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Red Deer's Glenn Turple is still motorcycling at age 96

Glenn Turple has been motorcycling since 1946, recently chalking up two-million kilometres of open-road freedom.
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Red Deerian Glenn Turple on his latest Can-Am 2024 Spyder. The 96-year-old has ridden two-million kilometres on motorcycles in his life. (Contributed photo by Seamus Willox).

Glenn Turple feels it's the most natural thing in the world to be out on the road on his motorcycle at age 96.

After all, he's been biking since 1946, chalking up two-million kilometres of open-road freedom.

"I've done all of the provinces and 49 states," said Turple, who only missed out on the 50th because there's no land bridge to Hawaii.

The local entrepreneur, who founded Red Deer's Turple Bros. Ltd dealership for motorcycles and recreational vehicles, recalled his longest road trip was back in 1982.

He and his wife Joyce had marked their new status as empty-nesters by driving across the country to Newfoundland, and then heading down along the Atlantic coast to Florida, stopping to visit relatives in Nova Scotia and Delaware.

"We left the bike in Florida and flew back home," he recalled —  only to fly back a few months later. "We rode to Arizona in January."

For Turple, motorcycling always brought a sense of elation, the open road beckoning him to new adventures around every turn.

"A feeling of freedom you get on the road is the biggest thing," he explained. "I just liked the long trips —  seeing all kinds of new places, meeting all kinds of people."

Motorcyclists are like a fraternity, a family, he added. "It takes all kinds of people to make the world go round, and many of them are riding motorcycles." 

Turple was born in 1928 and started life on a farm around Cereal, east of Drumheller. Soon the dust bowl 1930s led his family to quit farming in this arid area. Turple recalled his father officially gave up title to the land he had homesteaded after the First World War so he wouldn't have to keep paying taxes on it.

The family relocated to the moister Olds region, where his dad continued to grow crops on rented land.

At age 12, Turple started driving vehicles around the farm. He got his driver's licence on his 16th birthday. 

The first motorcycle he bought for a mode of cheap transportation was a Harley Davidson that was in disrepair. "I thought I could fix it," he recalled, but his brother Rex ended up making the repair after Turple went off to work on a farm in Ontario for the summer.

Despite a societal prejudice that developed against motorcyclists in the early 1950s, due to films like The Wild One with Marlon Brando, Turple returned and ended up owning a series of English-made bikes (Triumph, Norton, Panther, BSA) as well as multiple Honda Gold Wings.

He now rides a Can-Am Spyder, made by a division of Bombardier Recreational Products. The Canadian-made vehicle has a single rear-drive wheel and two wheels in front for steering and uses an ATV-like chassis.

Turple recalls he and Rex were buying and selling motorcycles off the farm starting in about 1949, and eventually started Turple Bros. Ltd. in downtown Red Deer in 1956. The dealership was moved to Gasoline Alley in 2000. 

After putting in 60-hour weeks of hard work to get the business up and running, Turple recalled that heading out on a motorcycle whenever he had free time was a great way to de-stress.

The nonagenarian hopes to stay healthy enough to enjoy a few more years of riding. Having had the pleasure of seeing the wilderness of Yellowstone National Park and Alaska, as well as the brilliant fall colours of forests in Eastern Canada and the Northeastern States, Turple said, "its about just about being out on the open road, enjoying the scenery from the seat of your bike."

The father of three still does a fair bit of winter riding, weather permitting. Turple can stand the cold up to -10 Celsius, whereas it used to be -20C when he was younger. "You dress for it, the way you ride snowmobiles, with good gear, a heated seat, heated grips, a face visor..."

While road conditions can be tricky, he feels steady riding a three-wheeler. Turple recalled the roads were so icy once he spotted three cars in the ditch outside Penhold "and here I go on my Honda Gold Wing bike..."