Visor Down: Women in Moto Reshaping UK Motorcycling
As seen in The Visor Down: Discover how Women in Moto are breaking barriers and boosting female motorcyclists in the UK. Join the movement for change!
The Women in Moto show that took place a few weeks ago at Uttoxeter Racecourse is a particular event in that it is specifically aimed at women – a particularly small segment of the motorcycling community.
In fact, UK government data shows that 13 percent of motorcyclists in the country were females between 2002 and 2022. Although this percentage rose and fell over the course of that 20-year period, it never exceeded 14 percent, but was also never less than 13 percent.
Either way, it doesn’t take much more to work out that finding motorcycling women in the UK is not straightforward, but it is one area which, in some aspects, is looking to encourage more women to become involved in it, and
Many female riders are looking to change this, working to dismantle some of the barriers they found on their own two-wheeled journey, making things easier for those following in their footsteps.
Lindsay Atkinson – the organiser of the Women in Moto show who began riding in the early 2010s with a Vespa to overcome the issue of waiting for public transport in London – explained that the problem is not as simple as women being told by men that they should not or cannot ride motorcycles, for example, but it is also fundamental to the structure of the motorcycle industry, built on its own century-old, male-dominated past.
Motorcycles have generally been built by men, and generally built for men. That affects parameters based on size, weight, ergonomics, visuals, purpose, and much more. Aside from the motorcycle itself, it also affects how it is marketed, an the attitude of the motorcycle manufacturers is of course
mirrored by the companies which produce the accessories and gear for the people who own and ride the products of those manufacturers.
I think that there are a lot of manufacturers out there that aren’t yet clued up to the fact that women are their future target market,” said Atkinson. “So, a lot of manufacturers are still creating absolutely huge bikes that often are harder for a shorter, female rider to touch the floor on, they’re often really heavy and really hard to pick up.
For the rest of The Visor Down article see here.
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