By Toni Granke
Empowerment is a word that defines how a 96 cubic inch motor can make a lady feel. Motorcycles, leather and a sunny day can make any girl have attitude with a smile. After a day of hard work, and a test of patients the openness of the road will sooth battered emotions and give us the ability to to endure what life throws at us.
Harley Davidson has seen an influx of females purchasing motorcycles for their own personal use, according to the Motorcycle Industry Council, 5.7 million women are out riding motorcycles. Women are 12 percent of the purchasing population and it’s going up. Imagine the feminine power out there right now enjoying the sport on all makes and models. All ages and stages of women will slide those legs around that special bike that fits her like nothing else she has ever felt and will ride into the sunset, saving herself and not waiting for anyone else to do the job.
Riding is a form of therapy that cant be duplicated in any office, sitting on any couch. It gives the rider a sense of freedom from the constraints of a daily regime. Rather we plan a trip with family or friends and head out to that adventure for weeks or ride across town for an hour, we lose stress and worry somewhere along the way. When our ride brings us home and we put our thunderous horses away, we have just had the moment of a lifetime. The smells in the air become contagious and we start looking forward to certain fragrances that we would never have known if you would have been driving in a car. The smell of freshly mown lawn, a patch of hay somewhere you hadn’t known hay existed. The sweet smell of sage as the motor purrs, taking you down the road to the next great adventure.
Heads turn when they see us ride up with our leathers, our boots and our confidence wrapped around us like a shield. We are strong beautiful women who are enjoying our lives and finding community in one another and our fantastic stories of being road pirates. Stealing the interest of the next generation and giving back to the community in rides that benefit many charitable organizations such as Breast Cancer Awareness, MS, Toys for Tots and many more.
Women have fought the good fight for generations, starting with Motor Maids, which was founded by Dot Robinson in 1940 and continues to this day with over 1,200 members some of whom are well over 80 years old. The iron butt rides, where women ride a thousand miles in one ride without stopping are amazing and recently there was one such lady Ardys Kellerman who has ridden her BMW GS650 11 thousand miles in 11 days . Ardys has done this four times and she is 76 years old. From what I have read about her, she doesn’t have any plans of stopping!
We ladies stick together and we know how to have a good time. We have a sense of the now and an intense sensation of the earth around us. Inside of our helmets we have solitude and piece unlike any other piece ever experienced. Simplified its called Poetry in Motion.
You Go Girl!
Toni Doreen Granke has been riding motorcycles for ten years and enjoys long trips. She just got back from a 3600 mile trip around Canada and presently is working on a trip around New Zealand in 2012. Learn more at www.TDGranke.com
