I Didn't Fall Off - I Ride My Own

A cultural shift is taking place in the motorcycle community. Increasingly, women are not content to placidly occupy the back seat. "Riding bitch" and "Property of" are being replaced by "I Didn't Fall Off - I Ride My Own."

While there have been female bikers for years, only recently have women begin to form their own associations and host their own camping events, such as Babes in Motoland in Illinois, Dream Roll in Washington State, and Babes Ride Out (no dudes, no 'tudes) in California.

“I think we’re seeing a kind of onset of a kind of powerful women being trendy,” said Lanakila “Lana” MacNaughton. She and four more female riders were handpicked by Harley-Davidson and given motorcycles to ride 9,000 miles across the country, re-creating a 1915 ride pioneered by the mother and daughter team Avis and Effie Hotchkiss.

“I don’t think that’s really ever been seen,” said MacNaughton. “For us it’s about, for us – being on the front of the bike rather than being on the back of the bike, and establishing ourselves as strong women instead of in the background.”

“You see 10 girls rolling down the street together, you get a lot of head-turns and people taking pictures and stuff,” said Jessica Haggett, the 25-year-old founder ofthe Litas, a female motorcycling collective based in Salt Lake City, Utah.

MacNaughton said: “This ride is a representation of shifting perspectives of women in society right now ... Definitely there’s a nod to feminism, but I think, for me, at the root it’s about sharing it with the motorcycle community.”

We see an ever increasing number of female riders at Old Dog Leather. "This Grandma Rides A Harley" and "My Mom's Biker Buddy" are best selling patches for us. Our very first (and still loyal) customer when we opened in 2012 was Lora, on her own bike. That's her in the photo above.

At Old Dog Leather we have all the leather and riding gear the female biker wants and/or needs, from boots to helmets and head wear, and everything in between.

Ride on, girls!