Eleven percent of all Harley riders are now women. Here’s a link to a good story about a Claudia Brooks, a woman who’s been riding since 1989. She rode on the back of her husband’s bike until recently. Now she’s got her own bike.
A growing number of vendors are targeting these women riders. Being Jane sells biker clothing and accessories, along with prints and household items. Here’s their pitch:
“Being Jane is an online community dedicated to shattering the preconceived notions of women in society and the evolving roles they are forced to play. Being Jane provides access to advice, mentoring, support and a compendium of women-related information that leverages the experience of women who have achieved non-traditional female goals.”
I wish them well, but I wonder when this pitch will be abandoned. It’s pretty stale. Standard boilerplate from the HR department at my office. Their perceived market must be women who work as corporate executives. Seems to me that they might want to expand their PR to include women who work in factories, in cubicles and day care centers. These types of women are more numerous and more likely to ride a bike. And they don’t particularly care for another lecture from the HR department on their day off.
Please tell me what these preconceived notions of women in society might be? My mother sat on top a tractor and plowed the back 40 when she was a teenager. Still, Being Jane sells some nice products. I hope they do well.
Fox Creek Leather, located in Virginia, sells about what you’d expect. Their leather jackets are very stylish. Their advertising emphasizes safety, a prime concern to women riders. Few of the women riders I meet are into the hell for leather attitude I often see in men.
Fox Creek sells some very handsome saddle bags.
Myrna considered buying her own bike in the months before her illness and death. She loved riding as a passenger, but she wanted something for short trips near home. The Buells seemed about right, because she was tiny. I woke up this morning, honey, thinking about you and praying for you. I hope that God is taking good care of you.
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