were all on the sidewalk, lined up as the parade of motorcycles went by.

Then we had a carnival. We had a carnival for the kids. What was in the carnival? Is this like the OC Fair, like you're shooting hoops and riding roller coasters, or is it—?

What we did is you can buy or rent, in our case, inflatable games, ring tosses, dart throwing, and ball tosses—everything that a kid from kindergarten to sixth grade loves to have. All these games were going on, and while that was happening, we had Santa Claus there. He rode in on his Harley-Davidson on his sleigh, and we had a sleigh in the back of a tow truck full of toys.

But here's the cool part: we did not let the parents into what we call the toy store area. We only had our volunteers. The riders—all the Harley riders—came in, met the kids, escorted them in, and the kids got to pick whatever they wanted without their parents telling them what they should want. The kids got to pick what they really wanted.

Awesome! And I’ve got to tell you, the coolest part for me is these big, bad bikers—I'm talking guys with beer bellies and big old beards—were crying. They had tears in their eyes. I call them tears of joy, of course, because it was powerful.

And it’s even cooler than that: every single one of those kids made cards for us.

Yeah?

Yeah, I’m still reading them.

You’re still reading them?

I’m still reading them. I’ve got about 600, and I made the decision that I am going to read every single one of those. These kids were telling us how they sent some of their toys to their cousins in other states that had nothing. Just the joy of seeing this and hearing what these kids have to say and teaching them to pass it forward is huge to me.

So let me ask you this: what made you want to do this? What drove you to start the toy run last year?

Well, we do toy runs every year, and we back everyone’s toy runs. We’ve done this for years. Last year, I said, “You know what? I’m just going to make this thing huge.” And typical Junior—it is EV with Junior; it’s going to be huge! It is; it’s a learning disability that I have. But I got a team of people together, and we did it. It was beyond anything I’d ever dreamed about.

So this year we said, “You know what? Let’s go even bigger.”

Yeah, and you made a big splash last year. This year, the goal is—our goal is to raise $100,000. We only started a day or two ago, and through friends I’ve contacted, we’ve already raised $30,000. So we’re going to raise $100,000!

100% of the money?

100% of the money. I said 100% of the money gets spent on the kids. We do not take anything; we don’t make anything; we don’t charge anything—100%.

So all these kids, and any of the leftover toys—because one of the things that was important to me is that the last 10-year-old kid gets in there, and if there are six toys left, there has to be hundreds left. It has to be just as incredible for the last kid as it was for the first kid. So all of the leftover toys we donate to the Orange County Rescue Mission and other toy drives and other needy families.

So we don’t keep any of it for next year. 100% of it—it’s all given away. It’s Harley riders helping, you know, giving back to their community. It’s absolutely amazing. It shows how the Harley-Davidson community supports the rest of the community. I’m getting kind of choked up right now because it’s just an unbelievable thing. I hope our viewers come and actually participate in this and see the joy.

Let’s talk about last year. You kind of relied a lot on the corporate donors, and this year we’re going to try something to add to that with the teams. We’re doing a team build, which is really, really cool. What’s going to happen is the riders can sign up, and then they solicit donations—people to sponsor their ride—which will also help build the funds and make this even bigger.

I’m looking to have, you know, 40 carnival games. Last year, we had over a thousand stuffed animals that they won, so every kid, no matter what they did, won stuffed animals. Their arms were full before they even got to go to the toy store—the Lifestyle Cycles Joy Ride!

That’s what we’re doing this year. And you know what? I’ve got to tell you—it’s joy for the riders and joy for the kids. It’s August, almost September, and we’re already putting this thing together. That’s how you know it’s going to be big. It takes months. This is not something that we throw together; this is a coordination of police, fire, riders, volunteers, builders—we call them elves!

The Lifestyle Cycle elves!

And I’ve got to tell you, by the end of the day—and on top of that, not only did we do all this, the same night after doing all of this, Lifestyle Cycles hosted another toy giveaway at our store!

Amazing!

So it didn’t just stop there. We did a double header, and you know we’re going to keep doing it because these kids are going to grow up, and they’re going to be riders, and they’re going to make other people feel good.

So how does somebody go about becoming a volunteer or joining the ride or donating? What does it all look like?

Well, to join the ride, all you have to do is show up. The morning of the event, we’ll have a pancake breakfast again. This is going to be on December 14th, 2024. If you want to be a sponsored rider, go to the link below on this video. You’ll see it; you click on it, then you sign up as a rider. Then you can go out and solicit sponsorships from family members, parents, friends, and other riders. Let’s just make this thing incredible!

It’s amazing, Junior, what you do for the community, what everybody did last year, and what we’re going to do this year. I’m really looking forward to it. It’s going to be a lot of work to put it together, but it’s all going to pay off seeing the kids.

It’s worth it!

I promise you, you will have tears in your eyes. I promise! I already know I’m going to be wrecked that day, so hopefully I can be productive while being a wreck.

Not only do we have that, we’ve had the Grinch there; we had Santa Claus; we had elves. It was a Christmas Wonderland for every kid!

We wait! Don’t go anywhere until you like and subscribe to make sure you get notified every time we post our how-to videos, our product reviews, and all of our amazing interviews with your favorite racers and industry icons. I'll see you guys next time!