It’s not that many years ago that the sight of a girl on her own motorbike would have the male riders absolutely stunned to silence. Nowadays motorcycling is no longer the domain of the testosterone-fueled man and it is quite likely that you will see women out on the road on their own bikes, and a growing percentage of the girls are riding sports and supersports bikes.
I’m one of them!! And I love it!!
Now, I must admit that I’ve not seen many men stunned into silence when I’ve pulled up on my bike and taken off my crash helmet but I have seen quite a few chins hitting the floor! And it still makes me giggle even now to see it happen
and in all honesty it is still quite a common occurrence!I am no longer the ornament on the pillion seat, and never will be again as I now HATE going on the back of a bike with a passion! I no longer feel safe, as I’m not in control of the bike back there.
Things are getting so much better for us girls now. Ever since the Fireblade was first introduced back in 1992, the motorbike manufacturers have realised that a decent power to weight ratio could result in smaller, slimmer and more powerful machines, which are perfect for us girls.
Now I may be too small height wise to ride a 1992 Fireblade, unfortunately at 5’ 3” my body is too tiny to reach over that huge tank safely, but there is absolutely no reason at all why I cant ride a newer Fireblade, as well as many other newer sports bikes on the market now.
I looked at the weight of the Fireblade over the years and have noticed that weight wise anything after the 2002 Fireblade is pretty much the same weight as my 1992 CBR400 Baby Blade! So guess what I want to own one day!! Now I know it will be a taller bike, but after having ridden a sports bike for a few years and getting used to the weight, having to have both feet flat on the floor, while preferable, will not be so much of a necessity.
Today’s motorbikes steer almost with a glance in the right direction and are incredibly light and powerful and they are getting so much smaller that they are almost perfect for us smaller female riders. Not long ago I saw a guy on Suzuki riding towards the pedestrian crossing I was waiting on and I was convinced it was a GSX-R600. It was only when it went past me that I realised it was actually a 1000cc bike! I was so amazed I had to wander back round to where he had parked up to make sure and yes, it definitely was the litre bike! I could not believe how tiny it was, I would easily fit on it!
The good thing about being a girl and looking at bikes like that is that I imagine that as we are smaller they would be less cramped for us to ride. The guy I saw on that GSX-R1000 looked as if he was dwarfing the bike and had knees and elbows poking out all over the place. I’m sure I would have looked much better on it
The other advantage for us girls on sports bikes is that generally we are lighter as well which means our bikes will go faster than the same bike with a much larger and heavier man on it woohoo!!!!!
That’s the part I like.. Yes I may be little, my bike may ‘only’ be a 400cc one but with only 8 stone in weight on it she goes like hot stink with me on her and she is so much fun.
I found this list of ‘recommended’ bikes for girls,
but if you check out this post as well Bikes Girls Can Ride to see the kinds of bikes being ridden by girls right now. You will soon see we are not really limited with the bikes we are able to ride.
Choosing Your First ‘Big’ Bike will provide you with some pointers for when you are choosing a bike.
Plus now you can check out these posts about Ride Height Adjustment Kits for the different makes of motorcycles.
So come on girls, get off the pillion seat and on to a bike of your own. The choices, bike wise, for us girls are so much better now, and with a little ‘tweaking’ the choices are widened even further in some cases
You wont regret it, I promise
April 8, 2009 at 4:59 am
Hi !!!!
My name is Piter Kokoniz. oOnly want to tell, that your blog is really cool
And want to ask you: is this blog your hobby?
Sorry for my bad english:)
Thank you!
Your Piter
April 8, 2009 at 12:52 pm
Hi Piter,
Well kind of
It started out as my observations on life from a motorcyclists point of view and then kind of expanded to include include all the information I keep popping on it.
I really enjoy doing it
Raven
August 11, 2009 at 10:14 am
hiya Raven so glad i found this site, i am about the same weight and height as you (female)…have been riding a 125 for a few months now and am itching to get a bigger bike, i was thinking of taking the MOD 1 on my own 125 as i know that if i take the direct access course i will most probably get put on a Bandit or something similar, which i wont ride after the test anyway as i am too small..i reckon i will go for holding the 33bhp license for a while until i get my skills up, with that in mind can anyone recommend a 33bhp for someone of my size who intends to do a lot of cruising?
thanks in advance