By Danny Bloom
CHIAYI CITY, Taiwan — Peter Starr, called the “Spielberg of motorcycle moviemaking” by his friend Jay Leno, is building a unique sort of bridge to Taiwan with the help of a small group of elderly motorcycle enthusiasts in America.
Starr made 40 motorcycle racing movies from the 1970s to the 1990s. Now 69, Starr visited this Pacific island nation last month with a group of ten elderly American motorcyclists to do an 11-day road trip across the island as part of bridge-building effort with a Taiwan senior citizens foundation to promote healthy living among seniors.
Starr is 69, and the average age of his team American members was 72, he told this reporter.
Wendy Epstein, owner of Mission Motorcycles in San Francisco, was one of the motorcyclists accompanying Starr.
Dubbed “Grand Riders” in Taiwanese English, to sound a bit like grandfathers and grandmothers, the two groups of elderly motorcyclists showed the media that life on the road can be both glorious and fun, no matter how old you are.
When I contacted Epstein by email while she was “on the road” here in Taiwan, she kindly answered me from her iPhone during an overnight stop in a mountain village in Taiwan.
“We are taking Taiwan by storm with our trip here, and the local media, from TV to print newspapers, have followed us every step of the way, almost,” she said. “Our presence has only strengthened the local senior citizens foundation’s cause to celebrate their aging population by helping them to believe in (and live) their dreams.”
“My only religion is ‘motorcyclist,’ Epstein told me in a warm and friendly way in a text message. “But yes, I am Jewish by heritage.”
An article Starr wrote in April’s edition of Motorcyclist Magazine in America described a 700-mile round-Taiwan road trip he made in 2011 with local elderly riders, some in the 80s even. Many had cancer or degenerative heart disease, Starr said, noting that most of them had arthritis as well.
“But it was a fantastic trip,” he told San Diego Jewish World. I want to promote the relationship of the group of elderly riders in Taiwan with elderly riders in the America. I not only want to keep this ‘Grand Riders’ thing alive, but I also want to help it grow, too.”
For Starr and Epstein, and the other eight American visitors to Taiwan’s colorful shores, the road trip turned out to be something to write home about, by email and iPhone. Hopefully, they will be back next year, and a group of elderly Taiwnese motorcylists will visit the U.S. as well.
*
Bloom is Taiwan bureau chief for San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted at dan.bloom@sdjewishworld.com