"but bikers were out in force, and amazingly genteel"

Very true these days, unless you run into the "bikies" from Australia. A lot of bikers here in the USA look formidable, but are in fact calm and nice people.

There aren't many hard-core biker bars left in the USA - the sorts of rough, violent places that are depicted in Hollywood movies. You can walk into most of them now, order a hamburger and a beer, and be perfectly fine (with or without any biker leather as clothing).

Pete #2