Sandy Norse (right) out for a ride with members of Twin Peaks Riders Group, Margaret and Nicole. Photo: Sandy Norse.
Freedom, exhilaration and empowerment will take to the road on Sunday when Twin Peak Riders Group celebrates International Female Ride Day this Saturday, 3 May.
Dozens of women on motorbikes will fire up their engines and ride from Shellharbour to Huskisson and back again – with plenty of stops for a well-earned meal or snack.
The event is in its 19th year worldwide, but it’s the first year the Twin Peaks group will take part after wet weather, landslips and road closures stopped their ride from going ahead last year.
Sandy Norse began the group after she took on a post-retirement “love job” at City Coast Motorcycles.
She said she was struck by the number of women who came in with a desire to ride, but without the know-how to care for their bike or the confidence to ride on the road.
“A lot of women would come in to buy a bike and not know how to oil the chain or look after their brakes,” she said.
“I put it to my boss that I wanted to start a group and he built us a little workshop with tools, compressors and bike lifts.
“We started it up a little more than a year ago and now we have 194 women.”
Sandy said for the women who felt apprehensive about riding on the road, being surrounded by a group of capable, like-minded and supportive companions was an empowering experience.
Sandy Norse at famed motorcycle rally site, Sturgis, in South Dakota, USA. Photo: Sandy Norse.
She hopes as the event builds momentum locally more groups will join Twin Peaks for the annual ride.
“It’s a way to show support for each other,” she said.
“We all dress up in blue; some people wear blue tutus and ponytails on their helmets.
“We’ll leave from Ocean Beach Hotel in Shellharbour at 10 am, stop for morning tea at Shoalhaven Hotel, then on to Huskisson for lunch.
“Our final stop off is at Berry on the way home and then we’ll go our separate ways.”
Sandy, who began riding when she was 10, said she’s motivated to empower women to enjoy the exhilaration and freedom of riding, whether that’s through providing mechanical know-how or facilitating a supportive riding event.
She said some things had changed since she got her Ls, when she was asked to ride to the end of the street, complete a U-turn and stop.
Now there are extensive rider education courses and more thorough testing requirements before riders can take to the road.
Other things however have changed very little over the past decades.
Despite her extensive experience, she often gets little respect from men on the road or in the garage.
“I worked packing potatoes and mowing lawns to get a bit of pocket money and bought my first secondhand bike from a friend in school,” she said.
“I had six bikes by the time I was 16; I always customised them and did them up myself.
“My parents were dead nuts against it so I learnt everything the hard way, through persistence. My first time on a bike at 10 I had no idea what the clutch was and rode straight into a fence.
“I’ve done a lot of courses over the years; I’ve been on the race track a few times.
“I’ve ridden across America, rebuilt bikes and worked in a bike shop. I have a pretty good mechanical aptitude, but I still run up against men who have the perception that I don’t know what I’m talking about, or who don’t like me riding at the front when I’m more experienced than them.
“They don’t like you being capable, it bruises their egos.”
Despite the barriers, Sandy said the rate of participation and the skill level of women riders had improved enormously since she was a kid.
She hopes that more women who dream of riding bite the bullet and get out there.
“We have this idea when everything else is done then we can go out for a ride, where I don’t think men are like that, they’ll do it when they want,” she said.
“But when women get out there, the freedom and the empowerment of being in charge of the bike, it’s exhilarating.”
To join the ride on Saturday 3 May, or to join the Twin Peaks Riders Group, join their private Facebook page.
