Friday Sept 1st - Women’s Ride
Last Friday I left my house around 6am to meet 8 other ladies from Madison to begin our adventure. After a quick stop in Johnson Creek, we had 14 Stilettos heading to the Milwaukee Women's Ride together. Then we met the Milwaukee ladies at Miller Park in Milw. And we all rode over to the Harley Davidson Museum together to line up for the big ride!
There were 114 tickets sold, because that is how many years old Harley Davidson (HD) is. Of those, 51 of us were Stilettos on Steel. Some gals were from other riding groups and some were from other states such as Missouri.
We spent about an hour hanging out at the museum registering and getting ready to ride! Bill Davidson was around talking to the ladies and even signed some bikes. This one lady who is really short and super energetic had Bill sign her orange trike and she was practically freaking out, haha. Local celebrity I guess? She was excited to have a Bill Davidson ’17 signature on her 2017 bike, and I suppose that should help the resale value someday. It was funny though because at first he was like well hey my name is already on there! Haha.
Once it was time for KSU (kick stands up) we had a police escort to get us out of downtown Milwaukee. It was pretty cool to see the half dozen or so motorcycle police zooming past us as they race to the next intersection to block it off for us. It felt like being in a parade.. traffic was stopped, people were watching/gawking/waving/taking pictures and videos. Suppose it’s probably not too uncommon for them to see big groups of bikers with the HD headquarters in town, but not sure how often they see such large groups of only women riders.
Once we left town there was a special group of women with us who were called Road something… and they wore yellow and helped keep us going together by blocking off intersections outside of town. Interestingly when having our preride meeting they said we would go through red lights together in Milw since we had the police escorts but once out of Milw we would stop for red lights. However, we didn’t. The ladies in yellow blocked off the intersections and we all just went through all the red lights together. I wonder if they just said that we were going to stop because there were police overhearing our ride talk??? Either way, happy we didn’t have to stop dozens of times.
It was a lot of fun riding around with so many people, (especially strong women!). It was a little slow going in general because it’s hard to get so many people going up to full speed I guess. So it required some patience. But it was so exciting to see folks on over passes, getting out of their cars, or standing out in their yards waving to and recording us. One of my favorite things while riding is to see young girls notice other women riding. It may seem scary and intimidating but it’s not so bad really and it is a huge self-esteem booster, so empowering. Hopefully we inspired a few others to join the sisterhood!
Oh and before we left the museum Bill Davidson spoke to all of us, blah blah blah. We also heard from the female VP of marketing. One of the things she told us was to encourage other women to start riding, help support and empower them like we are already doing for each other. Clearly a marketing attempt, but I have been reading that Harley sales are slipping and that younger people are just not riding as much as generations past. And I totally see that! In the group I am in I have met very few people who are younger than me. Generally I am the youngest on the rides, and at 36 I am no spring chicken!
Our first stop was at a tiny restaurant who had water and snacks out for us. Our second stop was at a really nice restaurant on a lake called Seven Seas. It was ordered in advance so we all had the same thing but it was really yummy.
The ride split up after lunch and I rode back towards Madison with some of the SOS ladies I rode over with. But first we stopped at the Oconomowoc Harley dealer. There was a ton of stuff going on there too with two band stages vendors, food, beer, etc. I found some nice long sleeve shirts for the boys and a t-shirt for myself.
Oh I should mention the women’s ride kicks off the Milwaukee Rally weekend. In Milwaukee and other dealers along the way, they have tons of music and events going on all weekend. I didn’t realize it was even a thing. But I guess every 5 years it’s even bigger and next year is the 115th! So I’ve heard that I should get a room ASAP if interested in going because it’s going to be crazy!! Not sure how much I would enjoy just hanging out at a rally all day (although there are multiple rides scheduled for those weekends) but I think it would be fun to try and least once. I’m all for new experiences!!
So that day I left around 6am and got home around 430, it was a full day of fun and riding with great company!!
There were 114 tickets sold, because that is how many years old Harley Davidson (HD) is. Of those, 51 of us were Stilettos on Steel. Some gals were from other riding groups and some were from other states such as Missouri.
We spent about an hour hanging out at the museum registering and getting ready to ride! Bill Davidson was around talking to the ladies and even signed some bikes. This one lady who is really short and super energetic had Bill sign her orange trike and she was practically freaking out, haha. Local celebrity I guess? She was excited to have a Bill Davidson ’17 signature on her 2017 bike, and I suppose that should help the resale value someday. It was funny though because at first he was like well hey my name is already on there! Haha.
Once it was time for KSU (kick stands up) we had a police escort to get us out of downtown Milwaukee. It was pretty cool to see the half dozen or so motorcycle police zooming past us as they race to the next intersection to block it off for us. It felt like being in a parade.. traffic was stopped, people were watching/gawking/waving/taking pictures and videos. Suppose it’s probably not too uncommon for them to see big groups of bikers with the HD headquarters in town, but not sure how often they see such large groups of only women riders.
Once we left town there was a special group of women with us who were called Road something… and they wore yellow and helped keep us going together by blocking off intersections outside of town. Interestingly when having our preride meeting they said we would go through red lights together in Milw since we had the police escorts but once out of Milw we would stop for red lights. However, we didn’t. The ladies in yellow blocked off the intersections and we all just went through all the red lights together. I wonder if they just said that we were going to stop because there were police overhearing our ride talk??? Either way, happy we didn’t have to stop dozens of times.
It was a lot of fun riding around with so many people, (especially strong women!). It was a little slow going in general because it’s hard to get so many people going up to full speed I guess. So it required some patience. But it was so exciting to see folks on over passes, getting out of their cars, or standing out in their yards waving to and recording us. One of my favorite things while riding is to see young girls notice other women riding. It may seem scary and intimidating but it’s not so bad really and it is a huge self-esteem booster, so empowering. Hopefully we inspired a few others to join the sisterhood!
Oh and before we left the museum Bill Davidson spoke to all of us, blah blah blah. We also heard from the female VP of marketing. One of the things she told us was to encourage other women to start riding, help support and empower them like we are already doing for each other. Clearly a marketing attempt, but I have been reading that Harley sales are slipping and that younger people are just not riding as much as generations past. And I totally see that! In the group I am in I have met very few people who are younger than me. Generally I am the youngest on the rides, and at 36 I am no spring chicken!
Our first stop was at a tiny restaurant who had water and snacks out for us. Our second stop was at a really nice restaurant on a lake called Seven Seas. It was ordered in advance so we all had the same thing but it was really yummy.
The ride split up after lunch and I rode back towards Madison with some of the SOS ladies I rode over with. But first we stopped at the Oconomowoc Harley dealer. There was a ton of stuff going on there too with two band stages vendors, food, beer, etc. I found some nice long sleeve shirts for the boys and a t-shirt for myself.
Oh I should mention the women’s ride kicks off the Milwaukee Rally weekend. In Milwaukee and other dealers along the way, they have tons of music and events going on all weekend. I didn’t realize it was even a thing. But I guess every 5 years it’s even bigger and next year is the 115th! So I’ve heard that I should get a room ASAP if interested in going because it’s going to be crazy!! Not sure how much I would enjoy just hanging out at a rally all day (although there are multiple rides scheduled for those weekends) but I think it would be fun to try and least once. I’m all for new experiences!!
So that day I left around 6am and got home around 430, it was a full day of fun and riding with great company!!