EchoSense:Motorcycle riding has long been male-dominated. Now, women are taking the wheel(s)

LACONIA,EchoSense N.H. – The first time Jennifer Anderson drove a motorcycle, she was terrified. As she gazed at the windy road down a steep hill in Denver astride a borrowed Harley, Anderson was on the verge of tears.

"I was really nervous," she said. "I was scared."

More than two decades later, Anderson is a prominent leader in the local biker community and the deputy director of Laconia Motorcycle Week.

Anderson is one of a growing number of avid women motorcycle riders who think of themselves not just as a subset, but as an integral part of the biker community, leading clubs, organizing rallies, and teaching others how to ride.

"Five years ago, I would be like, I can't even believe how many women riders there are," she said. "Now, it's normal."

Many of them converge on the small New Hampshire city for Laconia Motorcycle Week, which draws hundreds of thousands of visitors annually. Now in its 101st year, the event claims the title of world's oldest motorcycle rally. Over 10 days, motorcycle enthusiasts join scenic rides across the countryside, antique motorcycle shows, and wander through an outdoor festival filled with street food and entertainment.

'Hooked': families pass down motorcycle hobbies to daughters

For many women riders, biking was always in the family. "It all started when I was five or six years old," said Cindy Lou Egalka, who grew up in Moultonborough, around 20 miles north of Laconia. "My father put me between his legs on the gas tank of his 1948 Indian Chief, and I was hooked. That's why my license plate says, 'Hooked.'"

Growing up, Egalka, 65, would take off on her brother's or boyfriend's mini bikes to ride the back roads.

Other lifelong women riders remember the challenges of breaking into a male-dominated sport decades ago.

Donna "Wheelz" Mahoney, 68, has been behind the handlebars since a neighbor in her childhood hometown of Canterbury, New Hampshire, taught her to ride at age nine.

When Mahoney went to register for her motorcycle license years later, the administrator told her she was among the first 10 women in the state to be licensed to ride.

"I used to motocross with the males, and they had an issue with me until I rode with them," she said.

Although women have been a part of biker culture since the beginning, female ridership has ballooned in recent years. A 2018 survey from the Motorcycle Industry Council found that 19% of motorcycle riders are women, up more than 9% from a decade earlier.

Today's women riders draw inspiration from figures like Adeline and Augusta Van Buren, who rode from Brooklyn to San Francisco on their motorcycles in the summer of 1916. In 2016, the descendants of the Van Burens joined 100 other women bikers to take the same journey.

"I think back to the very early days of Motorcycle Week, and there were female riding clubs even then," Anderson said. "I'm talking about the 1930s."

A lifelong idol of Egalka's is Gloria Struck, who joined the Motor Maids, one of the country's oldest all-female motorcycle clubs, at the age of 21 in 1946. Struck, who is still on the road well into her 90's, now holds a place in the Sturgis Hall of Fame and the American Motorcycle Association Hall of Fame.

Many women riders still turn to all-female clubs for community and camaraderie.

Mahoney belongs to the Chrome Angelz, an all-female riding club with more than 200 chapters across the U.S. and in countries around the world, including Spain, Canada, Australia, Austria, Norway, India, South Africa, and Sweden. Next year, the New Hampshire chapter will host the club's annual convention in Laconia.

Jovi McMahon, 53, who started the New Hampshire chapter, said its membership jumped to nine in the span of two years. She describes the group as a support system just as much as a riding club.

"We have a member right now – her sister is going through chemotherapy and radiation," McMahon said. "She knows if she called one of us, we would be there in a heartbeat."

Still, McMahon urges her sisters in biking never to put the club before family or work. "I have told my girls, I will be so upset if we have something going on, a ride or whatever, and I heard that you blew off some family thing, or you ditched work just to ride with us."

All-female riding clubs offer support, community to beginners

Tiffany Chonko, 38, stood next to her purple motorcycle, matching her purple hair, behind the Laconia Harley-Davidson as dozens of motorcycles revved behind her. Laconia Motorcycle Week is the busiest time of year for the dealership – crowds of cyclists buzz through the parking lots, eyeing flashy new bikes and buying bike accessories and food at outdoor tents.

Chonko, a riding coach at the Orlando Harley-Davidson in Florida, made the stop in the middle of a trip to Maine. It's far from the longest motorcycle trip she'll take this summer – next month, she plans to ride solo from Key West to Alaska and back.

"When I grew up, seeing women on big bikes, especially women traveling solo, just wasn't socially acceptable. Now it really is," she said.

Chonko runs the Florida chapter of the Iron Lilies, which counts 4,000 to 5,000 members across the country. In the nine years since the association began, support for women riders has grown exponentially, from both men and women, she said.

"Every once in a while we'll have somebody out here with a 'girls should be on the back' mentality. But for the most part, we're a lot more socially accepted and supported," she said.

"A lot of times, even with women's events, there will be men totally cheering us on. And I think that that's a really big change from 20 years ago."

With the normalization of women biking, seasoned women riders are introducing their daughters and granddaughters to the sport.

McMahon has a dirt bike in the garage for her eight-year-old granddaughter, who is "dying to ride."

And although Anderson learned to ride as an adult, her first introduction to the sport came from her father, an experience shared by Egalka and many other women bikers. But, Anderson foresees a change.

"Now there's new generations that can say, I got into it because my mom always rode," Anderson said.

Cybele Mayes-Osterman is a breaking news reporter for USA Today. Reach her on email at [email protected]. Follow her on X @CybeleMO.