When I joined WIMA back in 1982 I was fascinated to discover that in 1950, the year after I was born, the American motorcyclist, Louise Scherbyn, had set up an international organisation for women motorcyclists, and that in 1980, a GB member, Frances Popley, had researched and edited a history of the first thirty years.
Popularly known as the Pearl Booklet, this first history is available here https://bit.ly/WIMAPearlBooklet and contains a lot of interesting detail we don’t have room to reproduce in this edition. Frances related, ‘I wrote something in the region of seventy letters to more than ten countries, made numerous telephone calls to all parts of the country and clocked up many happy miles in search of material.’ We’re grateful to her daughters for sending us Frances’s original research material.This edition is dedicated to the memory of Frances.
My co-editor Åsa and I have had a different journey from Frances. We’ve been able to travel far more internationally, meet more WIMA members personally over the years, and we have the advantage of the internet for research purposes.
This edition has a wider scope – to capture the essence of every current division, to give a flavour of the history and to feature the personalities who run the organisation today as well as those whom WIMA has honoured for their contribution to us all over the years. It’s a digital edition, so it can be added to in the future.
Why have Åsa and I spent years putting this all together? I rode for eight years in London, commuting to work, before I met another rider. A chance article in 1981 in the Sunday Times called ‘Sex and the art of motorcycle maintenance’ led me to The Women’s Motorcycle Workshop, run by WIMA member Anna Zee, currently president of FEMA – see her bio in the Ellen Pfeiffer award section. Jennifer Killen, who later became president of WIMA Australia and organised the first Australian international rally in 2000 was also there – see her report in the rally section. I immediately joined WIMA. My first international rally was 1983 in the Netherlands. What an eye opener it was to discover women from many countries, travelling from so far, to join together for a week of motorcycling and camaraderie!
Over the years, I rose through the ranks, first of WIMA GB, then to becoming the second international president. Throughout this time, I was conscious of those women who had paved the way for us all, braving indifference and hostility to be themselves and to actively participate in the sport they so loved: motorcycling. I felt my own journey was not so different – motorcycling and WIMA have given me freedom, independence, self-reliance, wonderful friends and travel experiences all over the world and my life partner Pat. This is why I feel it is so important to capture this information for future generations of women motorcyclists. It’s my way of saying thank you.
