American Motorcycle Girls

Bikes Culture

It’s amazing, really that there are still so many associations between the words ‘biker’ and ‘girls’.

Do an online image search and see what you come up with. Pretty predictable really. It’s all Back Street Heroes. The equation with boys, toys and bikes and babes endures deep here into the 21st century.

It was refreshing this weekend to stumble upon a copy of Chris Sommer Simmons book “The American Motorcycle Girls – 1900 to 1950′. Released in 2009, it is a really interesting document on women and motorcycles from an American perspective.

On the cover is an image (below) of 1940s Stunt rider Dot Smith posing on her 1939 EL Knucklhead. Dot was, apparently, a member of the ‘Motor Maids’ and the San Francisco Motorcycle Club.

We suppose cute, sexy females have been used to sell everything from Fairy liquid to Motor Oil and everything between – and that ain’t going to change.

Taking a look at this book might help broaden your thinking. It did mine.

Motorcycle Women

 

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