women can save the motorcycle industry

I am a motorcycle rider. I have been a motorcycle rider for just 10 years. I took a Motorcycle Safety Foundation course when I was 43, after thinking about it for many years. I've now ridden almost 50,000 miles, touring Oregon, Washington state, Northern California, Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Western Montana, British Columbia, a bit of the Yukon and Southern Alberta.

I am regularly approached by women in their 40s and 50s who, when they see me in the parking lot of a convenience store or realize I am a motorcycle rider say, "I always wanted to ride a motorcycle!" And I do my best to be super encouraging. I strongly suggest to them that they take the Motorcycle Safety Foundation course, or whatever is available in the area, explain that they don't need to have their own motorcycle or helmet, that that's provided (they have NO idea), that they will NOT be the only woman in the class, and on and on. I try to tell them all the things I wish someone had told me years before I finally took the MSF course.

But I can't do all this convincing alone.

The market for new motorcycle riders is MASSIVE - among women specifically. But the motorcycle industry is just not reaching women. At a time when motorcycle sales are plummeting, the industry should be looking to expand into new markets among women - and, instead, they just keep trying to appeal to white men over 40. Women hold the key to expanding motorcycle sales, but motorcycle manufacturers just keep ignoring us. I do a better job in convenience store parking lots than you do in any of your advertising or sales pitches.

First of all, the best ads for motorcycle riding don't come from motorcycle manufacturers - they come from Geico, Progressive and Booking.com (the last one made me literally burst into tears, ya'll - I gasped and then I bawled). These commercials are about seeing beautiful places, feeding your soul, being with friends or enjoying being alone, and being more than your job or whatever role you need a break from. They are far more motivating than anything coming out of the motorcycle industry.

Motorcycle manufacturers and the Motorcycle Safety Foundation need to take a cue from these inspirational, fun commercials by non-motorcycle manufacturers and produce their own. And they need to come up with commercials specifically to encourage women:

• a woman in a typical office, open floor plan, pulled in various directions, getting passed up for a promotion, seeing a work plan she developed get shade thrown at it by Todd in IT, etc., and as she goes through her typical workday, she gets a secret smile and a far-away look - and we see what she's going to be doing this weekend: riding her motorcycle somewhere beautiful.
   
• a woman in her home, managing kids and her husband and a broken washer and driving kids to this and that and, as she goes through all these home duties, she gets a secret smile and a far-away look - and we see what she's going to be doing while the kids are at school: ride her motorcycle somewhere beautiful, meet other women for coffee, etc. 

Come up with a whole series of these kinds of commercials. Come up with other themes that would appeal to women. And, please, NOT JUST WHITE WOMEN.

Remember that, just like among male riders, there are going to be very different ways women approach motorcycle riding: some are going to like cruising, some are going to like traveling and camping by motorcycle, some are going to want to do back-country discovery routes, some are going to want to ride alone, some are going to want to ride with others, and on and on. That means you are going to have to appeal to the different kinds of potential motorcycle riders.

Also, you need to retrain everyone working in your motorcycle dealerships: salespeople need to welcome every woman that comes through the door, whether she's alone or with a man. Assume she IS a rider, or wants to be one, and talk to her as such. I cannot count how many times I have been utterly ignored when walking into a motorcycle shop.

Other ways to inspire thousands of new motorcycle owners and riders among women:

• Dealerships need to have images of women riding motorcycles posted all-around their shops - not the greasy, almost naked women with boob jobs, but actual women riders - representing a range of economic levels, ages, body types and ethnicities. And they need to use more of these images in their own advertising.
   
• The Motorcycle Safety Foundation needs to have flyers at motorcycle sales shops and need to train salespeople on how to push them.
   
• The Motorcycle Safety Foundation needs to have a representative on particularly busy days at motorcycle dealers, and greet women with, "Hey there, are you a motorcycle rider? Do you want to be one?" and have lots of material to hand out about upcoming classes, be ready to talk in an encouraging way about attending classes and becoming a rider, etc.
   
• Dealerships need to have events like the Harley fantastic women-only "Garage Parties." I am NOT a Harley rider, but I went to their event in 2010 in Gladstone, Oregon and it was OUTSTANDING - and had way more attendees than they were expecting. It was staffed entirely by women (all-male staff left), because new women riders tend to be very self-conscious and self-deprecating, and there's nothing like watching a woman smaller than you pick up an 800-pound bike (362.87 kilos) and then tell you, "YOU can do this." There was great food, short demonstration stations, gift bags, and free t-shirts with I am not a backrest on the back that I still wear. And, of course, Harley doesn't have these events anymore, because why continue a wildly-popular event that, over time, will build momentum for more women to ride motorcycles?
   
• Exploit movie moments like Captain Marvel on a motorcycle. Right after I saw that movie, I went home and started Googling images of her riding her motorcycle. And I was stunned - they were EXTREMELY hard to find and weren't very good - certainly not anything I wanted to share online. Social media should have been FLOODED with her image on that bike! What a missed opportunity!
   
• Pay for product placement in TV shows and movies - pay to have some female characters to be motorcycle riders.

I just gave the motorcycle industry outstanding, excellent ideas that will easily and vastly increase the number of motorcycle owners and riders in the USA. Ya'll should pay me $100,000 for this. $200,000 for this, in fact. And I just gave this to you FOR FREE, you dumb asses at Harley, BMW, Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki, Yamaha, Royal Enfield and on and on.

Two more things:

• not all women motorcycle riders want pink riding apparel. I have a pink mesh jacket ONLY because it was the only one available. I would have preferred gray or blue.
   
• having the Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia showed me just how much a lot of people in the motorcycle industry think of women. #boycottdakar

Lone Rider by Elspeth Beard: pioneering motorcycle traveler

I just finished Lone Rider by Elspeth Beard. She's one of the first women to ride a motorcycle all around the world, doing so back in 1982 - 1984 and, when she finished this incredible two-year journey, she found that NO ONE CARED. No, really, no one cared: not her family, not neighbors, not friends, not motorcycle magazines, not travel magazines, not anyone. No book deal, no glowing article in the newspaper upon her return, not even an invitation by the local library back home in England to come down and do a presentation. She didn't write her book until 30 years later - it came out in 2017. I'm so glad she did write it. I really enjoyed reading it. But I remain overwhelmed at how underwhelmed everyone was back in the day about her amazing achievement. I also greatly identify with that experience of an incredible achievement or life-changing event being met with blank stares and a shrug from the people you wanted most to care about it (other than yourself).

In short, Elspeth Beard should be as famous as Ted Simon and her book should be as famous as Long Way 'Round.

Beard made this trip at a time when very few women were traveling long distances by motorcycle, even within their own countries. The out-and-out hostility she gets from daring to travel this way in the 1980s, even here in the USA, is jaw-dropping - and something I have never experienced now as a motorcycle traveler or solo traveler sans bike (and I'm so glad). The amount of sexual harassment and attempted sexual assaults she experiences in every country, including the USA, Australia, and all over India, is something that few world travelers, whether motorcyclists or humanitarians, will talk about, even though it remains a reality to this day - and it's something I have experienced as well. When I've asked travelers about it, most will say "it's not that bad" or "I know how to avoid it." I'm not sure why the denial. Fear of being defined as a victim rather than a traveler? Fear of being seen as weak? As a world traveler myself, including a humanitarian worker, I can tell you: sexual harassment is real, often happens when you least expect it and happens with disturbing regularity. I bring it up with travelers because I like tips on what to look out for and advice on how to handle certain situations, and I hope I have some helpful advice to share as well. It was refreshing to see a traveler be so open about it - and never letting it stop her from doggedly pushing on.

I admit to almost giving up on the book in the first 80 pages because I couldn't believe how she treated her ride in the USA: just something to get through as quickly as possible. The USA is an amazing country to tour by motorcycle, and was in the 1980s - it's not something new - but you would never know it by reading Beard's book. In those early pages, she also talked more about her failed relationship than anything good she might have been experiencing as a motorcycle rider, and I thought, if the entire book is this way, I'm not going to be able to get through it. The first 80 pages just weren't at all a book about an adventure motorcycle rider. But after she gets to Australia and works to get enough money to continue her travels, the book improves drastically - at least for me.

I do wish she'd talked more about how she chose her routes, how she chose where to stay, etc. - the only thing she says on this regard is that she has a Lonely Planet guide for one of the countries she's in. (FYI even in this day and age of the Internet, I'm a huge fan of those guidebooks and have frequently used them myself). She also rarely talks about how she secured her bike for the night - this is a big concern for most motorcycle travelers, and it would have been nice to have heard her advice on the subject.

The book is more about the challenges Beard faces (accidents, breakdowns, bureaucracy, extortion attempts) than the sights she sees, and there are times when I was thinking, Why are you doing this? What about any of this is enjoyable? Are you ever happy? I don't travel for endless, overwhelming challenges, though it is rather awesome to do something you've never done before or face a challenge you never expected - as long as you successfully meet the challenge. I travel to see amazing places and meet interesting people and be somewhere different than what I know every day, and I like reading travel books to get ideas of places to see when I travel. Her book is rather light in terms of describing awe-inspiring moments (an exception is her account of trekking through the Himalayas) or places you might want to visit if you are in the same places she was. But, still, I really enjoyed reading how she problem-solved, I deeply admire her persistence, and I am inspired by her determination. I don't want to spoil anything in the book - part of the enjoyment is reading about the challenges that come up and how she addressed them, over and over and over. But I will say that the challenges are intense, beyond the capabilities of most motorcycle riders I've ever known - and beyond what I could deal with. I really cannot gush enough about how Beard handles a myriad of dire circumstances. She doesn't seem to think it's any big deal that she keeps overcoming these challenges, nor that she built her own panniers or that she constantly repaired her own bike on the fly - I read those accounts and thought, geesh, you are Wonder Woman on a motorcycle and you don't know it. I'm not sure her book will inspire many people to take up motorcycle travel - the constant difficulties she experienced make it sound like a fight to survive every day, and it's not like that for all travelers now - at least it doesn't have to be. But she's not exaggerating: in the 1980s, this is what she experienced, and her abilities to overcome those challenges are nothing short of amazing.

Also, I am not a fan of bare bones budget travel, and I could never sleep and eat in the conditions Beard did for weeks and weeks at a time. I love camping, including rough camping - but I don't want to do it because I can't afford a safe place and I'll be in a place where there's a very likely chance local people will walk up in the night and mess with my bike, or me. I love budget hotels, even when I have money for something more fancy, but not if they are crawling with roaches or pockmarked with peepholes. I don't want to be on the verge of starvation while traveling because I can't afford a decent meal. So, again, as you read her book, know that this is how she traveled, but you don't have to travel this way in order to see the world - even by motorcycle, though you are going to need more money that she had if you don't want to regularly experience the conditions she did.

I have no mechanical abilities and can only just-barely-assist in changing a tire - I could never do it myself. I can't fix wiring or an oil leak or build my own panniers. Beard did all this - and more. That's why Elspeth Beard was able to ride across India - and it's why I can't and won't. And that's okay!  I fancy myself a motorcycle adventure rider - but nothing on the level of Elspeth Beard. I've ridden more than 40,000 miles / more than 63,000 km, the vast majority of it done touring, but just in the USA and Canada (I'm planning on seeing Baja, California, Mexico next year). I've never done the kind of riding Beard has done in severely under-developed countries, nor could I, and I know that and am okay with it. And I bring this up for anyone who wants to be an adventure motorcycle rider and is just getting started, because you might read the book and think, oh, no, I can't do that, therefore, I'm not going to travel around by motorcycle. Times have changed and you don't have to ride in the conditions Beard did to see some amazing, even remote places and experience the thrill of adventure motorcycle riding. I could never manage to ride across India - but I did ride up the Cassiar Highway to the Yukon, I've ridden gravel and dirt roads to remote ghost towns few have heard of, I've camped rough in beautiful, remote places throughout North America. I think I could manage some Eastern European countries on my own bike - I loved my long trip there on the back of my husband's bike back in 2008. Just know as you read Beard's book that this is extreme motorcycle touring, and if you haven't ridden since you were 16 like Beard, and know you could never do many of these roads, that's okay - you still have options for amazing, exotic, challenging adventure motorcycle travel.

Despite my complaint about it while reading the first 80 pages, I ended up really liking that she shared so much about her intimate relationships - I've found most people are not emotionless drones, even motorcycle travelers, though it's very difficult to get world travelers, with or without motorcycles, to open up about this at times. I found it refreshing to hear a traveler talk about love on the road - and the aftermath. It's something to consider if you are going to invest in a lot of time away from home.

And note: I will never have legs long enough to be able to take a photo on my bike so I can look as cool as Elspeth Beard.

One thing I've wondered: is Dave Calderwood, who was then editor of Bike magazine, still alive and still an asshole, or dead, or alive and profoundly apologetic for being an asshole? When Beard was looking for sponsorship and advice for her trip, she wrote his magazine, among others, and he wrote a mocking letter with the sole intent of humiliating her. You can read the letter here.

I hope Elspeth Beard finally gets the recognition and admiration she deserves. And I'm so grateful she shared her adventure at last. I would very much like to be as tenacious as she is.

So, if Elspeth Beard isn't the first woman to go around the world on her own motorcycle, who is? It's probably Anne France Dautheville, French journalist and writer. In 1973 at the age of 28, she rode around the world on a Kawasaki 125. Both of her books, in French only, are out of print (I will totally buy into a crowdfunding effort to translate them into English and publish them!).

One more thing: Beard visited Gunung Leuser National Park in Indonesia during her travels and mentioned an NGO working in this area addressing the huge problem of Indonesians abducting baby orangutans and then wanting to get rid of them when they grow older and are so much harder to care for. Her account of this visit is a good example of transire benefaciendo: "to travel along while doing good" - she didn't attempt to work at the NGO as a volunteer (which would have been illegal), but she did elevate its work through her book, even many years later. And that's how I know about it - and now you do too.

2018 Nevada motorcycle trip

 

In the last two weeks of July, we went on our annual two-week motorcycle trip. This time, we toured Nevada, as well as parts of Oregon and a wee bit of California. We spent 13 days, going over 2657 miles / 4276 kilometers. We stayed at the historic hotel in French Glen, Oregon, rode around Steens Mountain, rode most of US Highway 50 in Nevada (the "loneliest road in the USA"), visited Eureka, Ely, Rachel and Tonopah, Nevada, stayed two nights in Great Basin National Park, stayed a night in Cathedral Gorge State Park and took the Extraterrestrial Highway.

You can read the travelogue or go straight to the photos.

As always, my goal isn't so much hey, look what I did! as it is here's advice if you want to do something similar.

Al-Khansa - feisty poet, female, Islamic, or otherwise

For more information, see the Wikipedia entry for Al-Khansa.

Don't mess with my gender identification

The Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler premiered in 1996. Based on interviews conducted with more than 200 women, it is a staged reading of monologues about sex, love, menstruation, rape, birth, self-love, and more. It has been translated into 48 languages and performed in at least 140 countries.

I saw it in 2001 in Austin Texas (I think - could have been earlier), with a cast of readers that included Linda Ellerbee. It was a glorious, raucous night, and the crowd went wild several times with cheers. I can’t remember when I laughed that hard. And oh how I cried at times. So much of the show hit home for me - it was very personal at times. When I left the theater that night, I felt glorious. In fact, that evening changed the way I talk about women’s genitalia forever.

But I’m not supposed to say much of that, at least not the way I've said it. Instead of “interviews with more than 200 women,” I should say “interviews with more than 200 people with vaginas.” I’m not supposed to say “women’s genitalia” - I’m supposed to say “genitalia that is traditionally identified as female.” Mount Holyoke College, a school for women in South Hadley, Massachusetts, cancelled a scheduled performance of the play back in January 2015 because the play “is not inclusive of transgender women.” Indeed, a play called The Vagina Monologues is not inclusive of people that don’t have vaginas.

If you identify as a woman, but were born with male genitalia, and you want me to refer to you with a female name, you want me to use female pronouns in reference to you, and you want me to share women’s bathrooms with you, I will. I think the fears that male child predators will stalk women’s bathrooms dressed as women if laws protecting transgendered rights are passed are ridiculous - I’m much more worried about the safety of someone who identifies as a woman, who dresses as a woman, being forced to use men’s bathrooms.

But I also identify as a woman because of my genitalia and other physical features and how I have been treated all of my life, and it is NOT wrong for me to do that. I am very angry that I am being told I may NOT feel empowered as a woman at a performance of The Vagina Monologues, that it's wrong for me to identify as a woman because of my genitalia, that the show "offers an extremely narrow perspective on what it means to be a woman," and that it is "inherently reductionist and exclusive" (that's what the student spokeswoman at Mt. Holyoke said). You are, in short, denying how I identify as a woman, and that's just as wrong as denying transgender identification.

To cancel a performance of The Vagina Monologues because it might hurt the feelings of people that identify as female but don’t have vaginas is like canceling a showing of the movie Chariots of Fire because not everyone can run. Or The Turning Point because not everyone can dance. Or Amadeus because not everyone can hear the music. Or Call the Midwife because some people cannot have children that want to. We have become obsessed with trigger warnings - we've gone from trying to be compassionate to trying to control conversations in the name of "creating safe spaces." To quote The Atlantic: In the name of emotional well-being, college students are increasingly demanding protection from words and ideas they don’t like. Here’s why that’s disastrous for education—and mental health.

I do not think that The Vagina Monologues is saying "Being a woman means to have a vagina and if you don’t have one, you’re not a woman” But it is, most definitely, and unabashedly, a celebration of the vagina - and of women that have them. And that celebration is DESERVED. It's overdue! There is no denying that a physical aspect of womanhood that involves having a vagina, that it involves fertility, and involves cycles. We talk about these things, celebrate such, complain about such, embrace such, are discriminated against because of such, are loved because of such, mourn when we lose or give up such - it’s who we are, it’s part of our identification as women. To deny those aspects of womanhood means you are denying *my* identification. And it fucking pisses me off.

Spare me the comments about being transphobic. I’ve made it clear that I support people’s rights to identify however they want to identify when it comes to their gender. If you want to identify as a woman, despite having male genitalia, that’s fine with me. But if you don’t like The Vagina Monologues, then don’t go.

I am woman. Hear me roar.

Will I ever not be a novice motorcycle rider?

I've been riding a motorcycle now for almost seven years. And I still say I'm a novice rider.

It must be wonderful to grow up riding dirt bikes. When I see motorcycle riders now that seem so utterly comfortable, so at-one with their motorcycles, and I get the chance to talk to them, it always turns out that they started riding dirt bikes as a teen - even a pre-teen.

My husband didn't ride dirt bikes. He didn't start riding a motorcycle regularly until he was 27, yet, by 30, he was riding his motorcycle with such incredible grace and confidence and, well, I would say perfection, like he had been doing it for oh-so-long. I'm not saying he could do the Dakar Rally, but nothing seems to intimidate him as a rider, not sharp turns on a hill, not turning around on a hill on a one-lane road, not gravel.

Me, on the other hand... I'm Ms. Barely-the-Speed-Limit off the interstate. All motorcyclists and drivers hate being behind me off the interstate. Let's face it: 99% of riders and drivers go at least 10 miles over the speed limit, even on winding, narrow roads. I go around curves as quickly as I feel comfortable, and that always turns out to be the speed limit. I'd be okay with that if it weren't for the long line of cars and motorcycles that often end up behind me, or that one car following too close, or seeing my husband in my mirror and knowing he'd so love to be going faster.

But I think if you see me riding, even if you are following me, you don't think I'm a novice rider - just an overly-cautious one. I think my form is pretty good, and I really do enjoy riding off of main road (the freeway, and anything with lots of traffic lights). I enjoy gravel that isn't too complicated - I was going up and down Dixie Mountain Road and Otto Miller Road with quite a lot of confidence in 2013 and 2014. I've had a bit of a set back in confidence since my wreck in Utah last year. But I'm getting more and more comfortable again. If I didn't still really enjoy riding a motorcycle, I'd quit - and I still really do so enjoy it, and I want to not only keep riding in the USA, but do more ambitious trips in Mexico and Chile in the coming years.

But if you see me when I park my motorcycle, or leave a parking place, you know I'm still a novice rider. And it's during those times when I think - maybe I'll never get this. And it's when a lot of people watch me and think, wow, she's a novice. She must have just gotten her license last month.

The areas that I just cannot master so far - or even just feel comfortable with:

• Sharp turns immediately after an uphill stop
• Stopping and starting on an incline
• Turning around on an incline
• Parking (if it involves any of the above, to park or to get out of my parking place)

I loathe driving in cities because they involve all of the aforementioned. The idea of driving in Portland, even Beaverton, and especially Oregon City, makes me start sweating profusely - even just sitting here on the couch, not about to ride anywhere.

How do I practice these things? How do you practice something that, if you get wrong, you drop your bike?

I really need a one-on-one class to work on these things with someone who really knows what they are doing and how to transfer those skills. I'd love a class on how to better ride on dirt and gravel as well - especially how to stop. Stefan has been really wonderful teaching me dirt and gravel riding techniques, but we both think another person, who is really comfortable teaching novices, would be so helpful. But I cannot find such a class.

I have emailed and called and left a message with a training center in Washington state that shall remain nameless that offers a range of dirt bike and ADV rider courses, but they never called or emailed me back. I finally got someone via IM chat, but he wasn't clear on what class he thought I should take - and even suggested one class that seemed more about learning to camp via motorcycle - which I am quite experienced at doing - than a class to teach me the skills I need.

I took the Advanced Rider Training class with Team Oregon, and it did help me with cornering, but I got the impression the class is really about learning to go AS FAST AS POSSIBLE, safely, around curves. I'm just not interested in going fast... though I'd like to go faster, and this course did help. I also got the impression that the instructors were frustrated with me - they didn't like that I just couldn't go as fast as the other riders. It wasn't a nurturing environment - just a "Here's how you do it. Now do it. Okay, you didn't do it right, so I'll tell you again." I'll be trying another Team Oregon course, Rider Skills Practice (RSP), in May, since it's all I can find. Unfortunately, Motorcycle Safety Foundation courses aren't offered in Oregon - I loved their basic rider's course back in Kentucky (so supportive, so clear, so fun!), and I would SO love to take its Ultimate Bike-Bonding RiderCourse (patterned after police training courses).

And I'd still love to find a one-on-one trainer to help me with those bulleted items, and with riding better on dirt and gravel. Anyone?

I am always aspiring to be a better motorcycle rider. Always. I sure would like some help in that quest.