Sex on a Bike Seat

 

This column first appeared in The Motorcycle News

May 2009

Having lived the motorcycle lifestyle for many years, 26 to be exact, the showdown between Biker Chick and Biker Babe stilettos a path across my intelligent, road-map-reading brain quite frequently. Despite the growing trend of females entering the sport of motorcycling, still they persist: images of the ideal Biker Babe - the sexy, partially (and sometimes completely) nude girl contorting herself into tantalizing positions across a motorcycle seat, simply for the viewing pleasure of the visually-stimulated male.

She is not discriminatory, gracing bike seats of every genre: Ms. Motocross; Miss Custom Harley-Davidson, Miss World Superbike. I'd like to see a biker dude under similar circumstances – boxerless, wearing just chaps; well muscled (not the Molson muscle either); shot under flattering light with a brush of Adobe Photoshop® and hung in all the right laundry room spaces. Would men begin to take us, the long-distance female rider, seriously if our laundry-room walls were papered with posters of nude, upstanding motorcycling men, posing alongside an ironing board, Georgio Armani shirt dangling in hand? The steam button is easier to find than an oil drain plug let me assure you.

Sales of motorcycles to women in Canada sit at close to 30 per cent and are growing. It's apparent women aren't exactly shying away from the male-dominated sport. Women are still in front the lens – only this time in clothing, helmets on, posing astride their own machines. No longer content to be the “bitch on the back”, women are preferring to be the “bro” in front. Today's female sex are not just riding the seat to the corner and back for a Boston creme either.

In a bold Harley-paradox effort, Harley-Davidson in 2006 launched its “Garage Party” concept – a women-only themed open house, geared towards women's riding interests. Women were demonstrated motorcycle controls basics, shown proper riding gear and given the opportunity to connect with other female riders. Back paddling perhaps? Or was it that the motorcycle industry began to recognize women as more than a calendar commodity – a market to be cornered when household income contribution by women in Canada sits close to 50 per cent? Stiletto that all the way to the bank.

Sources: Canadian Harley Davidson Stats, Deeley Harley Davidson Canada, Research and Database; The Motorcycle and Moped Industry Council; Statistics Canada, 2006 Average Earnings by Sex and Work Pattern