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She describes the group as a support system just as much as a
riding club.

decade earlier. Spain, Canada, Australia, Austria, Norway, India,
South Africa, and Sweden. Next year, the New
Today's women riders draw inspiration from figures like Hampshire chapter will host the club's annual
Adeline and Augusta Van Buren, who rode from convention in Laconia
Brooklyn to San Francisco on their motorcycles in the
summer of 1916. In 2016, the descendants of the Van
Burens joined 100 other women bikers to take the
same journey.

"I think back to the very early days of Motorcycle Week,
and there were female riding clubs even then,"
Anderson said. "I'm talking about the 1930s

A lifelong idol of Egalka's is Gloria Struck, who joined
the Motor Maids, one of the country's oldest all-female
motorcycle clubs, at the age of 21 in 1946. Struck, who
is still on the road well into her 90's, now holds a place
in the Sturgis Hall of Fame and the American
Motorcycle Association Hall of Fame.

.
Jovi McMahon, 53, who started the New Hampshire
chapter, said its membership jumped to nine in the
span of two years. She describes the group as a
support system just as much as a riding club.

"We have a member right now – her sister is going
through chemotherapy and radiation," McMahon said.
"She knows if she called one of us, we would be there
in a heartbeat.” LHR

Many women riders still turn to all-female clubs for
community and camaraderie.

Mahoney belongs to the Chrome Angelz, an all-female
riding club with more than 200 chapters across the
U.S. and in countries around the world, including

Women in Biking