WRWR USA Ripple - Maryland
I’ve been looking forward to this day for several months. I asked my awesome BMW dealership to be a refreshment stop for the Women Riders’ US Ripple Relay as it makes its way thru Maryland, and they really exceeded expectations. About 25 women came from Ohio, New Jersey, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina.
The US Ripple Relay is a support relay for the Women Riders’ World Relay (WRWR). The World Relay began in Scotland in February and is making its way around the world in a year with 18,000 women riders passing a baton. You can see where all the global baton has been. (The Pakistani government actually wanted to destroy the baton bc it contains a gps tracker which is military technology, but a brave and ass-kicking Pakistani lady rider talked them out of it.) Because that is a world relay, it is only in the US for a 18 days and can’t go to every state. So, Ripple Relays are kind of a grassroots version so that people who live days away from the world relay route can still participate. The US Ripple Relay started in Florida and is going to every state in a year. The World Relay will come to the US in late September and my friend Amy & I will ride with it from Fishkill, NY to Ohio (Sept 26) and attend an event in Ohio (Sept 27).
Anyway, we arrived at noon and they had cold water bottles for us, frozen wet cloths, tents, the food truck which had lemonade and icees, AND they had turned down the AC for us in both the showroom and the museum. Very thoughtful! (A big contrast to our starting point where they didn’t even want to let me use the rest room and gave Jaron a harder time about it.) We hung out at picnic tables in the shade to sign the banner and meet everyone.
At 1:00 we did the official baton handoff from MD to NJ. Here are our fearless leaders!
Bob (the actual dealership owner) came over for pictures and to take us to tour his vintage museum. He thought we were ready to go, but one of the organizers asked him to give us a minute to clean up our water bottles and plates from the food truck and put away the markers, banner, flags, etc. The womens’ group didn’t want to leave a mess, amiright? No one to clean up after us.
After we got home, I was just feeling so awesome that I followed up on an email I had sent to the organizers of the Dirt Daze motorcycle rally that Jaron & I are going to in Vermont on our way to Canada in August. When I registered, there was only one option for a tshirt and it was a men's size. I'd emailed them a few weeks ago asking if it was possible to get a women's shirt. A woman wrote me back pretty quickly to say they only came in 1 style. I honestly just donated a ton of men's tshirts a year ago because they are uncomfortable and don't look good on me. I really don't want to think about how much $ I'd spent on those over the years.
So after we got back from the WRWR US Ripple Relay, I was looking at merch and they had a couple of men's options in addition to the 10+ women's options. So I wrote the Dirt Daze people back about something I'd been thinking about, to request a hi-res logo and artwork so that I could design & pay for my own women's shirt and that I would not expect a discount for the men's shirt that was included with my registration as a full participant. (I'd tried to download their logo from the website and design a shirt but it was too low-res.) I mentioned that my husband and I had just been to a women's motorcycle event and that they had a couple of different men's shirts available because they didn't expect men to wear women's shirts and wanted to give our support riders a way to remember and support the event. In a couple of days I got a response from a different woman that they would order a women's shirt for me! PERSISTENCE! And maybe this event which occurs a few times across the country each year will start offering a women's shirt with registration. I'm sure that the lady passengers that come with men attending the event would love to buy one, too. I won't even ask for a cut of sales for this new product. 😉
Women are 19% of riders in the US and are the fastest-growing segment of the riding population. With the traditional riding population aging out, the future of riding is female (26% of millenial riders are women). This is what the WRWR is all about -- getting bike and gear manufacturers to make bikes and gear that fit us. Ill-fitting gear leads to more serious injuries, just like how male crash-test dummies used to design cars lead to seat and seatbelt designs that cause more injuries to women because they are optimized for one body type instead of something that works for everyone in that car, following actual purchasing trends. Also, most of the women's motorcycle gear available is a joke protection-wise. A lady passenger deserves the same protection as her male rider has. Taller and heavier bikes with ergonomics and balance optimized for a male body results in more fatigue for women and therefore, crashes & drops more often for women.
The same study says that women riders spend more money on our bikes and gear on average than men do. (This is certainly true in my household.) Most of the good women's motorcycle gear available are "shrink it & pink it" versions of men's gear. For example, I have a very hard time finding riding boots because men's boots only go down to a men's size 6 and I wear a women's 6 (which is a men's 4). As a result, I literally can't get boots with as good protection as Jaron can. Women's size 6 is a normal women's foot size. Women's feet are shaped differently than men's are, which affects our stability and ability to maneuver when our feet are on the ground when wearing men’s boots--which is far less often on bikes that are too tall for us. Much of my women's gear comes with L1 armor instead of the better L2 that Jaron's has, costing me more to upgrade the armor, which is usually too big for my proportions and makes it difficult to move, which can be an unsafe condition. Such as when I can't turn my head in traffic because the back armor is too long and sticks up too high, interfering with my helmet movement. (I've done a lot of hacks as I've figured these things out.) But the options available are very limited, resulting in fewer fit options, which results in non-optimal armor placement and therefore makes injuries more often, and more serious. For example, I've finally found someone to hem the sleeves on my motorcycle jackets but the elbow armor is in the wrong place and will not provide the best protection if I go down. The ratio of women's to men's gear offerings is much lower than 19%. Time for the market to respond to demand! In the meantime, here is a great website for women who ride.
I could go on, but I won't. The Women's Coalition of Motorcyclists actually wants me to do a podcast on making bikes work for smaller riders. I'll keep you posted. 😁
The bottom line is that being on bikes designed for men (ergonomics and balance optimized for a man's body) increases the likelihood of drops and crashes, and then being in armor made for men results in more and greater injuries because of the difficulty to move w/ armor that is too big, improper fit and less protective armor. Nobody expects men to wear women's clothes or gear--that would be ridiculous. So! The WRWR's purpose is to raise awareness about women riders and get manufacturers to make things that work for us. It even makes business sense.
The US Ripple Relay is a support relay for the Women Riders’ World Relay (WRWR). The World Relay began in Scotland in February and is making its way around the world in a year with 18,000 women riders passing a baton. You can see where all the global baton has been. (The Pakistani government actually wanted to destroy the baton bc it contains a gps tracker which is military technology, but a brave and ass-kicking Pakistani lady rider talked them out of it.) Because that is a world relay, it is only in the US for a 18 days and can’t go to every state. So, Ripple Relays are kind of a grassroots version so that people who live days away from the world relay route can still participate. The US Ripple Relay started in Florida and is going to every state in a year. The World Relay will come to the US in late September and my friend Amy & I will ride with it from Fishkill, NY to Ohio (Sept 26) and attend an event in Ohio (Sept 27).
Jaron & I headed south Saturday 7/20 morning to ride up with the group to our refreshment stop and MD/NJ handoff. We met up at a Harley dealership and started north with 6 women and 2 support hubbies.
It was a nice ride before the day got super hot. We made several stops along the way and picked up more women and one more support hubby. I think we had about 12 people total when we arrived at noon. I got to lead the group for one (1) mile from the last stop to the dealership! I kept telling everyone that we were going to my dealership and that we had a dessert food truck waiting for us. One woman asked me if I owned the dealership. Haha! So today it was Julie’s BMW instead of Bob’s BMW. 🤣
Anyway, we arrived at noon and they had cold water bottles for us, frozen wet cloths, tents, the food truck which had lemonade and icees, AND they had turned down the AC for us in both the showroom and the museum. Very thoughtful! (A big contrast to our starting point where they didn’t even want to let me use the rest room and gave Jaron a harder time about it.) We hung out at picnic tables in the shade to sign the banner and meet everyone.
At 1:00 we did the official baton handoff from MD to NJ. Here are our fearless leaders!
Bob (the actual dealership owner) came over for pictures and to take us to tour his vintage museum. He thought we were ready to go, but one of the organizers asked him to give us a minute to clean up our water bottles and plates from the food truck and put away the markers, banner, flags, etc. The womens’ group didn’t want to leave a mess, amiright? No one to clean up after us.
I had never actually been to the museum. It was really something. He’s been collecting bikes for like 40 years. We went back to the dealership and got ready to head out for lunch at Mission BBQ in Laurel. The NJ riders were planning to go back across the bay bridge (my favorite ride) and I wanted to go with them for an hour or two, but Jesus Christ, it was so hot. Apparently we were close to record highs. I really have to hand it to the NJ ladies for riding all the way down & back in one day after hanging out in the heat with us outside for most of the time.
After we got home, I was just feeling so awesome that I followed up on an email I had sent to the organizers of the Dirt Daze motorcycle rally that Jaron & I are going to in Vermont on our way to Canada in August. When I registered, there was only one option for a tshirt and it was a men's size. I'd emailed them a few weeks ago asking if it was possible to get a women's shirt. A woman wrote me back pretty quickly to say they only came in 1 style. I honestly just donated a ton of men's tshirts a year ago because they are uncomfortable and don't look good on me. I really don't want to think about how much $ I'd spent on those over the years.
So after we got back from the WRWR US Ripple Relay, I was looking at merch and they had a couple of men's options in addition to the 10+ women's options. So I wrote the Dirt Daze people back about something I'd been thinking about, to request a hi-res logo and artwork so that I could design & pay for my own women's shirt and that I would not expect a discount for the men's shirt that was included with my registration as a full participant. (I'd tried to download their logo from the website and design a shirt but it was too low-res.) I mentioned that my husband and I had just been to a women's motorcycle event and that they had a couple of different men's shirts available because they didn't expect men to wear women's shirts and wanted to give our support riders a way to remember and support the event. In a couple of days I got a response from a different woman that they would order a women's shirt for me! PERSISTENCE! And maybe this event which occurs a few times across the country each year will start offering a women's shirt with registration. I'm sure that the lady passengers that come with men attending the event would love to buy one, too. I won't even ask for a cut of sales for this new product. 😉
Women are 19% of riders in the US and are the fastest-growing segment of the riding population. With the traditional riding population aging out, the future of riding is female (26% of millenial riders are women). This is what the WRWR is all about -- getting bike and gear manufacturers to make bikes and gear that fit us. Ill-fitting gear leads to more serious injuries, just like how male crash-test dummies used to design cars lead to seat and seatbelt designs that cause more injuries to women because they are optimized for one body type instead of something that works for everyone in that car, following actual purchasing trends. Also, most of the women's motorcycle gear available is a joke protection-wise. A lady passenger deserves the same protection as her male rider has. Taller and heavier bikes with ergonomics and balance optimized for a male body results in more fatigue for women and therefore, crashes & drops more often for women.
The same study says that women riders spend more money on our bikes and gear on average than men do. (This is certainly true in my household.) Most of the good women's motorcycle gear available are "shrink it & pink it" versions of men's gear. For example, I have a very hard time finding riding boots because men's boots only go down to a men's size 6 and I wear a women's 6 (which is a men's 4). As a result, I literally can't get boots with as good protection as Jaron can. Women's size 6 is a normal women's foot size. Women's feet are shaped differently than men's are, which affects our stability and ability to maneuver when our feet are on the ground when wearing men’s boots--which is far less often on bikes that are too tall for us. Much of my women's gear comes with L1 armor instead of the better L2 that Jaron's has, costing me more to upgrade the armor, which is usually too big for my proportions and makes it difficult to move, which can be an unsafe condition. Such as when I can't turn my head in traffic because the back armor is too long and sticks up too high, interfering with my helmet movement. (I've done a lot of hacks as I've figured these things out.) But the options available are very limited, resulting in fewer fit options, which results in non-optimal armor placement and therefore makes injuries more often, and more serious. For example, I've finally found someone to hem the sleeves on my motorcycle jackets but the elbow armor is in the wrong place and will not provide the best protection if I go down. The ratio of women's to men's gear offerings is much lower than 19%. Time for the market to respond to demand! In the meantime, here is a great website for women who ride.
I could go on, but I won't. The Women's Coalition of Motorcyclists actually wants me to do a podcast on making bikes work for smaller riders. I'll keep you posted. 😁
The bottom line is that being on bikes designed for men (ergonomics and balance optimized for a man's body) increases the likelihood of drops and crashes, and then being in armor made for men results in more and greater injuries because of the difficulty to move w/ armor that is too big, improper fit and less protective armor. Nobody expects men to wear women's clothes or gear--that would be ridiculous. So! The WRWR's purpose is to raise awareness about women riders and get manufacturers to make things that work for us. It even makes business sense.
This just in: Motorcycle Makers Are Getting Hip to Women-Only Rallies
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2019-07-25/women-motorcycle-rally-bike-makers-target-babes-wild-gypsy
And this news coverage of the relay! https://www.mytwintiers.com/news-cat/women-riders-world-relay-to-pass-through-the-twin-tiers/
Comments
Post a Comment