[ed. Last year there were more women than men in my MSF course.]
But, organically and spontaneously through social media – especially Instagram – a new generation of female bikers is finding and inspiring each other with a shared set of ideals: adventure, companionship and the freedom of the road.“I think we’re seeing a kind of onset of a kind of powerful women being trendy,” said Lanakila “Lana” MacNaughton. She and four more female riders were handpicked by Harley-Davidson and given motorcycles to ride 9,000 miles across the country, re-creating a 1915 ride pioneered by the mother and daughter team Avis and Effie Hotchkiss.
“I don’t think that’s really ever been seen,” said MacNaughton. “For us it’s about, for us – being on the front of the bike rather than being on the back of the bike, and establishing ourselves as strong women instead of in the background.” {...}
MacNaughton said: “This ride is a representation of shifting perspectives of women in society right now ... Definitely there’s a nod to feminism, but I think, for me, at the root it’s about sharing it with the motorcycle community.”
Truly, it’s the sharing that brought female motorcyclists across the country together and into loosely bound groups such as the Litas or Brooklyn’s Miss-Fires. Female-only riding and camping events, such as Babes in MotoLand in north-west Illinois and Dream Roll in Washington state, are cropping up.
“I started it back in December, so recently, and it’s crazy – like, there are so many girl riders that just came out of the woodwork,” said Haggett. She, like many other female motorcyclists the Guardian interviewed, rode alone until recently. “I’ve been riding for six years, and then I rode alone for four, and then I met guys who ride, and rode with them, and just in the past year started riding with other girls.
“Instagram was part of it, which sounds so stupid. It’s just social media, but at the same time the visibility into who’s doing what – six years ago I wasn’t really on Instagram, didn’t post any bike photos, and so honestly I didn’t see girls around riding, and I didn’t know girls riding, and so I didn’t really have a choice,” Haggett said.
Truly, it’s the sharing that brought female motorcyclists across the country together and into loosely bound groups such as the Litas or Brooklyn’s Miss-Fires. Female-only riding and camping events, such as Babes in MotoLand in north-west Illinois and Dream Roll in Washington state, are cropping up.
“I started it back in December, so recently, and it’s crazy – like, there are so many girl riders that just came out of the woodwork,” said Haggett. She, like many other female motorcyclists the Guardian interviewed, rode alone until recently. “I’ve been riding for six years, and then I rode alone for four, and then I met guys who ride, and rode with them, and just in the past year started riding with other girls.
“Instagram was part of it, which sounds so stupid. It’s just social media, but at the same time the visibility into who’s doing what – six years ago I wasn’t really on Instagram, didn’t post any bike photos, and so honestly I didn’t see girls around riding, and I didn’t know girls riding, and so I didn’t really have a choice,” Haggett said.
by Jessica Glenza , The Guardian | Read more:
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