Hi Ladies!
I'm writing a column for a new adventure motorcycling mag in the US called Outrider Journal Outrider Journal | The Print Quarterly for Dual Sport and Adventure Motorcycle Riding Enthusiasts

The first issue is due out in March next year and the editor says he has already been besieged by women riders wanting their perspective covered in the mag. Hurrah to that!

So he has asked for my first column to cover the female viewpoint and I got to wondering... what are the best and worst things about being a laydee on the road? Obviously I can draw on my own experiences but I would love to hear your thoughts too. Any musings most welcome.

Rock on!
Lois

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www.loisontheloose.com

Hey Lois,

Well I suppose it's the usual old stuff really....you know, assuming you must be the pillion, assuming you don't know what you're doing, can't handle the bike, can't do mechanics, plus comments about being allowed out on your own. But it does work in our favour too - how many times have you let somebody do something for you that you know perfectly well how to do but feign ignorance or fatigue because you'd rather they got dirty or cold or wet instead of you? Earlier this year, a very concerned policeman changed a tyre for me in the pouring rain. Very nice of him indeed as he offered (I was standing in a doorway waiting for the rain to ease) and he let me sit in his nice warm car while he did so, then followed me to make sure I was OK. Of course I was, but I wasn't in a hurry, and I certainly wasn't going to get wetter than I needed to. But I've learned not to refuse a spot of chivalry when I feel like it.

Regards,

Belle

Thanks Belle!
That's exactly the kind of thing I was thinking of. It's nice when that stuff happens isn't it? It even happens in London sometimes!
Cheers,
Lois

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www.loisontheloose.com

Off Topic I know, but it's about time you got back on the air Lois, I've missed your columns and we need another book!

Thanks GasUp, you're very kind. Hopefully there will be new adventures, books, columns etc soon... the recession has not been kind to us freelancers but things are looking up I hope!
Lois
x

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www.loisontheloose.com

Tell you something else Lois.......I wish I had a quid for the number of times I've been riding with my husband, (and sometimes also with a female friend), and its been assumed by other riders or blokes in bike shops where we've stopped that he is the instructor and I/we are being instructed. This is despite the fact that he's only had a full licence for a few months while both me and Lucy have had our for years and are advanced riders, and invariably the bikes we're on are usually mine because I've got five and they've only got one each. And do you know what? He always leaves whatever bike of mine he's ridden, empty.

For any SB's out there, why do we have to stick with a BMW that's expensive, a DR that can be lowered, or a nice wee 250?

Altho I've just got a collapsible stool-cum-centre stand maybe I fling it out as I come to a stop it and can dismount easily that way!

Lois

From a not very confident rider, I really had my confident knocked on a recent trip because of the assumptions people made about me - like Belle said - a pillion, dont know how to ride, didnt come up with the idea or the plan, cant get myself out of trouble, cant fix the bike. Because no one would ever engage me in the adventure conversation I started to think I wasn't really doing THIS TRIP, I was a shadow following my boyfriend. I started to go a little mad.

By contrast one of the greatest things is to see the confusion on peoples' faces as you pull off your helmet and they see that its a girl. Or the best one is when I wear a dress to a "do" and then when it was time to leave pull a pair of jeans on and up under the dress, throw on my jacket, grab a helmet and leave. I love the versatility of being a lady biker.

Its fab also that as a woman you encourage other closet women bikers, or women interested in it, to start chatting and mulling over how they might start, or get back into it. Its nice to give confidence back to those ladies.

And oh my god would I love a shorter meatier dualsport bike. YES PLEASE. One where I can touch the ground with more than just my big toe, that I can throw around, and still do enjoyable speeds on the road. Bike manufacturers get on it! Please.

Cheers
Char x

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Don't be scared your life may end,
Be scared that it may never begin.......

Lois

What ever you write about, the result will be first rate.

I'm happy to see women riding their own bikes. I won't go on a group ride any more without at least one along. It seems to tone down the Alfa male syndrome I often feel riding with an all male group.

I feel strongly about a rider riding their own ride and staying within their comfort zone. This pertains to a pillion rider as well. I'm sure a pillion rider has confidence in who their riding with. But its no different than flying in a airplane with a pilot that flies only on the weekend and only when the weathers nice.

Good Luck!

daryl

Thanks ladies, and gentlemen!
These are all very interesting points - much appreciated. Oh how l long for the small powerful dirt bike too!
Lois
x

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www.loisontheloose.com

When buying a bike mag, like the new adventure mag that everyone seem to be talking about in the HUBB lately (yes I bought one! ) :

The writers are middle aged white blokes, females assumed to be only pillions (small box for one), or wives patiently waiting the hubby at home, assumed knitting? Obviously all (the said husbands) are usually on massive tall BMWs...

Obviously the clothes tested are only for blokes (Am I supposed to ride my bike around the world wearing a bikini or wearing some of the black leather bondage gear so popular in men's and bikes' mags where a chick is actually astrid a bike, usually in a very suggestive pose?- I wonder, where is the lad half naked then to compensate? )

No female role model... there are plenty of inspiring ladies out there though, I met many on the road or at the HUBB, why do we seem to not exist at all? Why none are writing in bike mags? Clothes, bikes, mags, it' all about the boys...

And as Charlotte said, the bikes and trip was MY IDEA on my side too!!! But people assume I'm just there to follow!
Time to get a voice. Go get them Lois! You should get a column on bikes mags. I would buy them more often if there was someone I can relate to.

As they stand, I am not interested on reading:
either about speed and thoughts (if such!) of some young lads testing bikes,
or,
about some old fart bloke (with receding hair line and bulging belly) trying the latest BMW 152000000 GS model around France and how his wife at home is pissed off that he's gone again on an "Adventure!"! And that old fart will never get the balls to get on a bike and go round the world in the first place!

Am I getting a bit bichy here ?

Cheers,

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Maria

www.franglais-riders.com

Oh Maria, your message made me laugh so much. I am totally feeling your pain!
Not bitchy, just writing what every other female rider is thinking!
This is all great stuff girls, let's spread the word.
Lois
x

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www.loisontheloose.com

I resent your remarks. You are tarring (sp?) all us old farts with the same brush. Yes, my hair has gone but my belly is from pies and chocolate and my bikes are two old Suzukis and a GasGas.

I will re-tell a little story about preconceptions.
I went to look at a job with me and my partner (business not bed) and there were two bikes on the drive; a little Chopper/cruiser type thingy (Virago or some such) and a nice original FireBlade. The lady of the house was about 5ft nowt and very fit (sorry, sexist) and the chap was 6ft plus and built like a brick out house. After we had discussed the work we got on to talking about bikes.
Yes, you've guessed it. The cruiser was his and the 'Blade hers. She told us that they don't go rinding together because he's too slow and anyway, she likes to get to all the UK and European bike races with her mates and he isn't interested. Turns out that she had quite a collection of fast sports bikes as well as a moto-crosser.
He had got her into bikes when they married but hadn't expected to become a bike widower.

Ho Dear! What have I said? What have I done?

I am well known to my friends for my very clumsy writing skills. I'm more of a nerdy mathematician.
I did not mean to offend anyone and what I wrote was meant to be a funny (As joke) image.
So here we go: I totally and completely and humbly apologise to all the old fat blokes with receding hair lines, working in magazines, who get lent huge expensive motorbikes by big MC companies, to test ride them around around France; so that they can write honest and unbiased review of said bikes, and make hilarious jokes about the wife at home. And occasionally take a WAG with them but only as pillions. 'cause, You understand, a weemeen? On a bike???!
I also apologise that I do not buy those magazines because they do not relate to anything I experience as a biker or raise issues that concern me. And that I do not really trust their "honest independent" reviews.

From now on I will keep my posts unfunny and bland, as to not offend any one. And to questions as "how is border crossing XYZ" I will reply : "good with courteous efficient customs and guards" as to not offend border guards, and be taken for a racist if they are not of my nationality or ethnic or religious group.
I tell you what, I will make jokes and express opinions only behind closed doors and in dark alley ways as to not offend the PC Brigade and the thought Police that is coming our way in the very near future.

Sorry also for my bad English, after all I am only a "surrendering Monkey" (or "frog") as I 've heard many times at work in my 14 years in the City. I always thought it was funny. I think next time I'll take offence!


Cheers,

Maria

"When they started arresting communists, I said nothing, as I was not communist, when they went after the Gypsies, I said nothing, as I was not a Gypsy. When they started deporting Jews, I said nothing as I was not a Jew. When they came to arrest me, I protested... but it was too late".
Freedom of expression is a undamental right, being erroded everywhere under pretence of being PC.... we're all sleep walking into fascism.

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Maria

www.franglais-riders.com

hi Lois (know of but never met...yet)
I always have a rye smile when asked, usually by men, " so...how did your husband convince you to start to ride/go on this trip with him?"

when I reply..." well...I am older than him and have been riding 15 years longer than him and the trip was infact my idea....." it seems to leave them nonplussed.

I like that.

After almost 8 years on the road I am used to this - I come to expect it - but one day I live in hope that 'we' will just be accepted as bikers...regardless as to whether we have breasts or not...infact a lot of guys out there have bigger breasts than I do and these comments are never directed at them.....?

Aside from the comments from a few die-hard conventionalists - is it hard to be a woman?
no harder than it is for some men. I think that men have a lot to 'live up to'. what I mean by that is that there appears to be a lot more peer presure on them to be better, bigger, tougher than the man next to them whether it be at work or on a bike.
As a woman its my opnion that we put more pressure on ourselves rather than others putting upon us. 'We' think we should be stronger, tougher, more able than we are in most things that we do.

After many years of self-doubt about my riding abilities I have come to accept the fact that - yep...I drop my bike. Yep - I drop it sometimes in silly circumstances a lot of the time due to my height. I dont have long legs like my husband...he is 6'4"...I am 5'3". however, we DO ride the same pistes, have the same long and tiring days in the saddle but at the end of the day.....I feel safe and protected when in a dark and strange place in the middle of nowhere as he is by my side.
I wonder if I provide him with that same feeling of security and protection.....i doubt it.

When we are camping I'm the first to kick him outside if I think I hear a suspect noise or mad animal!

Im glad Im a woman!

Lisa
currently in Bangkok, Thailand en-route to everywhere else......

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Lisa
www.2ridetheworld.com