ANCHESTER, N.H. - At Manchester Harley-Davidson, the Forbes name has horsepower.
A great man, the folks here say. Really helped jump-start the brand when it was on the skids. A Harley from the top of his helmet to the tips of his biker boots.
That's Malcolm Forbes Sr., the late eccentric showman-publisher of Forbes magazine. Folks at this dealership are still making up their minds about his son, Malcolm Stevenson Forbes Jr., candidate for the Republican nomination.
Still, when Steve Forbes's campaign aides asked proprietor Al Cacciarelli to host a press conference yesterday announcing Forbes endorsements from 100 small business owners, he threw open his doors. He owed it to Malcolm Sr.
Forbes's public father-figure is former president Ronald Reagan, whom he invokes at every turn.
But though the candidate did not mention him once, the memory of Malcolm Forbes Sr. suffused yesterday's proceedings, lending his son, an undemonstrative man in a dark suit, a bit of cachet among the ponytailed bikers in blue jeans.
''I was a big supporter of Malcolm Forbes,'' Cacciarelli said. His large collection of Forbes memorabilia includes photographs of the publisher and his plane, The Capitalist Tool; a couple of picture books on his life; a shot of Forbes on a Harley-Davidson Fat Boy at Harvard in 1989, taken when Cacciarelli and 50 other bikers rode beside Forbes to celebrate the Harvard Lampoon's parody of his magazine. Cacciarelli lovingly unfolded a letter Malcolm Forbes sent him afterwards, thanking him.
So Cacciarelli was willing to listen to whatever Malcolm's son had to say. He said he liked the idea of paying less in taxes, but wanted to know how Forbes planned to make that happen. He said he needed to know how Forbes feels about abortion, guns, and helmets for bikers before he makes a decision on him: Cacciarelli believes all three should be matters of personal choice.
''Steve seems a little more business than his dad, but his dad did business in style,'' Cacciarelli said, with a laugh. ''For all the money he spends in advertising, he really doesn't say a lot.''
Forbes toured the workshop, chatting to mechanics quietly, gingerly making small-talk: ''Do you get a lot of custom orders?'' he asked. ''Been out to Sturgis?''
A gray-bearded mechanic held a copy of Steve Forbes's book, ''A new Birth of Freedom.''
''You got a good book there,'' Forbes tells him.
''Yeah,'' the man says. ''I'm checking it out.''
Forbes reached into a pocket for a pen. ''Would you like me to sign it?'' he asked, so softly that he had to say it again. The mechanic seemed surprised by the idea of an autograph, and turned the book over.
When Forbes was at the microphone, calling for reduced taxes and for a new Social Security system where workers' contributions are earmarked for their own use after retirement, he spoke far more forcefully, gesturing with two tight fists.
Forbes has added other planks to his platform since his 1996 run for the nomination: Now he talks about his opposition to abortion, 2nd Amendment gun ownership guarantees, and prayer in schools. But Forbes is most animated on the need to throw out the old tax code and start again.
''Some say that is unrealistic,'' he said. ''They said the same thing about Ronald Reagan. He said we can win the Cold War within our lifetimes. He applied that leadership and showed what vision can do. We need that kind of vision and boldness today, I'm putting it on the table and my opponents aren't.''
When asked about his father after the press conference, Forbes was reticent, though he did allow that Malcolm Sr. loved his Harleys.
''It was his favorite form of recreation,'' Forbes said. His father, who died in 1990, passed his motor bikes on to his sons. Candidate Forbes hasn't been near them: ''I'm not old enough to be on a bike,'' Forbes, 52, joked.
