Motorcycles Aren’t Just For The Boys

Cathy Walker can probably thank her mother for starting her lifelong love for motorcycles.

The Columbus, N.C., native was just 13 years old when her mom bought her a Sears & Roebuck SHP Briggs and Stratton bike, which Walker described as “like a lawnmower motor.”

It only lasted about a year before Walker ran it into a pine tree. She’s had about 10 more bikes since that first one.

Coming out for this week’s fall bike rally in Myrtle Beach on her low rider, Walker was one of thousands of female riders who aren’t happy just riding shotgun.

Of the 189,428 licensed motorcycle drivers in South Carolina, 19,452 are women, according to state statistics cited by The (Charleston) Post and Courier. And the number of women gripping the handlebars is growing. It’s already nearly 4,000 higher than in 2007.

Sonia Croom began her love for motorcycles eight years ago.

The inspiration? Attending the Myrtle Beach bike rallies.

“It’s just a great crowd of people,” Croom said. “Everybody’s like brothers and sisters.”

She came into this year’s fall rally atop a Harley-Davidson.

Riding means not worrying about anything else in life, Croom said, and just feeling very relaxed. She’s obviously not the only woman who appreciates riding.

The Motorcycle Industry Council, a national trade group, estimates that women own nearly 1 in 9 motorcycles.

In 2009, approximately 27 million people operated motorcycles and roughly 7.3 million of them were women, according to the MIC.

P.J. Rouse, who came from Carthridge, N.C., to Myrtle Beach for the bike rally, followed her husband’s example after he bought a motorcycle.

Rouse had no specific reason for enjoying bikes; she simply likes to ride. As for what she doesn’t like, that one’s easy: “the bugs.”

When Walker’s not busy riding, she works in Spartanburg loading tractor trailers with Michelin tires. She puts in 12-hour days for two weeks, and then has a week off. During that downtime, she’ll get in some bike time.

Walker keeps going to bike rallies because, like Croom, she enjoys meeting all the different people.

“Good, bad and ugly,” she said.

As for how long she’ll ride, Walker plans on making it a hobby for life.

“I’ll stay on two wheels until I can’t hold them up, and then I’ll go to three wheels,” she said. –Sun News

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Myrtle Beach Fall Harley Bike Fest
Pics by Sun News