Brent Reaney
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Aug 19/05) - For Tony Sunderland, a move into a bigger home means a separate room for his Harley Davidson memorabilia.

Clad in a black NWT Riders Association T-Shirt and blue jeans, he looks ready to go for a ride right now.

"This is my pride and joy," he says, pointing to a pair of yellowed manuals mounted on the end wall.

In the middle of the frame is a spare parts list for a Harley Davidson 1942 army model cycle. To its right sits the same cycle's operating manual with an unreadable name scrawled in pen across the top.

Sunderland hung around people with motorcycles in his younger days, but didn't actually own one until about two years ago when he bought a used Honda 500.

He has been "seriously" collecting for the past seven years, but the machines have always held the 52-year-old's interest.

"Maybe because I was getting older and I decided it was time to get serious about something," he says of the start of his collection.

On the room's other three walls hang everything from completed jig saw puzzles to posters of different models to more than 40 miniature Harleys and even a pair of dolls dressed in Harley Davidson gear. He estimates the value of the room's contents at around $5,000.

Collection more valuable

His collection became significantly more valuable in June after his wife Karen used some of her lottery winnings to buy him a 2005 Soft Tail Harley.

She also bought herself a shiny blue Suzuki bike, with two wheels at the back end known as a trike conversion.

Friends Bob Francis, and Al Vatcher bought new Harleys at the same time. After picking up the vehicles from an Edmonton dealer, the foursome drove the new toys up the highway to Yellowknife during some sunny weather in the first week of June.

Sunderland tries to get out riding as often as he can and his four days on, four off, work timetable seems to leave time to hit the road.