ARR150: Harley Women

WOMEN ON WHEELS

HARLEY HISTORYMAKERS

There is a whole slew of outdated stereotypes and plain silly misconceptions about women and Harley-Davidsons. As much as some blokes might like to think it’s all about tattooed babes in dental floss bikinis draped over their gleaming hogs, the true history of women and Harley-Davidson motorcycles is very different

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story: RODERICK EIME PHOTOS: STOCK

AVIS AND EFFIE HOTCHKISS While they were certainly not the first women to ride a Harley, mother and daughter Avis and Effie Hotchkiss were the first with an ambitious plan that they successfully

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executed. It was to ride across America from New York to the San Francisco World Fair and back, which they did in 1915, two full years before women were even allowed to vote.

Mum, Avis, rode in the sidecar (aka “The Bathtub”) while Effie, 22 (and something of a speed demon), rode their brand-new Harley-Davidson V-Twin the 9000 miles (approximately 14,500km) there and back.

“I got a lot of non-family discouragement,” Effie recalled in her memoir. “Decent roads would be non-existent for most of the way; there would be deserts to cross, high mountains to climb, lack of water, no repair shop, no this and no that. Some things there would be, such as wild animals, wilder Indians, probably floods, maybe cyclones and other offhand acts of God; until it began

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to sound so interesting I would not have missed it for the world.”

A few women were able to serve as dispatch riders during WWI, but many capable female riders, such as the Van Buren sister, were rejected for no other reason than they were women.

Nevertheless, such was the publicity from the Hotchkiss women’s mammoth event that by 1920, The Motor Company was openly encouraging women with their marketing, which included a full range of women’s riding attire.

DELLA CREWE On July 24, 1914, Miss Della Crewe, with 60kg of supplies loaded in her sidecar, set out on her new Harley-Davidson twin for what would be an almost 8700km trip from Waco, Texas, to New York City over six months, much of the way on roads that barely existed. As she was about to set out, she received two gifts from Waco. One was a pedigree Boston Bull pup which she named Trouble, and two, a storm of near-biblical proportions that all but destroyed the roads 112 | aUSTRALIAN ROAD RIDER

“Some things there would be, such as wild animals, wilder Indians, probably floods, maybe cyclones and other offhand acts of God; until it began to sound so interesting I would not have missed it for the world.” leading out of Waco. But she was not to be dissuaded and when she arrived in sub-zero temperatures and wrapped in four coats in New York, she calmly announced: “I had a glorious trip, I am in perfect health and my desire is stronger than ever to keep going.”

Along the way she stopped at various fairs, races and events and was treated like a celebrity when she arrived at the HarleyDavidson factory in Milwaukee. All the female workers took her on a circus-like picnic to Castalia Spring.

From New York, she took her bike by ship to the Caribbean and rode around Jamaica,

Cuba and Puerto Rico before returning to America and disappearing into obscurity.

VIVIAN BALES The whole game stepped up a notch when on June 1, 1929, 20-year-old Miss Vivian Bales left Albany, Georgia, on a 5000-mile (8000km) motorcycle tour across America.

Better known as the “Enthusiast Girl” (named after the official H-D magazine of the time), Bales was one of the first well-known women riders and the first “cover girl” for the brand, appearing initially on the front of the May 1929 issue.

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WOMEN ON WHEELS For the big trip, she traded in her old Model B for a 1929 45 Twin D and wrote into The Enthusiast to announce her cross-country marathon. During the course of her trip, she met numerous dignitaries including President Hoover, as well as lots of Harley-Davidson dealers, many of whom supported her on her 78-day ride.

BESSIE STRINGFIELD The life of African-American motorcycling pioneer Bessie Stringfield (aka "The Motorcycle Queen of Miami") seems like the stuff of which legends are made. After being orphaned and adopted by an Irish woman, Bessie taught herself to ride motorcycles at 16. In 1930, at the tender age of 19, she began riding across the United States, making seven long-distance trips including all 48 lower states, Europe, Brazil and Haiti. With the double handicap of being a black woman, she was often refused accommodation when travelling and denied prize money when she won races. Bessie served four years with the US army as a domestic dispatch rider during WWII, and owned a total of 27 Harley-Davidson machines in her lifetime.

“To me, Harley is the only motorcycle ever made.” — Bessie Stringfield xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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WOMEN ON WHEELS

WOMEN ON WHEELS

Gloria Struck was one of the early members of the Motor Maids women's motorcycle club, which she joined in 1946 at age 21. She is both a Sturgis Hall of Fame and Motorcycle Hall of Fame inductee.

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THE MOTOR MAIDS By the time WWII had been thrust on America, women were comfortably settled into serious motorcycling and much of the post-war history is shared with Australian-born Dot Robinson and her riding pal, Linda Dugeau, when they

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formed The Motor Maids motorcycle club in 1940 based loosely on Amelia Earhart’s Ninety-Nines for female pilots.

The women rode Harley-Davidson machines almost exclusively and wore elegantly tailored riding uniforms with a lot

of custom embroidery to dispel the notion that biker women were “outlaws”. They were told they should always be glamorous and camera-ready. The club continues to thrive, with more than 1200 members in the USA and Canada.

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“In 1930, at the tender age of 19, she began riding across the United States, making seven long-distance trips in including all 48 lower states, Europe, Brazil and Haiti.”

RELIVE THE RIDE Australian motorcycle tour company, Elite Special Event Tours (www.eliteset.com.au), is running its first all-women group to Sturgis in 2019, lead by Jo Pink. So blokes, if you want to blame someone for this changing world, you’d better point your finger at Harley-Davidson! aRr 118 | aUSTRALIAN ROAD RIDER

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