I read an article yesterday that let’s just say made me a little angry and ranty! I had seen it pop up in a few places and while I was having coffee I took the time to read it. I wish someone would have just told me to skip to the end to be honest. The article was 10 Solid Reasons Every Woman Should Ride Motorcycles. First off the article was written by a man and without even reading the disclaimer “And ladies, do note that this list was complied by a man. So spare me the brunt if I faulted anywhere.” or the authors bio it’s very obvious very quickly that no women were consulted while compiling the list. The list is mainly about how other people see us and what we do for them and not what riding our own bikes do for us personally. Had the author consult with even one woman this list would have been drastically different!
A quick google search shows that female riders have increased drastically in the last number of years.
More women are riding motorcycles than ever before, according to a new Owner Survey of 48,000 American households from the Motorcycle Industry Council in Irvine. Fourteen percent of U.S. motorcycle owners are women — more than double the number in 2003
When I started riding my own bike I wanted to find some other women to ride with so I got on the googler and started poking around. I found numerous groups but finally found one based out of Canada – WindSisters Canada. I have never been happier to find a group in my life. We are quick to encourage each other and build one another up and support each other when one of us have fallen, we are sisters! Since joining the WindSisters I have been on a bunch of rides. Some of us even go out on couples rides with our spouses. See women aren’t any different from men when it comes to riding. We all love our bikes and we just want to ride as often as we can. Especially here in Canada because our season is short. If you would have told me a year a go that I’d be searching YouTube for riding videos or perusing Kijiji everyday for anything related to my bike I would have said you were wrong but yet – here I am!
Back to the article…….
- Riding a bike has nothing to do with setting yourself apart from or above our other gal pals! We would rather support each other and encourage someone to try riding because it’s awesome and we want more ladies to ride with 🙂
- We don’t wear leather to look sexy for men! We wear it to protect our bodies and maybe feel a bit sexy for ourselves.
- We don’t give one shit if men “dig” us because we ride – remember were not doing this for men but for ourselves
- The majority of us women don’t need to wait until we get on our bikes to know who the egotistical men are, you already make yourselves pretty evident
- I do agree that riding a bike makes me a better driver. However, this goes for both male and female riders/drivers
- I don’t think I’ve ever read an article about how cool dad’s are for picking their kids up on a bike. Kids are just happy that they’re getting picking up regardless.
- Yes riding will help with core strength and the increased heart rate helps to burn calories but come on the picture used for this point just feeds the stigma. I seen lots of female riders and never seen one dressed like that.
- We don’t want to be a symbol to anybody! We’re ok with riding just because we want to, we really are.
- This one I’ll agree with. Riding does make me happy and more confident which in turn makes me feel better about myself i.e. sexier
- And 10. Finally number 10. Ten is completely on the mark – it is Fucking awesome!
Please stop trying to make riding about everybody else because for some of us it’s taken us a while to get to the point of where our lives are about us and where we are finally doing something for ourselves!
I thought I’d include some amazing photos that Dan Lim from The Moto Foto took of some of us WindSisters (there are over 1700 of us across Canada) at the recent Port Dover Friday The 13th.
To me this is a truer picture of what women in motorcycling looks like!
Ladies if I’ve missed something please add it into the comments. I’d love to hear why you ride.
Ride often but ride safe my friends.
