120259 Resource 106829 108325 108325 1143484456252 1143484456252 Controlled New Image Coming

Women on Bikes May Give Needed Boost to Sport

Of course, the image of motorcyclists is always running in the background of any motorcycle case.As time goes on, truly the image has improved steadily and dramatically.  That is not the same as saying that more improvement isn't possible, particularly in this time of conservative politics.Now I see a trend that will really boost the image.The upcoming Women on Motorcycles conference in June, Harley's marketing targeted to women, and lots of newly visible women riders may be one of the best things to happen to motorycling in years.Our image hasn't had a really big shakeup in years.  The old 50's James Dean/Marlon Brando thing seems to have incredible legs, but it is boorrriinng at this point.  Honda's "nicest people on a Honda" is long forgotten.  The influx of the rubs ("Rich Urban Biker") is pretty old.  It's time for something new.I remember long ago seeing a woman biker trying unsuccessfully to kick start an old Bonneville, and my big smile as she sent it down a hill, hopped on, and did a bump start.  Women have come up in everything else, there are serious women racers, and the time is long overdue.I noticed that the AMA has more than 230,000 members now, and this number can only grow so much on boomers buying Harleys.Anyway, welcome, welcome, welcome. 10 application/xml false AMA conference harley image james dean marlon brando Motorcycling racer women Rich Urban Biker rub Women women on motorcycles women racers Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.0.3705; Media Center PC 2.8) 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 mpadway false true false false true 201650 false false true false false false true 106829 blog blogsite/MichaelPadway/web