BMW MOA Rally Women's Panel

Last weekend (if you haven't heard me mention;), I had the amazing privileged of sitting on a panel with some world class women in riding at the National BMW MOA rally.  I was admittedly nervous not knowing what to expect with my female counterparts, however was just blown away by their humility, knowledge, fun and equal passion for moto. Sometimes I feel like an odd ball constantly talking about my career in moto, however I was with women torn from the same cloth at this rally embracing and soaking up as much knowledge about industry and learning from their expertise.
My quick two take away's from the rally were:
#1) Shop retailers.  I know! It can be so so challenging as women to do so.  Very seldom do shops have gear for us and if they do, our size is never in sock. As well, if we get into the industry mid-life knowing nothing about how to maintain our bikes, it can be intimidating and or frightening having to go to the male dominated service shops with a concern they wont be friendly and kind to all of our questions. We, however, have so much more control over that by GOING and talking about what we want and need. Order it from the store instead of an online dealer.  Unlike many of my counterparts, back in the day, before I had a bunch of kids and got really busy in life, I loved to shop retail at the mall.. I still do actually.  I now have so many other things in life that demand my time that keep me from going however walking through the mall or going to a boutique is my fav.
My point is, the next time I order boots or the riding jeans I want, I'm going to go see my long time friend Tim Burke at Piston Society to order them.  I want our motorcycle shops to continue to thrive and offer the best customer service, particularly small business.  As women in moto grow, lets do our best in making a place in the industry by showing up!
#2) Use sunscreen! Sounds silly right?  In fact, as soon as I walked in the room, a woman pulled me aside to ask me to address that topic during the panel and I almost brushed it off.  My new friend, Joclin Snow, quickly affirmed this topic saying that she has had to have surgical procedures on her face because of pre-cancerous cells. As it turns out, the woman we were talking to had lost her entire nose to the most painful cancer she could put into words!  Once it was brought up during the panel discussion, I was shocked how many women talked about the cancer on their faces that was directly related to 30-40 years of long rides, dirt bike riding, adventure riding etc without proper sun protection.  I am already kind of a sun screen freak and I wear hats most summer days because of this, however hearing this from so many other women made me think of all the beat red noses I see when my girlfriends take off their helmets after a day of riding. I always keep my sun visor on my helmet unless I am going so fast it will take my head off. This piece of counsel really stuck with me after hearing an entire room of veteran riders talk about their painful experiences having cancer.  So, wear sun screen ladies!! Reapply! And if you need a cute hat, we sell them through our vendor over at queencityspirit.com under the "moto" category... had to put that little plug in;).
After we got back from the rally, the women who were on the panel all decided that after high demand, we will be doing a webinar together in July to answer questions and reconnect.  It will be so informative considering the women on the panel. I'll keep my social media paged informed so you can check it out!
That is all for now.  I'll leave a few videos from the rally.  Thank you to my precious friend Kelly who roped me into the panel. It was such an amazing experience.:)  Can't wait to see what is to come!
BTW, in the beginning, when we all sat down in the front of the room, my friend Kelly had the Mic and need to get the attention of the audience.  She asked if I would sing a Disney song! (For those that don't know me, my degree is in voice and I am contracted performer as well known princess characters for a local Cincinnati company).  At first I said no, then my friend Joclin started egging me on.. so I did and it quickly got so quiet you could have heard a pin drop.  It was hilarious.
Thanks for tuning in! Don't have time to correct all my grammar, and I never will, but you get the point!
For those really motivated, to hear the entire panel discussion, click here .

Why Don't (More) Women Ride?

What are little boys made of? Frog and snails, and puppy dogs’ tails. That’s what little boys are made of. What are little girls made of? Sugar and spice, and everything nice. That’s what little girls are made of.

I grew up listening to that nursery rhyme that my mom would recite to my brothers and me at bedtime in the 1970’s. Although my mom read about “sugar and spice and everything nice,” she was also proficient on her 1972 powder blue BMW R60/5.  In fact, she rode bikes before she even owned a car as her main source of transportation. While they served in the US Navy, my parents met in a motorcycle club, married and the rest is history. But it wasn’t JUST my mom. My grandmother also rode motorcycles her entire life. I remember sitting on that big tank as a five year old riding through those Indiana farming fields, smelling the sweet corn and wanting to go faster.  

I was destined to ride. It’s in my DNA.  Although I didn’t start riding until I was in my 30’s, I twisted the throttle 10 years ago and have never looked back.  My husband and I have gone through more bikes than I can count. We currently own 12, our children ride and I have recruited many women into the hobby. What I wouldn't give to have my mom’s bike and her old helmet. The nostalgia of that runs deep.

Isn’t that how it starts? I have watched the ebb and flow of the industry and have heard countless stories of the “how” and “why” we started riding. It typically begins as a child, a father and son riding together, perhaps through a farm or trails on a dirt bike that eventually translates to the road as an adult to bigger, better adventures. We carry our traditions and desires and the moments of utopia we experience as children with our parents or favorite caretakers as adults. And if this is the truth, then it makes sense why the industry is 80% male and 20% female.

I have three sons and have been on a number of online “mom” forums. It is typical to see moms post adorable pictures of Junior on the fire truck or in dance class, but in the 11 years of my parenthood experience, I have been the only mother who have ever posted photos of my kids in their new peewee gear or on their new dirt bikes. Yet, it's common for a dad to boast loudly about his son’s new dirt bike on other social media forums and show pictures of them riding together.

I love to ride. It's a lifestyle for my family and me. We live, eat, sleep, breathe motorcycles and, over the years, I have noticed a void of female community in the culture of riding. Oftentimes, when I do get to know women in the industry, they are passengers not single participants. Because of this, in 2017 I started a group called “Women’s Off-Road Moto LLC”(WOMO). I desperately wanted to share my adventures with other women and experience that community in deep, raw female friendships within the language of motorcycles. And it exploded! I taught women how to ride on my motorcycles and, within a couple years, we now have 200 women of all different levels of experience learning to ride, finding others in the group to ride with, and speaking the same language of motorcycling.

WOMO participates in many rallies and rides, however, a very unique event that WOMO has been able to attend is an all-women's faith-based camp twice a year. We bring small, automatic dirt bikes and give women, who never dreamed of riding independently on a motorcycle, a 2 ½ minute riding experience on a small dirt track. I have watched women wait in line with their friends for over three hours in the hot sun for this opportunity. Some are shaking when they get on the bike and many jump up and down afterwards in celebration of their bravery to step into such an adventure. They are left wanting more. What are the next steps? How do I learn how to ride? Where do I buy a bike?  What kind of bike should I buy? Is there community to learn with? And on and on the questions go.

Many women have not had the luxury of growing up, sitting around with other gearheads discussing carburetors and fork seals. They are starting from scratch at age 30, 40, and 50 in a culture and language they are not familiar with. And, although arguably our biggest advocates as female moto enthusiasts are men, it’s incredibly uncomfortable to be the lowest common denominator, feeling lost in conversation, falling every five minutes on the trail and slowing the group down to frustration as we learn to ride.

If the industry wants to make a cultural shift to get women into riding, they need to think like women. Women typically gravitate toward relationship, community and experience. If a new, uncomfortable adventure  is combined with an emotionally “safe” environment with a woman and her three best, supportive girlfriends cheering her on, she will be more likely to take that brave step in community as opposed to doing it independently.

Asking women who would never consider getting on a motorcycle or even consider joining this male-dominated, foreign moto culture by herself is typically not going to be successful.  Cultivating a safe environment with other women who all speak Venutian, where there is a women's event, to have this new, exciting, and scary adventure together, promotes a higher likelihood of success. So many women in WOMO have only been riding for about a year or two and they have already found sincere community with each other. And within this group, they have ventured out to understand and integrate themselves in the moto culture. They attend rallies regularly, are growing their fleets of bikes and gear and are teaching their daughters how to ride. 

This is how you change a culture now and generationally.

My husband and I are hopeful to start a business, alongside empowering sponsors and investors, to take this gig on the road. Our hope is to find female-dominated events that would invite this experience for women. We would show them appropriate riding gear, put them on small, manageable automatic bikes and send them on a novice trail that will leave them wanting more. Even if it only attracts 5-10% of those that go through the experience into the moto community, the domino effect is great. Women like to talk about what they like and it doesn’t take long before they are taking their friends with them on their adventures, their social media news feeds are filled with stories of their moto adventures, or they’re creating pages and blogs JUST to talk about their bikes and trail rides.  

Changing an industry happens over generations. So when we read sweet nursery rhymes about the sugar and spice of womanhood, it needs to include the sweet air of riding through corn fields with our moms or the spice of getting dirty with her on a gnarly trail. I will own the BMW my mom had someday and once again ride through the corn fields in Indiana. In the end, it will only continue to fuel my desire to allow other females to experience the same. That is why we ride. That is what little girls are made of.