110th anniversary of Harley-Davidson motorcycle maker in Milwaukee

Tens of thousands of motorcycle enthusiasts roared into Milwaukee to celebrate the 110th anniversary of Harley-Davidson, but few travelled as far as Chai Chua.

The 46-year-old businessman bid farewell to his wife and three children in Brunei and set off with seven close friends. They flew to Los Angeles, then hopped on rented Harley-Davidson motorcycles and headed to the Midwestern state of Wisconsin.

"My wife knows I am crazy about this," said Chua, after arriving at the site of the party, where he and his friends joined the crowds marking the motorcycle maker's anniversary over the Labour Day weekend. "We have seen the prairies, the mountains, Mount Rushmore and now the Mecca for riders," Chua said, shouting over blues music outside the Harley-Davidson Museum where revellers kicked off the celebration with a bike rally.

Nearby, a long procession of the motorcycles, nicknamed "hogs", rumbled onto the museum campus, where riders parked their bikes in tight rows creating a glistening sea of shiny steel.

Riders donned black leather, as well as an assortment of denim, bandanas and Harley-Davidson orange, as they snapped photos, drank beer and marvelled at the spectacle.

"It's exciting … [there's] a lot of personal satisfaction in doing it," said Fernando Dorantes, 52, an engineer from Toluca, Mexico, where he and seven of his friends began a five-day, 4,200-kilometre journey to Milwaukee.