The Journey to Becoming a Lady Rider…

(Thank you to Trina Taylor for one of the pictures.. 🙂 )

Some passions begin when you are a child: That’s how motorcycles are to me…

I was the oldest of 5 children; with 2 brothers within less than 3 years of my age. As we grew up, they always got to do everything that I did; until the Summer following my 11th birthday. That year, I got to ride a motorcycle for the first time; and I was hooked. It was just a little Honda Riverside 55, that I rode around in circles in the trailer park where my Uncle lived. He taught me how to ride, and I was the envy of my younger brothers who “weren’t old enough”…

Finally, at the age of 21, I bought my first motorcycle. It was a brand-new Yamaha 125 Enduro, that I sometimes wish I still had today. I lived in the country back then and was able to get to some great places to trail ride within about 10 minutes of my house: I rode with friends and relatives every chance I got. (The skills I learned from jumping logs and climbing hills still helps me with my riding today. That’s where I learned how to balance on the bike and stay on through bumps in the road.) I rode that motorcycle to work as far into the Winter as I could. The nobby trail-riding tires on that bike still did a good job in snowy or icy conditions I wouldn’t dream of trying with my Harley. Sometimes I’d get to work and have to manually straighten my fingers back out when the cold of the 45-minute ride caused my fingers to “permanently” curl around the handle bars. I loved every minute of the “commute”…

My next experience with motorcycles wasn’t a good one. My brother Michael, who was 20 months younger than me and my best friend in the whole world, died from injuries he had sustained more than a year before on a motorcycle. In spite of high feelings from family members, I rode to my brother’s memorial service on my Yamaha. For me, I felt a closeness to him that day; and I knew that he would understand. On the way back to town after the service, a car I tried to pass wouldn’t let me completely around him. I had to “red-line” my little Yamaha to complete the pass before oncoming traffic needed the highway; with my younger sister watching the entire scene. After that, I decided I needed a bigger bike…

My next motorcycle was a 550 Suzuki two-stroke, with a full Windjammer faring and saddlebags: My first Road Bike!! One thing I noticed at this point that I still laugh about today was the change in the other riders around me. Back then, there weren’t very many Lady Riders; and most of them rode smaller bikes. When I stopped at a light next to a Male Rider on my 125 Enduro, they were very friendly. When I switched to a large Road Bike, they didn’t seem to want to talk to me anymore… (Go Figure….) Since this bike was not good for trail riding, I kept my little Yamaha. I then took quite a bit of teasing about being a single Lady with 2 motorcycles… So I decided to sell the little one.

I owned my Suzuki for several years; but began to ride it less and less as I became involved with men who weren’t fond of Motorcycles. I finally sold it to a friend just before I moved to the Puget Sound area.

When I met my husband, Bill; he owned a Kawasaki 1000. Even though I had maintained my motorcycle license, he wouldn’t let me ride that bike on my own; for fear that I would drop it and not be able to pick it up… (You know, many men are not able to pick up their Harley without a helping hand; and Women NEVER have a problem with getting help to pick one up; so I shouldn’t have bought that for an excuse.) But that’s when I began my career as a passenger. You know, Women who have never ridden their own bike are probably perfectly satisfied with being a passenger: I was about as happy as sitting in the passenger seat of a moving car. (Or perhaps even less….)

Over time, Bill parked the bike and didn’t do much riding as we raised our Son. But he still talked periodically about a dream of owning a Harley. I didn’t know much about Harleys, but finally said, “If you want one so bad, let’s take a look at getting one”… Two weeks later, he found the perfect bike, and we hit the road on a Harley Roadking Classic. (Naturally, I was back in my passenger seat…)

I took that for almost a year, when I finally announced that I wanted to “ride my own”. I wasn’t really in a hurry to get one, but declared that I’d know the right one when I found it; that if I found a Purple one, that would be it for sure… The first bike I was attracted to was a Harley Vrod… I thought it looked a bit lower to the ground and would be easier for me to ride than his bike; but didn’t know (until he let me know) that it was a FAST bike… (Bill naturally “nixed” that idea…) The next bike I was attracted to was a Purple Harley Screaming Eagle Fat Boy; which my husband again “nixed”…. I think he was quite relieved when I found a Purple version of his bike; a Harley Roadking Classic..

Getting my own Harley Davidson has been a life-long dream for me: Something I have held as a vision, but sometimes didn’t believe I’d really get there.. Do you have a dream as strong as my Harley was for me? Are you moving toward that target like I slowly narrowed in on mine? I’d love to hear your journey..

Tags: Childhood Experience, Dreams, family and friends, Motorcycles