“25% of motorcycle riders are currently women and that percentage is growing.”
Wayne Gerdes -
CleanMPG - Feb. 21, 2010
Gin Shear of the Women’s Motorcyclist Foundation behind the 2010
Yamaha XT250.
This year’s Chicago International Motorcycle Show featured an all-new Women's Center where female riders of any experience level were introduced to bikes and gear thanks mainly to the tireless efforts of female riding experts representing the
Women’s Motorcyclist Foundation (WMF). Along with discussion, female attendees were encouraged to try on a large variety of woman specific sized and designed gear from manufacturers including Cortech, Icon, Joe Rocket, Shift, Thor and Tourmaster.
Taking an entire wing of the show floor, the Women’s Center had a strong show presence. By the sheer number of women visitors to the area during my 15-minute discussion with one of the principal organizers, “Women in Motorcycling” has a huge future ahead of it.
Someone you should know
On the off-chance you meet someone with an inner drive worn on their sleeve, your interest is usually awakened. When you find out this same person uses that drive to promote and raise funds for charitable causes while riding a motorcycle, you had better take notice…
Meet Gin Shear from Rochester, NY who just so happens to ride a 2009 BMW F 800 GS, a CleanMPG favorite.
“We want to get people to consider motorcycling as a family activity,” said Gin, Executive Director of the
Women’s Motorcyclist Foundation. “If we can move woman to ride, we’ll get more people to ride as well.”
Gin manages the WMF as a 501(c)3 charitable, networking and educational organization. In existence since 1984, the WMF began by hosting multi-day gatherings to share and enhance the riding, mechanical and touring skills of women motorcyclists.
In 1993, the WMF began efforts to eradicate breast cancer. Through a number of long distance adventure rides including the Women's Arctic Tour – Ride for Research, four national PONY EXPRESS TOURS, ON TRACK FOR A CURE plus a program completed last summer billed as “Adventure for the Cures”. To date, the WMF has raised over $2.2 million dollars to aid in the fight against breast cancer.
Later on in the evening, Gin gave a presentation for the show going public entitled Dual-Sport Riding where she highlighted a fund raising ride completed by 12 women, most of whom had never ridden off-road in their lives.
The Dirty Dozen
Gin on stage presenting - Dual Sport Riding and the “Adventure for the Cures”.
Why go Dual Sport? For charity and fun!
Twelve road riding women motorcyclists were asked to become members of a group now known as the “Dirty Dozen”, whose purpose was not just to ride to some of America’s most remote locations but to raise funds for breast and ovarian cancer research. In order to participate, each of the 12 woman had to raise a minimum of $2000 to be divided equally between the
Gynecologic Cancer Foundation and the
Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation. 100% of the funds raised went to the respective research foundations while the trip expenses were paid by the main sponsor, Progressive Insurance.
Additionally these 12 riders had to become competent dual-sport riders given 80% of the expedition was off-road on trails that could best be described as un-rideable by the average street rider.
Coach2Ride was tasked to teach the former road only female riders to successfully navigate the roads (better described as fire trails and walking paths) throughout the Colorado Rockies.
Their trek began last summer in Keystone, CO and toured much of Colorado’s Rocky Mountains including Lake George, then Almont, into the Gunnison and White River National Forests, and then returning to Keystone. The entire ride took place in the area often referred to as the "Fourteeners", a group of Colorado Mountains whose peaks exceed 14,000 feet above sea level.
“During the ride, we became a family,” Gin added while also describing how the group experienced snow at higher elevations in mid-summer! From the slides shown, it appears as if they had a great deal of fun while riding, arguably the best way to experience America off-road, dual-sport motorcycles.
The bikes and just one of the beautiful and remote riding destinations.
The ride and one of the tougher challenges with one of the riders, Karen Kime at the top.
You can read more details on the ride at the following:
Karen Kime – “Adventure for the Cures” blog
Breast and Ovarian cancer takes the lives of over 55,000 women in the US annually. The “Dirty Dozen” did their part to help eliminate these terrible diseases by raising $42,000 on this ride for the cure. How about you?
Women in Motorcycling – Show Area
Just before the public was let loose into the show areas
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