Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Honda recently t reated f em ale journ ali sts to a two-day ride on m otorcy cle s tailor- made for sma ller ri der s. The American Honda outing was led by Honda District Sales Manager Lori Conway and Honda Training Program Administrator Candace Mead, Women in motorcycling: cruising on Honda's "little" bikes Female 'journalist s hit the -open road By A nne Van Beveren You think you have it rough manhandling a GSXR 750 because it's a big" heavy bike? Imagine h ow difficult it would be if your feet didn't reich the ground. Im possible, yo u say? Maybe so, but wh en you' re five-foot-three-inches tall like me, you don 't have a lot of choice. 30 I've been riding for more than six years a nd m y feet haven 't touched th e ground for as long as I can remember - not both at the same tim e, a nyway. For people as short as me, riding is o ne worry after ano the r. You have to make sure you always pull up close to a curb so you' ll have somewhere to put a foo t dow n, a nd st0p'and-start rid in g in hea vy tra ffic will redu ce you to sh ak i ng' je lly in minutes. ' With on ly o ne big toe o n th e , gro und, yo u ride by bal an ce alone and if th e bike starts to tip, you mi gh t as we ll forget it. Your big toe provides no leverage at all. If the bike sta rts to fall the best thing you can do is just get out of the way. Us " li ttle" peo pl e ge t along fin e off road - we just keep ridi ng until a stopping p lace with a suitable foot rest comes along . Bu t rid ing on the stree t has a lways been a ni gh tm are for people m y height. All is not lost. j us t whe n I had resign ed m yself to life o n a mo ped, Ame rica n H onda came to th e rescu e. " T hey're pu tting o n a two-day ride for women Journal ists in th e mo tor cycle ind ustry ," said th e edi tor from Cycle N ews, "and th ey mi ght have some new bikes to sho w you. Ma ybe you want to go ." Ma yb e, n oth in g ! Of co u rse ' I wanted to go. H onda's specia l rid e was in spired . by the Motorcycle Ind ustry Council's " Disco ver T oda y's Motorcycling" public relations campaign, whi ch features a 1988 th eme of "Women in Motorcycling. " The ca m paign is designed to , " stimulate g re a te r - inter est , involvement and understanding of motorcycling among th e gene ra l public." The Thursda y morning following the phone call from Cycle N ews, I fou nd myself wi th four o t her "women of the press" drinking coffee at Honda's headquarters in Gardena, California, while we listen ed to Ray Blank, Senior Manager of H onda's Motorcycle Marketing Division, exp lain one of th e company's lat est ideas - motorcycles tail or-m ade for s ma ller , less expe rie nced rid ers. Honda knows that no t everyo ne who rid es can be big, tough and mach o, Blank told us, so the japanese manufacturer has developed a ra nge of less-intim idating motorcycles that sho uld suit peopl e like me do wn to th e ground, if you' ll excuse th e expressio n. Wait in g for us in the parking lot were five 1988 VTR250 Interceptors, a 1988 VT600 Shadow, a nd a 1987 CN250 Helix scoo ter - both my feet reached the ground o n all of them! Escorted by Lori Conwa y, one of Honda's di stri ct sa les managers, and Ca ndace Mead , a training program ad m inistra tor fo r Honda - and with a su ppo rt tru ck carr ying our gear fo llowing behind - ',we set off in a ca valcade down th e 405 Freeway in sou the rn California with two days and 400 miles of riding, camaraderie and fun a hea d of us, We took things easy for th e first few hours, usin g the tim e to ge t to kn ow th e cha rac teristics of each bike, test o ur riding skills a nd get to kn ow each ot her a little better. But as the day wore o n th e pace p icked-up a nd th e riding becam e more a nd more ch allengi ng , We cr u ised th e cu rves of- th e infa mous Ortega Hi ghway, ca u~h t the spec tac u lar views overlooking La ke Elsi nore a nd crept th rough the sleepy tow n of Mu rri eta. Rid in g past hor se ranch es, winter-brown golf co urses, a nd new housin g developments, we a te up mile'after mil e until we reached o ur overn igh t stop at the H em et Travelodge . ' We rose to coffee a nd doughnuts th e next morning and hit th e highway just after 8:00 a. rn., heading into th e Sa n j acinto Mountains for a breakfast stop a t Mountain Center. As we dove in a nd out of th e shadows o n th e twi sty mounta in roads , smelled th e damp pine needles and , felt the chill off th e patches of snow that still l in ed the side of the highway above the 4000-foot mark, I started to find out what street riding is all about. . All my fears were gone. I was finall y riding a motorcycl e that allowed me to plant both feet firml y o n Mother Earth, wh en ever I chose. I no longer had to spe nd mile upon The 1988 VTR250 Int ercept or was, by far, the ladies' f avo rite choice of t he motorcycles ava ilable , " It was like f lyi ng a paper airplane."

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