Japanese Game

HOG is the acronym for Harley Owners Group, and novelist LaPlante (Leopard) was a founder of the first chapter in Britain. His fever for Harley-Davidson motorcycles, which lay dormant until he was 38, goes hand-in-hand with an obsession for everything from the 1960s, including the films Easy Rider and The Wild One. Readers learn that the Harley frenzy extends not just to owning a bike but also to customizing it, a process evidently requiring little originality since owners copy their ideas from biker magazines. We follow LaPlante's travels from London to Spain and New York to Wichita, Kans., where he suffers a broken foot but no diminution of his dedication. Along with recreating his rides with a Hell's Angels group and telling us about getting tattooed, LaPlante carries his stereotypical biker role onto the printed page, but he often sounds like a poseur. (Apr.)