The internet is all kinds of fun when it comes to peoples opinions, high horses and women verses men riding motorcycles!
I don’t know many men that dress differently when they do a solo trip – some women deliberate dress less feminine as too not attract attention to themselves. Which is weird because doing a solo trip is suppose to be empowering and character building. We shouldn’t have to fear for our safety just because we are women. Hell we already need to ride as everyone is trying to kill us shouldn’t we be able to stop and not have to worry about our safety while have coffee or lunch or just running in to pee!
I have seen this one first hand – I had a guy go ballistic on me just because I was riding in front of him and i guess not going fast enough. He proceeded to scream at me as he flipped out and raced past past me and when we got stopped – at the same light he continued to rage at me. Had I been a man I highly doubt he would have done this to me.
There are times that I’ve walked into motorcycle shops, looked around for a while, tried things on, sat on bikes only (if even) to be approached and asked “what does your husband ride”. Women are still sexualized in motorcycle ads even though female riders are growing by leaps and bounds (and we out spend men). yet, here we are still being treated as second class citizen. Let me say it again for the people in the back – Us women have our own money and we want to spend it!
These are just random comments I’ve seen in the last couple of days;
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“We both share the same piece of road .. doesn’t matter who you are..”
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It shouldn’t be girl or guy it’s just a rider, no matter what you ride. Peace
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Are female riders really that rare?
It’s not that women riding is rare it’s that it’s just different sometimes. It’s great that there are people that feel there’s no difference between a male/female rider but not everyone feels that way.
US women also have a lot of allies in the male community. We have some that go out of their way to help just as they would the men they ride with – we are looked at as equals from them. Just riders that are also out there enjoying the wind and to the I say a huge thank you and shiny side up!
I grew up in small town Ontario so of course there were a couple of motorcycles in the drive house. The only problem was that I didn’t ride them I was only a passenger.
It wasn’t until I met me husband, Andy, that I spent any real time on a bike. We had a bike (Yamaha XJ750) before the kids arrived. However, after the kids came along we just didn’t have time to ride anymore so we sold it. There’s nothing worse than a bike sitting around and not being ridden!
Fast forward twenty years and we were once again cruising around on two wheels. Almost five years later and the only thing that’s changed is I now ride my own bike. If only I had understood how awesome it was to ride my own bike I would have done this years ago.
Cheers,
CL
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