By: Dave Abrahams
Cape Town - Not even a persistent drizzle that turned to serious rain a few moments before the start could dampen the spirits of the more than two dozen women who turned out for the local leg of the 2015 International Female Ride Day on Saturday.
The run, organised by Lady Bikers SA, was one of five in South Africa and hundreds all over the world in what is now, in its ninth year, a not-to-be-missed annual celebration amongst women riders.
It’s not intended as a charity event, although individual runs often become fund-raisers for local charities, or a competition, although there is a prize on offer for the best photograph of a Female Ride Day run submitted to the Motoress website.
It is more a reason to celebrate the extraordinary freedom of motorcycling, with riders who understand how precious that freedom is. One rider at the 2014 International Female Riders Day told me it was the first time she had ever taken her motorcycle out of the garage and gone for a ride without her husband’s support. From the look on her face, it was unlikely to be the last.
International Female Ride Day was launched in 2007 in Toronto, Canada, by motorcycle racer and founder of women-orientated biking website Motoress Vicki Gray. It went international in its first year and is now held in more than 30 countries around the world, from Bali to Bulgaria.
COMMUTERS TO CRUISERS
The local run started at 9.30am from Harley-Davidson Cape Town, where the riders had begun gathering from 8am for coffee and muffins. It included a wide spectrum of riders on motorcycles ranging from 125cc commuters to big cruisers and an imposing full-dress 1400cc Kawasaki Concours tourer.
Some of the women had never ridden in rain, and most looked a little apprehensive as they formed up on a streaming wet Somerset Road, but within a few kilometres the group rode out from under the clouds and by the time they reached their destination - the Dockside Café in Langebaan - about 140km later, they were all bone dry. The ride had also grown to 36 bikes, as riders based on the Atlantic Coast joined in along the way.
Then it was times to party, to celebrate the fact that, all over the world, there were thousands of women riding that day, in groups large and small, sending out two messages. To men they said, “We are women, and we ride free.” And to women they said “You too, can ride free.”