Longtime Bellevue resident Les Knarr had a special request for his 90th birthday: he wanted to take a ride on the wild side with his friend, motorcycle owner John Wilcox.

Wilcox obliged this week, allowing Knarr to saddle up with him for a trip on his Harley Davidson Ultra Classic. The two traveled from Bellevue’s Eastgate neighborhood to Preston and back.

“It was wonderful,” Knarr said. “The ride was very smooth.”

Knarr used to own a Harley of his own, but he sold it to buy a Chrysler DeSoto when his wife was pregnant with their second child in 1946. The car wasn’t as thrilling as a motorcycle, but it was somewhat of a novelty with its suicide doors.

Wilcox and Knarr know each other from church.

Knarr spent most of his life working as a merchant marine and a truck driver. Wilcox owns a chiropractic practice in Bellevue.