I learned to ride a motorcycle as a woman. And then rode as one for the next 13 years. I now ride as a man. It's been, and remains, an interesting trip :0)

I am a transsexual - I was born female. I started my transition as age 37 and for the last 15 years have presented as male - by benefit of a lot of testosterone and some surgery.

So...I've done about equal time riding motorcycles as a female and then as a male appearing person. It's a different world in many ways - particularly in all the ways that don't really matter - or shouldn't. Like how I get treated when I pull up at a petrol station, traffic lights, pub, club ride, mechanic's shop......you name it. Being a woman on a motorcycle is just about as different as it can be from being seen as a man on a motorcycle.

I was quite nervous at first getting back on my old Boxer after it became obvious that I was being perceived 100% of the time as male. The bike had been laid up for a necessary but very long 5 years while I went back to school and looked after my Ma ...and transitioned. My motorcycle had been such a huge part of my identity (such as it was) as a female. I was a dyke and a masculine appearing female. I rode like a dyke. Meaning I didn't have a femme persona - the black leathers accentuated my masculinity ...despite the fact that I was undeniably female once you got beyond the slim hips, wide shoulders, short hair and ...a lot of bravado. It was scary and intimidating being a female, even a dyke, on a motorcycle circa 1985 - 1998. I took a lot of shit from a lot of guys who just didn't know what to do with me, and from a lot of women who didn't like me.

Now I can be a lot more relaxed. People are not as conflicted by what they see ....I now appear more like the world perceives me as being - male - rather than a 'worrying' female. I can relate to the rest of the world without having to negotiate as much hostility.

But....I am acutely aware of my previous history. It makes me a special kind of riding partner, and I like to think a more sensitive riding buddy for a female motorcyclist. I am privy to the kind of conversations that male motorcyclists have (about women) with other men ...who they think have always been men :0)

I am painfully aware of how some men continue to treat female motorcyclists...it's often not pleasing or encouraging to witness. It's not always nasty - not an overt, in your face misogyny ... it's just that female motorcyclists seem so .....inconsequential in their world. Female motorcyclists are not immune to being exclusive ...or phobic, or sexist. But they are quieter about it....perhaps a little more careful, a bit cagier about expressing their ... feelings.

I go out of my way to be responsive - positive and open to female riders - having been in their boots for so many years. I like riding with a female buddy. I think they often make the superior rider, because socially there is, ironically, less for them to prove, and they are therefore safer ....and simply often more fun to ride with and be with.

I ride about 8 -10,000 miles a year on a now almost 30 year old motorcycle. I ride with pleasure, and a confidence that comes from experience, some of which in my case, puts me outside the usual spectrum of riders you may meet on the road :0)

As I get older I find my identity is more aligned with the fact that I love to ride, and would dearly give up a lot to be able to spend 6 months a year on the bike, just traveling and exploring... than it is with my gender or my sex or my social position or my investment in my past, my education, or my politics. I am a biker. It has gone beyond gender identity. And that pleases me.

stenton

WOW, what a story & btw stenton
Personally, I identify with riders & their rides, not their persuasions or kink.
Enjoy this humble little part of the cyber world

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My memory is becoming that good, I should be able to organise my own surprise party soon

Your story would be interesting in a magazine article.
And I really hope you make that next brave step - riding 6 months out of the year... or more. ;-)

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Rallying for A Wild Life — THE FILM!
http://igg.me/at/AWildLife

www.LorraineChittock.com
www.facebook.com/lorraine.chittock

Hi Stenton and welcome.

That's one of the most interesting stories I've read here and I've been musing on it for the last day or so. There's lots of points that are worthy of comment but I'll zero in on just one for the time being. I've been riding bikes since I was 16 and as I'm now staring 64 in the face that's quite a few years. But I'm not a biker. I'm just an average guy who enjoys being out on the road, riding around on some kind of 2 wheeled contraption that interests me and using it to go places that I'm also interested in.

I know a few (not that many) people who have similar mindsets and occasionally we'll team up and plan some sort of trip - like this year. Anything to do with "biker culture" I have no interest in - really, zero. Neither do I have anything in common with anyone who does - not that I've found so far anyway. So all this stuff about macho male biker posturing and irrelevant females is marginal in my two wheel world. I don't know anyone who would be patronisingly dismissive of a female on a motorcycle. It's not what you are but what you do that matters. Dig around in here and you'll find very little distinction between male and female bike travellers.

If you enjoy riding a bike, if it gives you pleasure and you make that choice out of something that comes from your soul then that's the core of it, not whether you're male or female. If it's just some sort of lifestyle fashion prop, here today and gone tomorrow, well, good luck to you but I doubt we'll have a meeting of minds. I accept that because of your history you've a unique insight but really, people are people and biking isn't that unusual an activity to mark you out.

Having said that there are some odd people out there - I had my ear bent this morning for walking on the wrong side of a footpath. That's not a tarmac footpath in a town but a grass one across a field. Guess whether my footpath vigilante was male or female?