Lady Riders — women who ride motorcycles

As the morning wears on, we encourage one another through the increasingly difficult assignments, and then unfortunately find ourselves saying good-bye to yet another classmate who’s having difficulty keeping up with things due to a nagging back injury.  We’re now down to five men and five women.  We break for lunch as some rain clouds begin to threaten and mercifully hide the summer sun for a while.  The ladies head off for a bite to eat, where I learn more about their riding interests and experiences.  We talk about the camaraderie of motorcycling and how you feel a part of a larger club once you take up the sport regardless of what you do or where you’re from.

Tresa, the most capable rider in the bunch, tells me about a women’s group called the Lady Riders of Northwest Arkansas.  The group meets every fourth Saturday at the Sunset Grill in Springdale “ready to ride at 9 a.m., come for breakfast if you like at 8.”  Tresa says the group attracts women of all ages from all walks of life and who ride all kinds of bikes.  “We’re ‘non-denominational,’” she says with a smile.  All bikes are welcome.  While the group has fluctuated in size through the years, the goal is to encourage women to ride and give them practice riding with others on trips that are not too difficult but offer some skill challenge.  Some go on to ride with the men in their lives such as husbands or boyfriends, while others continue to come every month or drop in frequently to enjoy the companionship of other women riders.

I got to wondering how many other women in the U.S. were spending their Saturday with a bike.  As it turns out, probably quite a few.  According to the Motorcycle Industry Council, women are the fastest growing segment of motorcycle riders, and one in 10 bikes sold is bought by a woman.  I ran across a great website devoted to women riders: www.womenridersnow.com, which was packed with information, resources, products and stories about women riders. Coincidentally, I also just found out July is Women’s Motorcycle Month.

We talk about the skills of our entire class and decide everyone is doing pretty well considering the amount of learning being thrown at us, and in fact the women are holding their own compared with the men.  We agree there doesn’t seem to be a gender factor in the learning process.  If anything, this is more a thinking person’s sport than anything else given the complexity of the techniques, the physics involved and the constant decision-making required by the driver.  Mike and Jim both told us the night before “Motorcycling is a skill of the mind and the eye.”  I look forward to the time when I feel riding is more of an art and less of a science, when my skill becomes more instinctual and less remedial.  “Muscle memory is critical to riding success,” Mike tells us more than once.  He encourages us to practice, practice, practice so that over time your reflexes take over many of the things you must do on a regular basis to ride safely.  I suppose this is like learning to drive a car but with less protection and more to lose from a mistake.

We spend the better part of the afternoon continuing to tackle more exercises including sudden stops in a curve, lane changing, swerving to avoid obstacles and maneuvering tight corners.  By this point, I have to admit I am starting to get a little tired and a bit overwhelmed by the constantly changing combination of old skills and addition of new skills.  I maintain my focus by talking with fellow riders about what we’ve just learned and discussing the finer points of each exercise.  Mike stops to tell us how well everyone is doing, and we are hopeful that the testing is coming to an end and all will pass the course.

In fact, we do.  Shortly thereafter, Mike and Trey prepare and hand out our official Rider Course wallet cards along with some safety literature, and we have a brief graduation ceremony next to our bikes.  They remind us to ride safely, to encourage others to take the class and above all to use what we have learned.  I take a group shot of the happy graduates and everyone disperses, hopefully a little wiser and ready for the road.

I am pleased with the parting words from my fellow female riders as they head out: “Come ride with us sometime.”  I mentally calculate that the next time the Lady Riders of Northwest Arkansas will meet is just a few weeks away.