Cultural shift

Bonnie Becker was tired of sitting on the back seat of a motorcycle.

“One morning I woke up and I said, ‘I am going to do this. I’m going to get my license. I want to and I can,’ ” she recalls. A week after her motorcycle safety class, she brought home two bikes: a Honda Rebel and a Harley Davidson Sportster. Now she likes the view – from the front seat – a whole lot better.

“It’s total freedom, and when you are in control, it’s just a whole different feeling,” she says. “It just clears your mind. The scenery is more real to you.”

Becker’s current bike, a cobalt blue and glacier white 2006 Harley Davidson Softail Deluxe, is her latest pride and joy, and she beams like a child in a candy shop when she talks about it.

“My bike is a pretty, eye-catching bike and it’s a ladies bike. In my opinion they made that bike for women. When sunlight hits it, it shimmers,” she says.

On a recent clear Sunday morning she joins the members of the STAR Yamaha breakfast group to ride to Priest Lake, Idaho. The group, a cluster of men and women who enjoy taking their bikes out for long, safe rides, meets every Sunday at Old Country Buffet on Division Street in Spokane. After breakfast and some mingling, they are ready to go.

It’s Becker’s second time riding with the group. After riding solo for about two years, she decided it was time to get back in a group, meet new people and do some charity rides. Besides all of that, Becker says riding in a group also makes her feel safer and a little more comfortable – especially being a female.

“I look for a group that is going to mentor me and take care of me as a female rider. I don’t want to feel like a weenie and hear, ‘Oh, I can’t handle that bike,’ ” she says.

Ann Wise, the shepherd of the STAR breakfast group, whistles and calls everyone outside to the parking lot, where a row of shiny motorcycles stands begging to be ridden on the hot asphalt. Wise drives a Moto Guzzi, an Italian motorcycle. A mother of three sons, Wise realized motorcycles were just the best way to connect with her family.

“I didn’t want to be the one left out. I thought, ‘Hey, I can be a part of this, too,’” she says. “My boys laugh at me.”

Recently she’s been riding her bike to work because of high gasoline prices. Wise is able to get about 60 miles per gallon on her Italian bike.

While on the road, she says she’s been seeing more women riders, and it makes her proud to see the sport expanding.

“In the past years it’s been a sport for men – I’ve always taken that as sort of a challenge. I’m a tomboy in that way. I like showing that women can do it,” she says.

When taking a motorcycle safety course with her son, she noticed that the majority of students in her class were women.

Recently, dealers are gearing bikes and accessories to women. A lower seat and closer handlebars on a motorcycle are often ideal for female riders.

Aric Muse, manager of Shumate Harley Davidson on Trent Avenue in Spokane, says that gearing bikes to women is a smart business move.

“The sport is growing among women. They are doing it as a way of life, not just transportation. From a business perspective it’s great,” he says.

Harley eventually will hold special events just for women to check out motorcycles.

Jinny Lyon, co-owner of Road House Cycles in Post Falls, just started selling Ridley Motorcycles and says these motorcycles scream “women.”

“They say they’re vertically challenged or what not, but the paint jobs scream women,” Lyon says. While the colors are bright purples and teals, Lyon says the bikes are just as wild as any Harley.

“The bikes are beefy; they just got attitude.”

Lyon has been riding since 1977. She began riding at a time when no one thought she should be astride a bike.

“Oh, of course, it was tough. I was first riding in an outlawed gang,” she says.

Back then, when telling her mom that she wanted to get a motorcycle, her mom said: “I’ll kick your ass.”

She was strongly against the idea, but all Lyon could say to her mom was: “Too late.”

Since then, Lyon has dived head-first into the motorcycle lifestyle.

She is well-known for arranging an annual weekend trip with all the female motorcycle enthusiasts she can find.

What began as a few riders turned into a large group of 45 women who, two weeks ago, drove to Penticton, British Columbia, for a weekend of pampering.

“No husbands, no kids, just women and bikes,” she says. “I love motorcycling, and I love the women in my life.

“It takes an incredible woman to ride a motorcycle – that’s my attitude.”

Ruthanne Vasquez, president of the Spokane STAR Yamaha Touring Group, sits comfortably behind her husband Mark as they swoop through rural highways on their way to Priest Lake. They are riding one of 12 motorcycles scattered on the road on this Sunday.

Vasquez may not be behind the handlebars, but she still immerses herself in the motorcycle culture.

A grandmother of five and a recently retired nurse from Sacred Heart Medical Center, Vasquez says riding is something she has time to do now

“I think it’s the baby boomers,” she says, “I think we are younger at an older age these days.”

Becker says most of her friends who began riding were “two-up” or sitting in the back seat.

“A lot of women ride because their husbands ride,” says Becker. “It’s like a family thing to do.

“But I think a lot of women riding two-up are going out and getting their own bike.”

Vasquez agrees. Women interested in riding shouldn’t be hesitant. If anything, she says, they are missing out.

“Honda has this saying that’s ‘Why fly through beautiful country when you can drive through it.’ I like that,” she says.