Bessie Stringfield fought for civil rights and equality by doing what she loved despite the struggles and danger that came with riding motorcycles.
Bessie Stringfield: African American Queen of the Road
Submission Saturday: Laurie Marceau
Laurie Marceau, french Canadian, is a motorcycling woman who chose a whopper of a first bike… a CBR1000rr.
Here’s what Laurie had to say about her photo submissions-
“I’m from Quebec, Canada, up north! It’s my second summer that I’m riding (we can’t ride in the winter here, obviously), and I love it. I try to do my own mechanic too, to save some money, and I have to say that I like getting my hands dirty! Learning new things is mandatory for me, because learning is what makes you a better person in the long term. Seeing you with your amazing Ducati is an inspiration for me.
So, here’s a picture of me and my motorcycle, my CBR1000rr Repsol!”
To head off inevitable comments about her liter bike being a poor first choice for a motorcycle, it depends on how you approach riding the machine. In my personal opinion, it is usually and most often a bad idea to buy a huge, powerful bike for your intro to motorcycling. However, it comes down to self control and respect of the vehicle and it’s power. If you can’t trust yourself to not crack the throttle wide open the moment you mount the seat, then do not buy a bike that can go 0-60mph is 2.5 seconds. I know a fair amount of women who went for a bigger bike straight off the bat and because of training and the level of care they take when riding their machine, they handle it just fine.
Bigger bikes for new riders does not always end in tragedy.
Be safe out there, everyone! And happy Saturday.
more real women who ride | more sportbikes
Posted on August 16, 2014 in MotoLadies by Alicia Mariah Elfving
Amen! If you have any athletic skills whatsoever, it merely becomes a brain issue. Can a 16 year old with a freshly minted license handle a SUV instead of a VW if they have to? Yes.
First, that’s not a good analogy. A SUV and a mid-size car are not significantly different. A better one would be could they handle a race car vs a street car or a semi-truck vs a street car? Maybe, but not without increasing the risk of hurting themselves or (worse) others. Both pertain to huge differences, the first with power and the second with size.
Two, you do realize there’s a reason why those under 25 have much high insurance and why they can’t rent cars (in many places)?
Personally, a person who allows a 16 year old who’s never ridden to get on a liter bike is irresponsible. Again, there’s a reason why 16 year old’s are given a Junior license instead of a regular (adult) license.
Having said all that, I agree (for the most part) with MotoLady. And I commend Laurie for starting on a GS500 and graduating to a liter.
Good post! But just to make things clear, this is not my first bike 😉 I had a GS500 first, then a SV650. Now I have my CBR. I get your point, and totally agree with it! I would never have bought a liter bike as a first one.. 🙂 Happy riding!
I totally agree with that opinion. Restraint and self control are factors contributing to living longer…on almost any aspect of life.
Accidents usually happen when you lack self control.
Awesome. Do you have a black cap on the clutch cover? Looks like it’s missing one from the pics. 😮
Sweet ride!
Laurie, great bike and gear. I would love my Honda CB500F even more if it had the same color scheme (though I plan to upgrade to the Yamaha FZ-07 once that gets ABS in the USA).
My first bike was the Honda Shadow Phantom and that was a mistake. The ergonomics were completely wrong for me (since I’ve been mountain biking since I was a kid). And as a beginner, the weight along with the low seat height and forward pegs made controlling it more difficult while trying to learn how to ride and pick up riding experience. Luckily, I didn’t kill myself (nor injure anyone) with my numerous riding mistakes. The best decision I made was recognizing I made a mistake and getting a bike that was a good learner bike, whose ergonomics was right for me and one that still had decent power to do long distance trips. One of those trips was to Montreal (from NYC) and I loved that city as well as riding through the Adirondacks region.
I can understand why many women would prefer to be free of comments by males on a motorcycling page.
Riding is a lot like surfing. A lot of people who are just learning to surf want to buy a shortboard so they can do tricks and slash the waves up. Not so easy though like they think, starting on a longer board is not very easy to surf aggressively on, more graceful than anything. My first bike was a CBR600 F4i, and my first board was a 9′ longboard. F4i is still pretty damn fast though.
Now that it’s settled that this is not Laurie’s first bike, can we all agree that the photo is pretty sweet and Laurie is absolutely adorable?