Girls Who Shred!

Motorcycling has always been more of a male dominated sport, and I think that’s the result of the obviously inherent dangers that come with the territory of swinging a leg over a bike. If you actually think about it, the idea of riding a motorcycle is pretty crazy. When you’re going down the road, assuming your tires are properly inflated, there’s only about a square inch of rubber on each tire that’s touching the ground at any given moment. Yet somehow, we are able to control the bike with great precision and steer it in any direction we choose. And then there’s the obvious risk of being completely out in the open with no sort of a cage around you, which is the main factor why people are hesitant to ride. Despite this being a fact of life, more and more girls are jumping on bikes and doing incredibly impressive things.

Take for example Sarah Lezito, a 24-year-old stunt rider from France who started stunting at 13 and absolutely shreds, as clearly demonstrated in her video. Now I’m just making up numbers here, but I’m confident in saying that 99% of riders, male or female, can only dream of doing what Sarah can do on a bike. The wheelies, drifts, stoppies, burnouts, and pirouettes – her bag of tricks is almost endless. To top it all off, she’s doing it with incredible grace on a BMW S1000R – a beast of a motorcycle that’s difficult to tame even under regular riding conditions. I can only imagine how many girls you’ve inspired. My hat is off to you, Sarah.

Sarah is just one example of a girl who’s changing the face of motorcycling for women. Another perfect example is the Babes Ride Out movement. I would call it an event, because that’s how it all started, but it’s so much more than that now. What started as a small girls-only campout with no expectations amongst a couple of girlfriends has now turned into a nationwide female biker movement. Its first year saw 50 girls ride out, the second year – 500, third – 1,500! The campout has been held each year in Joshua Tree and girls have ridden in from all over the country and have even traveled in from as far as Canada and the UK to attend. With Babes Ride Out’s wild success, they have added girls-only camp-outs in New York’s Catskills and the UK as well. They even created a Babes in the Dirt event for off-road enthusiasts. The movement is about to kick off its 5th year this October and you can surely expect more girls than ever.

Now, let me man-splain why all this matters. As I mentioned before, motorcycling has been and is largely still a male dominated activity, but thanks to unique events and the latest generation of female riders, the overall demographics of riding really are changing. These events are giving more and more girls confidence to learn to ride and go out and have fun, because that’s why we all do it in the first place – because it’s fun. I’m thrilled to see more and more of our sisters getting out there on two wheels because it grows the motorcycle community and fortifies the industry as a whole.

To all the ladies out there on two wheels, you’re all bad ass. Keep it up and keep the greasy side down! Cheers.