Motor Maids ride into downtown Spokane

Passersby in Riverfront Park on Thursday morning gathered along the roadsides to catch glimpses of a rumbling parade of lady motorcyclists.

The Motor Maids rolled into town from all over North America this week for their annual convention, held in Spokane for the first time in club history.

“It’s a unique city,” club president Sandra Hinksman said.

The so-called “ladies of the white gloves” make up the oldest continuous women’s motorcycling organization, founded in 1940.

Hinksman, who is 64 and from Ontario, Canada, said 265 women on motorcycles and 65 guests made it to Spokane

Per club bylaws, members must ride to the convention. Some designed routes to hit the four corners of the U.S. on their way. Others dipped into the Arctic Circle and Alaska.

“People don’t always realize that all the people that are here rode from their homes to be here, and have to ride home,” said Delaine Adkins, who is from Ohio and serves as vice president of the Motor Maids. “And I think that’s – I know that’s one of the things that distinguishes us. We ride.”

Deb Sanders, 68, who oversees members in Arizona, New Mexico and southern Nevada, said the trip took her group upward of 15 hours of ride time from Arizona.

“We took our time,” she said. “We took like four or five days.”

It was 110 degrees at the outset of their journey. It is the complete immersion in the moment that is so irresistible for Sanders and her group.

“You’d be amazed how pretty mountains look when you’re seeing them clear and not through the windshield,” Sanders said.

Group member Lisa Malachowsky, 63, echoed Sanders.

“You can experience the environment a lot better on a motorcycle than in the car,” she said. “You have to deal with the weather and all the animals and all the smells.”

On the sidelines of the numerous meetings, dinners and the morning parade are the Motor Maid security crew, composed largely of the husbands, boyfriends, sons and spouses of riding women.

“Sometimes the Motor Maids don’t even know they have an issue with their bike,” Hinksman said. “Security guys, they walk around and they’re like, ‘This bike here – you’ve lost a bolt. Don’t worry, I’ve got extra.’ ”

“We’ve seen them rebuild some of these clutches in the parking lot while we were in a business meeting,” Adkins added.

Motor Maid security member Chris McCormick, 62, accompanied his wife, Tana Wooten, to their first convention from Kuna, Idaho. Though McCormick has ridden motorcycles for just shy of three decades, he elected to carry baggage in his truck on the way to town and “make sure that nobody runs (Wooten) over” on the way home.

McCormick acted as a parking director, a water supplier, and even a sasquatch mascot at one point – a role that has landed him a few minutes of fame.

“There just seemed to be some tiny loose edges, and so I was just happy to help out in those little aspects,” McCormick said. “Keeps me from being bored, gives me a feeling that I’m a subtle part of things, and everybody appreciates that.”

Adkins said that the club is about “uniting women who ride and uplifting women,” something that can be lost in male-dominated riding groups.

“Having ridden in men’s groups, they would stick the women in the back,” Sanders said. “This way, we ride in the front. We ride as commanders of our destiny.”

For other women, joining was more of a safety precaution.

“I wanted to go further than I was going,” Adkins said. “Mostly, I wanted to go over the Rockies, and I was scared. And I met a Motor Maid and she’s like, ‘We have ladies that ride all over the U.S. and Canada and they’ll help you figure out the things you’re concerned about or how to prepare.’ ”

But even beyond riding, the annual convention serves as a catalyst for developing a community with other members.

“I always say the first convention you go to, your tribe begins,” Hinksman said. “You start to collect people. I just wanted someone to ride with on weekends, and then I went across the country, like, four times.”

Sanders agreed.

“Motor Maids has allowed me to know more people,” she said. “We all consider ourselves sisters and family. So to me, this is a big family. You only see them once a year, but you don’t forget them.”