My mum grew up on a farm in Jamul, Calif. during the late-70s, early-80s. She got her first motorcycle in Kindergarten. It was a red Honda 60cc, given to her by her dad. She would build her own tracks in her backyard, constructing dirt jumps, whoop-de-doos, and banks of hay that she would use to crash into. Her dad said,

“if you aren’t crashing you aren’t going fast enough.”

She would take to the desert, every weekend, to go racing with the guys; she was the only girl. She would continuously win and kept winning.

As time went by she would also get bigger bikes and different classes such as 125cc vs 250cc. It wasn’t much of a girly thing back then but, she wanted to explore more of herself. She loved and really excelled in racing and riding. She stopped racing around fifteen-years-old.

As time went on my mum grew older, got a job, started and raised a family. She would ride every so often when someone would let her borrow their bikes, but nothing serious as to owning one again.

The conversion from dirt to street style wasn’t that hard. She would borrow motorcycles and just ride. It was and still is very therapeutic for her. 

On April 14, 2017,  was the day my mum decided to buy the bike of her dreams–a Harley Davidson. A Harley is more than just a bike.

“It’s a Harley Davidson for crying out loud!”

She said, “In my mind, to own a Harley there is a certain persona, a certain Harley, something about it. I knew I was ready to own one whenever I bought it. I always knew I wanted to buy one; it was just a matter of when I thought I was ready, and fit the criteria.”

She went to the Golden Spike Harley Davidson shop and sat on a bunch of bikes till she found one that spoke to her.  She bought a brand new 2017 Harley Davidson Softail Slim S, with a Screaming Eagle 110 engine. It only had six miles on it!

To this day she still has her bike and goes on long rides often. She has future plans to take the ultimate ride to Sturgis, South Dakota.

It’s like the party place for bikers!

It is a motorcycle museum, hall of fame, and host of the largest motorcycle rally in the United States. 

Sturgis’ founder, Clarence “Pappy” Hoel, held their first rally in August 1938. He bought a franchise of the Indian Motorcycle Company where they built motorcycles in North Carolina.

During the first few years of the Sturgis Motorcycle rally, they focused on stunts, racing, testing people’s skills, and creativity. At the beginning of the 1960s, a new generation of bikes and bikers had more danger and daredevil tricks, that the audience loved. They had the half-mile track racing, ramp jumps, and board wall crashes like a demolition derby.

I would like to go there someday, riding up there on my own bike, next to my bad biker mumma!