Women Bikers Are Alright By Me

As a kid in my native Belgium back in the 1950s, I grew up around motorcycle riders – both men and women. To see a woman riding a motorcycle was not at all unusual and nobody gave it a second thought. Motorcycles, and its predecessor the bicycle, were a main source of transportation. In post World War II Belgium, cars were expensive and gasoline was expensive. (Not much has changed except that unions have ensured the working stiff earns enough money so he/she can afford – at least on credit – to buy a car.) But up to the mid-60s most people couldn’t afford the luxury of four wheels. Back in the ’50s there were still more bicycle riders on Belgian roads than anything else. But anybody who had a bit of a commute to work rode a motorcycle or moped.

Although my mom never rode motorcycles, my dad did from a very young age. He later became an adept mechanic (both cars and motorcycles); in the late ’40s and early ’50s he was a champion motocrosser. He rode for a Sarolea dealership-supported team. (Betcha not too many of you have heard of that brand of bike. It’s long been extinct but if you’re interested you can always do a Google search.) Dad’s mechanic, who owned the Sarolea dealership he rode for, was married to a wonderful mechanically inclined woman who not only rode her own bike, she tested many of the team’s motocross bikes after her hubby had wrenched on them in the shop. Actually, the bikes were ‘kitted’ street models with knobby tires, as there were no real motocross/dirtbikes back then.

Unfortunately she was involved in a bad wreck. No, not while testing bikes off road, but while riding on the street. Yup, you guessed it, some cager cut her off. She was pretty beat up, not to mention suffering third degree burns! But this brave soul was back in the saddle a few years later. To me, after all these years, she still epitomizes in my mind the ‘real deal’ woman biker. Perhaps that is what led me to write about women bikers these past few years. In 2009 I co-authored/edited a book with Edward Winterhalder and Arthur Veno called Biker Chicks: The Magnetic Attraction of Women to Bad Boys and Motorbikes (Allen & Unwin). I’m currently wrapping up Biker Chicz of North America, which is co-authored with Winterhalder. If I’m not mistaking we’re the first men to actually write books about women motorcyclists. I don’t know if that’s good or bad, as it comes from a different perspective most women moto journalists would apply. But the ladies featured in the book (release date is pending), have all given us a vote of confidence. All are avowed Harley riders ranging from two years to over thirty years in the saddle, except for Gloria Tramontin Struck who has been riding for seventy years. They are successful, intelligent, freethinking, adventurous, risk takers, creative, inspiring, tenacious, and spiritually inclined if not religious women. Yup, women bikers are alright by me!

Photo: Cris Summer Simmons, who is one of the women featured in the upcoming book Biker Chicz of North America, belongs to the real deal on two wheels category.
She  is also a respected moto journalist/photographer and author of the epic book, The American Motorcycle Girls 1900-1900 (Parker House).

By Wil De Clercq