Decked out in leather gear, their powerful Harley-Davidsons girded in sleek chrome, the Elephant’s Bikers make an almost surreal sight in the poor and sometimes barren Ivory Coast villages they visit.

As the west African country’s “Easy Rider” team roars into communities where residents are lucky to own a rundown moped, ecstatic crowds typically form to greet them on their journey from the economic capital Abidjan to the industrial port of San Pedro almost 400 kilometers to the west.

Wherever the club makes a pit-stop for supplies, men, women and children flock around the 30 or so bikes and their owners. Young drink-sellers use ageing cellphones to snap pictures of the Harleys and grinning villagers chat to the bikers.

“We’re sharing a pleasure, a dream. People identify with that. They see that it’s accessible, it’s not just on television,” says one of the bikers, Landry Ouegnin.

“Just because we live in an underdeveloped country doesn’t mean we can’t share this kind of thing,” adds the 34-year-old business manager, who helps run the club of inveterate riders.

The Elephant’s Bikers, created 10 years ago to mark the centenary of legendary American motorcycle maker Harley-Davidson, has about 50 members — mostly native Ivorians, but also expatriates, some of whom have become citizens of Ivory Coast.

The whole gang displays the distinctive signs of a pack — bandanas, omnipresent skulls and crossbones, leather jackets with the Harley logo or that of their club, an elephant wearing cowboy boots.

For Jackie Thelen, who leads the club and came from France to take on Ivorian nationality, the regalia is “a disguise” that unites members with “a spirit of brotherhood” like in other such groups scattered around the world.

“You’ll often see a big boss show up with ripped jeans, a flashy belt and skulls even though he’s in charge of a highly rated company.