Miles rode just 80,000 miles short of 2 million miles in his lifetime on the six different motorcycles he owned. Nearly one million were done on one bike, his 94 FLTCU Ultra Classic. He holds the record of third place for the most miles ever ridden on a Harley.
Miles lost his fight with cancer yesterday, June 29. But he lived his life HIS WAY every day that he was here. Quite unlike anyone I have ever known, Miles had his own way of thinking, riding, and living that
leaves a legacy of a nomad not to be forgotten. I tried to wrap my own mind around the math itself. I ride a round trip most summers from California to Sturgis, to Minnesota, then home. That 5,000 mile loop woops my ass, and I don’t want to look at a motorcycle for a month! Miles told me he rode approximately 50,000-70,000 miles a year every year of his adult life. Miles would have been 63 on July 29th. I’m tired just thinking about all of those miles!
He never owned a car, and he never owned a house. Not only did he not get married, but he never even went to a wedding! Just didn’t believe in it. He never had a credit card. He never had a bank account, and he never had or even wanted a real job. He never had a phone until this last year, and he never had a physical address. If you asked him where he was from, he would tell you the last place he rode in from.
His drivers license was from his home town in Michigan where he was born and raised and still has a brother and a niece. He was a lifelong member of the Road Agents MC, which is where his name Squire originated. The name “Miles” was respectfully given to him by Willie G Davidson, and he was proud of and lived up to that name.
Miles had an incredible memory for statistics and could tell you when he got each of the six bikes he owned, approximately how many miles he got out of each of them, how many oil changes, tires, transmissions and rebuilds each bike needed. He knew how many times he had been to each rally, and had just been to Sturgis for the 30th time. He recounted every accident like it was yesterday, and insisted none of them were ever his fault, except maybe the mule he ran into in Arizona. He killed that burro, and had to be air lifted out of there by helicopter. He told me that every accident just happened to occur in a state where there was a helmet law. I asked him if he felt that was a message to wear a helmet all of the time. He said, “Hell no! It’s a message not to ride in states with helmet laws!” I asked him what his favorite road in the country was, and he said any road he gets to ride on without a helmet.
Miles knew what he believed in, and he firmly stood by those beliefs. He didn’t much care for hair cuts, so when he was drafted into the army he vowed he would never cut his hair again once he was out. Miles was in Okanowa and Thailand in the Military Police five days short of two years. The last time they cut his hair was April 10, 1970, and he never cut his hair since. He has become known as much for his trademark braid and beard as his many traveled miles. He lost part of his beard once in 20 below weather while he was riding it turned into a big icicle that actually broke before he could thaw it out! But he never cut it intentionally again. When I saw Miles after he had been going through chemo, and he had lost much of his mane and beard, I barely noticed the loss of his trademark. What I did notice was how his blue eyes still had that incredible sparkle.
I hear that Miles was a great Chef and that he made a mean Kale soup! I knew that there was so much more to this man than his list of statistics and tales of crazy times. As it often is in the world of motorcycles, you can know someone from the motorcycle world, but from a distance. There are thousands of bikers in Sturgis, and thousands of biker friends on Facebook. And if you have been riding for 20, 30, 40 years like Miles has, you know who he is, but what do you know about him? I can’t even tell you when or where I first met Miles. I have just known him for years. Our pictures together go way back, we’ve traveled in the same circles, gone on the same rides, and as much as I knew him, I really didn’t really know him at all.
Miles rode with me and my little sister and a group of friends last August in the Malibu Hills. We took pictures in the Malibu Hills, and I never knew anything was even wrong with him. It wasn’t until this past November at the Love Ride that he told me what he was battling cancer. It was then that I realized that this was a man with such a story to tell and share, and that people would be inspired by all that he has experienced. He was being treated at VA hospitals, and couldn’t drive his motorcycle. He didn’t have a car, and his only family was back in Detroit. He had many friends who loved and cared about him, but told me the hospitals were dirty and he had to wait so long for everything, and he felt very frustrated and alone.
I hated to think of this man who had lived such an incredible life, alone like that. I just wanted to listen to his stories. I wanted to know how he felt, and who he had loved, and what he had learned and what it all meant to him now. We started having more frequent visits and phone conversations, and I tried to dig into the man between the miles.
I have seen him in pictures with Willie G.Davidson & family, Cheech & Chong, Steven Tyler, Robert Patrick, Dan Haggerty, ZZ Top, Larry Hagman, Jay Leno, Peter Fonda, and Dennis Hopper. He was good friends with Oliver Shokouh, owner of Glendale Harley Davidson and founder of the Love Ride. Miles was a permanent fixture at the Love Rides and Toy Rides hosted by Glendale Harley over the years. If you asked Miles how he was able to afford his nomadic lifestyle all of those years you would get a variety of different answers. He was a retired, professional rider……..he did odd jobs, he was a gigolo, and then he would laugh. He said, “I might be easy………I’m expensive………but I can be bought!” and he laughed some more. He said he only needed money for three things, gas, oil, and insurance.
When I could get Miles to stop telling me statistics long enough to ask him something serious, I almost never got a serious answer. I asked him if he had ever been in love with a woman, and he paused awhile as if the memory was so far back. He told me he was with one woman for nine years, but that he had never told her that he loved her. I asked, but did you love her? He said, “I don’t know, I guess. Yes. I loved my bikes!
And for all of us who love our bikes, and the lifestyle, and the open road……..Miles truly lived what we all love. I wish I knew more, I wish I had more time with him. But I can say, that I am happy to have gotten the time that I did have. His story will be told, and whenever you see his name, read the stories his friends will have to say. His story should be told and heard! Miles was one a kind.
