Vancouver Courrier

December, 1998

by Fione Hughes

Ever since Robert Persigs Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance landed on bookstore shelves more than 20 years ago, motorcycling the open roads has been observed through a different lens. Pirsigs book, although not so much about motorbikes as it as about self-discovery and finding inner peace, gave motorcycling a certain respectability. But an element is missing from motorcycle literature women riders. (For the first time in the magazines history, Canadian Biker will feature a woman on its cover in January).

Painter and photographer Lesley Gering wants to change that.

The poetry of man and machine may be a universal one, but more and more of late, women speak it freshest, she says.

Movies and marketing have created a stereotypical male image of the motorcyclist, but Gering advises people to look twice at whos under the helmet. These women dont ride on the back she says. Women riders have their own particular take on what it means to ride on the intangibles of speed, the open road and freedom with outlaw overtones.

Gering created the Women and the Art of Motorcycles 1999 calendar to celebrate women riders and raise money for cancer research. Black-and-white photos feature local women, including a few kids and 51-year-old Johnna Reid, who was inspired to become a rider 25 years ago when she saw a woman on a motorbike wearing goggles and a fur coat.

The calendar is a spin-off of a coffee-table book Gering began working on before the calendar. Shes been researching the book for a year ad a half and says shes only begun to scrape the surface of stories and characters. Shes already embarked on two long road trips, attended motorcycle events, visited motorcycle shops, talked to friends who ride and approached strangers at cafes if she saw a helmet sitting on their table. Talking is easy. Taking their photos is another matter.

You just cant go to a motorcycle event and just start taking pictures. A lot of women didnt want to have their picture taken. They were a little wary, says the 27-year-old Emily Carr grad. I had to gain their trust first.

The calendar features only local women, but the book will include women riders from across North America. It will also contain stories, poems and song lyrics by or about women riders, mixed with graphics and photos.

Ironically, a road accident motivated her to make the calendar. Gering was hit by a truck in southern Oregon and taken to hospital strapped to a spinal board. Medics feared shed broken her neck. Two days later, she was back on her bike. One hour after the accident I decided to make the calendar because I thought it would be good karma, she exclaims. I walked away from what could have been a fatal accident. All proceeds from the calendar go the B.C. Cancer Foundation for breast cancer research.

Gering has been fascinated by two-wheelers since she first hopped on a bike at 11, while growing up in the Okanagan. Her first bike was a 1971 Honda Twin Star that she painted silver. Other bikers nicknamed me The Silver Bullet. When I rode next to the big bikes I looked like a little sewing machine.

Now she rides a customized 82 Honda 750 V45 Magna with a distinct color, Its raspberryraspberry sorbet, she purrs.

Gerings calendar is available at Duthies and most motorcycle shops in the Lower Mainland. Gering is also looking for women riders with tales to tell