Girls on motorcycles 3

I know, I have been sadly remiss in my posts for the past few days.

Work (of the sort that earns us a living) has its priorities, from time to time. Of course, in a way, all is work and so all can also be construed as play. But I dislike this kind of sophism, especially when we think of jobs being done, in many parts of the world, that very few people would elect to do if they had such a thing as real choice and a lack of constraints of various kinds.

At the time of writing, I think in particular of all those working in Japan to attempt to deal with the consequences of nature's brute power and man's lack of control of that power (not to mention his lack of foresight!). But also of all those who, around the world, do (often for all of their lives) unpleasant and badly paid jobs because they have no choice, just in order to survive. We who have the great good fortune to live otherwise should not forget this.

Now to today's post which has nothing to do with the above, and which could be seen as a form of indecence on my behalf on account of that. I have chosen, for the major part of this blog so far, to concentrate on the sunny side of life, even if we probably need shade to appreciate light, and vice-versa. This is another debate to which I will perhaps return one day.

I have made 2 posts on the subject of lady bikers on this blog. You can find them here:

http://morethanjustwine.blogspot.com/2010/11/girls-on-motorcycles.html

http://morethanjustwine.blogspot.com/2011/03/girls-on-motorcycles-2.html

And now here is a third one...
First of all you should know that there is, in the UK, at least one magazine devoted to the topic and bearing the title Lady Biker.

Now before I get accused of being sexist (or whatever) on account of just showing good-looking ladies on bikes, I would like to remind everbody out there that it takes all shapes, sizes and everything to make a world. But, as my friend Mark Williams has recently mentioned, large people can cause some problems. And we would have to include bikes in this field. On the left we have an example of what can occur when wieght to power ratios get out of hand. (and yes, she is...very brave as well as being very big).

Going back in time, riding in groups (or packs, if you prefer that kind of silly "Wild Bunch" language) was not restricted to the male gender of our species. This picture (by the look of the garb and the bikes) dates from the late 1910's or early 1920's, almost certainly in the US of A.

Talking about time (or time warps), how about this? Anyone spot the anchronisms here? And the country?

I mentioned in my previous post on this subject the apparent differences between US biker ladies and German ones (at least for the examples shown). How about Russia then (see left)?

To return the the USA, the attitude may seem freer, but one should perhaps beware of imitations and, as always, of fashions which tend to travel faster than the plague.

Here in Western Europe, our lady bikers are perhaps (for the most part) a touch more conventional and clearly more sensibly dressed than their counterparts on the other side of the pond, indeed in a similar mould to most of the men.

Finally, I cannot resist showing you another picture of my favourite lady biker, Leslie, the Queen of Speed (at least in the USA). See also the post Girls on motorcycles 2. I hasten to add that she does not ride that Fireblade in anger dressed like that.