I've read that between 10 and 15 percent of motorcycle riders are women. I never dreamed I would be among that percent. I've put these pages together because I've met many women who've thought about riding and several men who said their wives have thought about riding. These pages are to prove that anyone can ride. The journey may be alternately exhilerating and terrifying. But if you take training, be patient with yourself and practice, the journey is well worth taking!

CHAPTER I	You Want to Buy a Motorcycle? Have Fun! Well, maybe I could try that...	In 2006, after 30 years away from riding, my husband began to think about getting a motorcycle. After a couple of visits to the local Triumph dealer, he broached the subject with me. Apart from a few day moped rental in Bermuda 30 years ago, I had no experience with motorized two wheeled transportation, and I was certain I didn't want any. So I said, "I know you used to enjoy it, I'm sure you will again. Please get a motorcycle and have a great time, but I really don't want to ride - not even on the back." He never dreamed I'd ever ride a motorcycle, and if someone had told either of us I would be riding my own I'd have said they were crazy! A month or so later he was still deciding what to buy when I had a business trip to Atlanta. He was able to come with me, so we decided to do some sightseeing on the way there and back. Part of the trip included the Blue Ridge Parkway - which happens to be a motorcycle mecca. At every stop there seemed to be a motorcyclist to talk to. I listened without much personal interest, but met some wonderful people and saw the fellowship and enthusiasm that riders shared. One stop was the Humpback Rocks Visitor Center. For the first time, we ran into a group of riders that included two women who rode their own bikes. We all talked for a while and then I started talking to the women. "Try it," both of them said. "At least take the Motorcycle Safety Course. We think you'll have a great time, and get hooked - but if you don't, you'll have tried it." Hmmmm. On the trip we started looking at motorcycles on the Web and Don decided there were several brands he wanted to look at. Harleys were too expensive for a first bike and there was only one dealer who carried several brands. The day we got back from Atlanta, we decided to visit the dealer. But he wasn't going to buy - we shook hands on it. He sat on a couple of bikes and really liked the Suzuki S50. It was light and not a heavy cruiser type. One look at how happy he was and I said to go for it. He should have known better than to shake hands with me over not spending money, because HE is the frugal one in the family! The next day, after not having ridden for 30 years, Don rode to meet me at McDonalds on the way home from work. The Suzuki S50 is an 800cc motorcycle. When Don last rode, that was a big bike, but now it's considered a small bike. It was plenty to handle for getting back on the road. In fact, he was worried for a bit that it was too much!
CHAPTER II	First Steps	Don taking the plunge convinced me that I should do the same, so we went back to the dealer and I sat on some bikes. I am 5'2" with a short inseam, and nothing seemed right - until I sat on a Yamaha Virago 250 (now the V-Star 250). It was light and I loved the style - especially the buckhorn handlebars. And it fit me perfectly. It was mine in no time and we had the dealer trailer it to the house. That night I started it up and duck walked it down our 300 foot driveway and struggled to turn it around at each end. The next night I dared to get my feet on the pegs - and still duck walked it around. I started reading every thing I could find on the Web about learning to ride. The amount of information is amazing. Fortunately, one of the first places I stumbled on was the Delphi forum "Women who Ride." In my lurking I learned about "Ride Like a Pro" instructional videos. It was one of my first purchases. I soaked it in and bought some soccer cones so that I could practice. The forum was almost unanimous in recommending the Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF) class. I called about the MSF course and was told if I took the MSF course I wouldn't have to take the motorcycle test at MVA. However, I also learned there were no openings in the class for three months. I signed up and was also put on a waiting list in case any openings occurred before the class I was scheduled to take. So now I had a bike, but no training and no license! I thought the only place I could ride was my driveway, and that was 15 seconds and 200 feet of coasting and 2 minutes of duckwalkingto turn around and do it again. It might not be much fun, but I was too nervous and law biding to venture farther than that!
CHAPTER III	First Lessons	In my research I discovered that if I got my learner's permit I could ride my own bike as long as I was accompanied by a licensed motorcyclist (aka husband). Scary as that seemed, it meant I could leave the driveway! Being able to and being confident enough are two different things, so although I got my learner's permit days after that, I didn't want to go out on the road without any training at all. I didn't feel ready - and rightly so! I didn't want to wait three months for training - I needed something now! I began to look for some training to help me until the MSF course started. I surfed the net and found some training in Maryland, but it was 90 minutes away and something about the owner's attitude put me off, so I figured the course wasn't worth the high dollar and travel. Discouraged, but determined that I needed some professional guidance (and not a shrink!) I continued to surf the net and found a riders group associated with the dealer we bought the bikes from. They had a newsletter online and there, in print, were the words, "Safety Officer - Cory Eyler." Maybe he would know something. The most important thing I did at the start of my riding career was to call Cory. Cory and his girlfriend (now wife) Angie came to the house and he rode the Virago up to a local school parking lot for my first lesson. That hour was one of nervous fun! I was hooked. The next day Don trailered the Virago back to the school and I darn near killed myself rolling on the throttle too much in a panic when I took a circle too wide and headed for a cable fence. Just in time I remembered to pull in the clutch and hit the brakes. It was unnerving for both Don and I. Those moments of thinking "What the f...?" as I did nothing but stare as the cable fence got closer and my speed actually increased, convinced me that I needed more lessons with Cory! We'd trailer my bike to meet Cory at the local Motor Vehicle Administration lot and he'd go over the exercises from the MSF course. Armed with the ability to start and stop and ride in a very large circle, Don and I started to ride up our road to a local church. We are fortunate to live in a rural area without much traffic. The ride to the church was 3 miles without a stop. The ride back had one stop. The hardest part was turning around in a small gravel pull off. No, the hardest part was stopping on the way home! Heck, everything was a challenge. Those short rides didn't take long, so I was still riding by myself up and down the driveway and duck walking the bike around at the top and bottom of the driveway. What the neighbors must have thought! Within a few days, with a few parking lot circles of experience under my belt, I decide to try to make a U turn (using part of the neighbors wider driveway) rather than duck walk around at the top of the driveway. The added width of their driveway seemed to make an area larger than the circles I'd been doing at the MVA. It wasn't that I was confident I could make the turn, I was more frustrated at all the duck walking! Which, of course resulted in another lesson learned. The neighbor's driveway is on a slight hill and although my turn started well, I needed to give it just a bit more throttle... I didn't know what to do as the bike's motion slowed more and more... and the next thing I knew the bike was falling and I was jumping off! I looked down at the poor thing on its side, on a slight downhill to boot, and looked around for Don. He didn't hear me call and I thought to myself, "What am I doing? If I'm independent enough to try to ride, I can try to pick up my own bike!" On "Ride Like Pro" a woman a lot more petite than I am picks up a big Harley! So I decided to try the technique they demonstrated. I could always call Don later... I couldn't believe it worked! What a sense of accomplishment! It worked so well if the peg hadn't been scraped up a bit Don might not have believed I dropped the bike! Between lessons with Cory, which began to include road time, and our own rides which began to total 20 entire miles, I began to really enjoy myself. I ended up getting into the MSF course much earlier than three months. Thanks to Cory, I passed with flying colors and I took off work the next day to get the endorsement on my license! On July 1, 2006, I became a licensed motorcyle rider. Don signed up for the Experienced Rider Course and also gained renewed confidence. And then Cory and Angie led us to a local state park - 100 miles round trip! It was tough riding for newbies, and we were exhausted - but elated when we got home. Within two months we had 1500 miles on our bikes! Bit by bit we were becoming better riders. Maybe that was because we couldn't have gotten worse! Looking back, I was so busy concentrating on not stalling out or falling over that I was hardly aware of what was going on around me. I think at one point Don thought he was going to be responsible for getting me killed. In fact, he probably thought that several times that first year. I assured him it wouldn't be his responsibility, it was my decision to ride my own! Strangely enough, though I was acutely aware of the danger, especially due to my inexperience, it has never dampened the joy I take in riding.
CHAPTER IV	I need a bigger bike!	I loved my Virago. It was so easy to handle and so light that even when I made mistakes, I didn't drop it. The most common mistake I made was using front brake when the handlebars were turned. The bike would inevitably head for the ground, but I could muscle it back upright. For a 250cc engine, the Virago had a lot of pep. But no matter how much pep it had, it was still a 250cc engine. The area around our house has a hills, and it soon became apparent, even the small hills around home taxed the Virago. I began to think I either had to loose 50 pounds or I needed more of an engine to haul my keester around with. And spending money is a lot easier than loosing weight! Don thought I was crazy to consider trading in a bike after two months. And then one evening we pulled into the parking lot at Gathland State Park . The exit is sharply downhill and there is no visibility to the left. I was scared. Don said he'd ride it out for me, and I was very glad to let him do it. I thank my lucky stars often for my husband, for many reasons, but he has been truly amazing as I've learned to ride. He has always been encouraging, he never once pushed me beyond my limits, and he never made me feel foolish for the fears I've had. Don rode the Virago 50 feet up the road to a pull off and I walked up to where he'd parked it. His first words to me were, "You need a more powerful bike!" No one has to tell me something like that twice. That night I was online and within a week I was at a dealer sitting on a Yamaha 650 V-Star Custom. It cost me a lot of money to trade the Virago in so quickly and some people think I should have started with a bigger bike. I don't agree. The Virago was just the right size for me to gain the confidence I needed, and I count the lost money well spent. We trailered the V-Star home from the dealer and the first place I rode it was on a parking lot. It felt HUGE! We trailered it home that night. For the next few days we rode to parking lots for practice and stayed in the local area. A few hundred miles and countless hours in parking lots and I was more comfortable in the V-Star than I'd been on the Virago. The V-Star had a low center of gravity that made slow maneuvers a breeze. I loved the Virago, but I loved the V-Star even more. The V-Star is the bike that truly taught me to ride.
INTERLUDE	What to Wear?	Around the age of 40 I got a small dragon tattoo on my right ankle. When my mother saw it, she was horrified. "Oh Lesley, only sailors, bikers and whores get tattoos!" (I was not a sailor and wasn't a biker at the time...) My Dad just raised his eyebrows. I suspect he didn't regard whores in as bad a light as my mother did. I bring the story up because when I started riding, I had my own misconceptions about what motorcyclists were all about, so I didn't want to wear the stereotypcial leather I thought bikers wore. Besides, leather was very expensive. The only thing I knew for certain was that I wanted to wear full gear. After all, I'd already fallen once! The problem was that being a short, plump woman, there wasn't a lot of gear that fit me period! The only areas I didn't have problems fitting were my head and feet! After much frustration I ended up buying a Classy Rider jacket, men's Draggin' jeans, Tourmaster Solution boots and some gloves. (We'd both bought helmets with the bikes as MD requires helmets.) This was my gear for the first several months of riding. But my wardrobe wasn't complete. I was incredibly nervous on the road, so I printed up an 8 1/2" by 11" piece of paper with bright red letters reading NEW RIDER. I put the sign in a sheet protector and taped it to the back of my jacket. It probably saved my life several times. It certainly made me less nervous. Without a doubt, 99% of the people who saw it backed off and gave me a lot of room! I am grateful to every one of them! A month later I was "outed" at the local McDonalds when a complete stranger came up to me and said, "Haven't you been wearing that long enough?" I laughed and replied that I was a slow learner. In fact, I kept the sign on for a full year! It didn't take me long to decide that much as I'd like a better body, this is the only one I've got, and I should buy the best gear possible. Harley has terrific gear for women, and in larger sizes as well. When I upgraded to the V-Star,I bought an FXRG leather jacket and pants (later I bought the textile set as well). It's fantastic stuff. The only problem was that I didn't want to tape a cheap sign on the back. I ended up putting "NEW RIDER" on the saddlebags instead.
CHAPTER V	Learning how expensive a motorcycle can be!	Though it was comfortable from the beginning, the V-Star didn't fit me as well as the Virago did. The seat was low enough that I could put both feet down, but my shoulders tired quickly. I needed to do something. Enter the 650 Custom, Classic & Dragstar Forum. What a fantastic group of people - even though they cost me thousands of dollars! I had not heard the word "farkle" before I bought the V-Star. Within a year I was a farkle queen. It is amazing what you can do with a motorcycle. You need to fit it to your body. That means handlebar risers and a comfortable seat. You need to make sure a drop won't hurt it - which means engine guards. And you need luggage. For me that meant LeatherLyke saddlebags, a wonderful round bag called a Biker's Friend (which also served as a backrest), a luggage rack and sissy bar, a windshield bag and a tank bag. Then I found Kuryakyn Accessories. They sell some beautiful, and comfortable accessories - expensive but worth every penny. I eventually got highway pegs and new foot pegs from Kuryakyn. We used to joke that anything for a motorcycle cost at least $300. But it was a lot of fun personalizing the V-Star and it made the V-Star a fantastic ride. Strangely enough, the two most useful things I purchased for the V-Star were the best. The first was something to adjust the clutch so the friction zone was not so far out, and the other was a Throttle Rocker which allows you to operate the throttle with your palm.
CHAPTER VII	Learning how dangerous a motorcycle can be!	To be continued...