The Voice: Community Magazine

by Ange Frymire

I am escaping to the freedom,

beauty to the max.

Its thrusting me towards

The silken mirror of the moon.

Jewel Black, motorcycle rider

Lesley Gering is a woman of art vision and gravel. A post-modern artist who graduated from Emily Carr, she has developed a keen photographic sense and often sees the world through the eye of the camera. With the earth as interpretive domain, she experiences it on a 750 Magna Honda streaming down the western highways of North America.

Lesley Gering is a motorcycle rider.

Riding is a metaphor for freedom, says the 26-year-old. It is sometimes so overwhelming
that you want to cry. Gering has been riding bikes since she was 11. I used to ride in
the Okanagan orchards on dirt bikes with my friends. I dont even think we changed gears.
We just went down hills and hung on for dear life.

Five years ago, her stepfather taught her how to ride a trial bike (one up from a dirt bike).
Three years ago, the young woman invested in her first street bike a Honda Twin Star.
She painted it silver and nicknamed it the Silver Bullet.

For Gering, riding street bikes is different game. On a dirt bike, its an adventure.
Youre flailing around, always falling and climbing rocks. She pauses, winds her finger
through her pigtails and reflects. On a street bike, its different. Youre on a bigger
bike and youve got all this power between your legs. For most women, its empowering.
For some of us, its also very spiritual.

She and fellow rider, Jewel Black, decided to combine passion with visual and literary art,
blending all three into the passages of a book to be entitled, Women and the Art of Motorcycles.

Gering admits that lots of red wine brought the book together. They thought, Lets just do it.
Whats stopping us? Situational analysis harbored marketing realities: 1) there was nothing in
the marketplace similar to the concept; 2) women are part of the consumer percentile; 3) women now have money and buy things. After talking to people on the net and in person, Gering and Black discovered that both women and men were intrigued by our concept.

The book, expected to be published in 1998, will be a coffee-table collectors item of 132
photos connecting women to their world of bikes. We wanted to do a book that focused on women riders.

The two have been combing the streets of North America, seeking out those women who are
impassioned with their bikes. Apparently, there is quite a diverse community: commuters
(who regard riding only as transportation), musicians, business professionals, actors, stunt
performers and everything in between. I met an old Texan rider in Nevada, an ex-Can-Can dancer who was 75 years old. She had amazing character-pink leathers, pink motorcycle and pink hair.

Gering points to the opposite end of the spectrum, where age and innocence marry fascination. Kathy Hubble, a stunt motorcyclist who leapt over 26 cars in Jacki Chans, Rumble in the Bronx, has a four-year-old niece. That little girl rides! exclaims Gering. From the four-year-old to the 84-year-old, we riders, all share something. Our book will capture some of that mystique.

There will be poetry, stories, profiles, and photography portraying great riders. Not just the
beautiful babes, contends Gering. Also, the die-hards of riding. Its an anthology.
Black will contribute the written word and Gering will select the visuals. So far, she has
poured over 400 images. She has selected three. Art may sometimes be a painstaking process, but Gering has the patience and vision of a seer. This book will be the art of motorcycles, bound in imagination and color, she says.

Recently, Gering met with her mother, an X-ray technologist who has worked in mammography. After much discussion on the horrors of breast cancer, the daughter pledged her support to help where she could with devastating disease.

Plans are now in the works to publish a 1999 calendar, using 12 of the most artistically provocative images of local women riders. A woman doesnt have to have silicone breasts, wear a g-string and lean over to be sexy, says Gering. She can be dirty and in her leathers, with pig-tails sticking out the side, leaning against a gas gauge. She can have all her clothes on and still evoke sensuality. All proceeds from the calendar, to be released in 1998, will be donated towards breast cancer research.

Gering is a rare woman. She believes I the power of unspoken words and views the world from a wide-angled lens. She has shaped her future with tools of creativity. She will continue to expound her views, experience her adventuresand ride. Riding is like reaching the top of a mountain, she says. It is truly a Zen experience.