When I returned home that evening, I could tell something was wrong as soon as I saw Rafael’s bike. It’s a sleek Harley Scorpion with a distinctive gold-on-black paint job and plenty of custom work. Rafael dreams of becoming a pro in the combat biker leagues some day, so he’s always modifying the bike, tuning it and tinkering with it. The crowning glory is a flag from last year’s conference finals—supposedly the flag the Seattle Timber Wolves used to score the winning goal. The flag is valuable—and easy to boost, since it’s clipped to the back of the bike so that it wags in the slipstream like a wolf’s tail. Rafael always unclips it before he goes into the house. And he never leaves the bike lying side-down in the middle of the lawn.