Why More Women Should Get On LEADING Seat OF THE Motorcycle, And Ride

The Highway Runaways traveled across the national country inspiring badass women to hop on.
In 1915, Effie and avis Hotchkiss embarked on the road trip that no woman had ever tried before. The mom and daughter duo drove across the whole country on the three-speed twin cylinder Harley Davidson motorcycle and sidecar. Back then, women couldn't even vote.

A hundred years later, Portland-based photographer and women's motorcyclist advocate Lanakila MacNaughton and four friends followed in the trailblazers' path. They documented their journey on Instagram in order to inspire a fresh wave of women riders.

MacNaughton, 26, and her friends, who are also called the "Highway Runaways," attempt to ride from Brooklyn, New York, to San Francisco, California, of July at the start. Their 4,500-mile journey, that was peppered with stops along the way to connect with other communities of riders, took a month to complete and was chronicled in photographs published online and in the Women's Moto Exhibition.

Some motorcycle riders are men -- or men who prefer that their girls ride on the trunk -- the Women's Moto Exhibition highlights portraits of women who trip their own bikes. The goal of the journeying photography show was to encourage women to take the plunge and ride for themselves.

HuffPost spoke with MacNaughton days after she completed the journey. Answers have been edited for size and clearness.

That which was the motivation behind this cross country ride? What made you gals do it?

I bought a motorcycle 3 years back when I acquired sober, and started meeting amazing women who I used to be using with. I [felt] that the motorcycle driving industry didn’t represent myself and the ladies I was traveling with. I just started taking photos of different women in the united states, and then it just acquired a snowball impact to sold out [picture taking] shows.

 

I believe Harley Davidson has seen the development of the Women’s Moto Exhibit and has put blowing wind in my sails in helping this new influx of women riders who are getting on leading of the bike rather than staying on the trunk. Women who have been on the advantage and didn’t think they could [get on a bike] are now viewing other women, their friends or people on Instagram maybe, and have decided to choose it up. And so, the ride is to merely inspire and motivate other women they can get outdoors their safe place and do things that are scary, with other women, and feel strength and power within that.

Who did you meet along the journey? What were their tales?

We linked with different communities of women. We got their tales, we required photos, and it was kind of just this connection we had along the way.

A complete lot of people maybe grew up riding dirt bikes and then progressed to a Honda, like a smaller motorbike, and got a Harley then. I heard in one female whose father died, and he always wished her to ride. And so when he died, she found a bike and started operating. Others are similar to my tale, women who noticed other folks, other sets of friends, men riding mostly, and wanted to experience what they’d been experiencing.

As well as the buzz is got by you. You’re on the back, the power is sensed by you to be on the bicycle, you feel the emotion, freedom from it. You’re in this accepted place where you have to jump off and just do it, and there were a lot of women who've been on the edge. And in the last couple of years, with Instagram, people have determine to take the plunge and actually buy a bike.

Do you think seeing more women on bikes just, the visual inspiration of seeing women riding of on the back seats instead, is accountable for the shift?

Motorcycling is a male-dominated industry primarily. Women, historically in motorcycling, have been used as more of an accessory in motorcycling. I just think with what’s happening politically, and just how progressive places are, a powerful girl is beginning to turn into a more trendy female. It’s getting to be cool, you know.

I don’t know if you’ve seen Maybeline’s new female [Ruby Rose], but she’s this tatted chick, she’s very androgynous, she's short hair. She just looks like a badass. You can see [the shift] occurring in popular culture. It’s cool to see really, and I think that’s totally translating to the motorcycling industry as well.

And I believe that the photos that we’re viewing, these type or kind of all women’s motorbike occasions, campaigns of Harley Davidson featuring all women are just kind of evidence that things are needs to shift.

Where do you think the movement because of this new wave of female riders must go still? How do you envision that future to play out?

I think that all women’s motorcycling events is huge, that’s what we’re building. I believe, just more women riding, kind of creating a far more supportive community just. [What we've now] is supportive, but it’s still pretty small. I think more of popular culture needs to check out what’s happening in women’s motorcycling, and keeping on a single route that we’re already on. Continuing to have fun and to share our own tales, pay attention to people. That’s what’s so cool about Instagram and the Internet, you can view women in Australia doing these amazing journeys. Or women in Japan. It’s kind of writing our enthusiasm and our love just, and it kind of just will go from there.

I don’t really know where the future is, I just know very well what we’re doing right now could be extremely fun, and it’s a really fun community to be apart of and also help inspire other women to do the same. THEREFORE I think as long as we keep on the same monitor, only good stuff are going to happen.

Being a photographer, what are you trying to capture through your artwork?

I wish to empower badass, powerful women. Keeping it honest and keeping it real is what it’s about. All I attempt to do in the very beginning was to represent women accurately, also to show them as they are seen by me, so that as they see me. And to inform their stories. ONCE I began shooting, I would come with an “ah” instant -- I’d meet these women, and be like, how come no one knows about you? You have incredible stories. I turn to you up, other women would look up to you. Why are we focusing on women draped on the bike just? I know so a lot of women who own their own companies, are one moms, and also have been working since they’re 15, and work their ass off and also have a great tale and good attitude. It’s about placing the light with them.

What do you tell women to get them riding?

I’d say there are so a lot of women who are like them just, very worried, very apprehensive, and have done it. And it’s completely changed their lives and made their lives richer and fuller. There’s this sort of magic that traveling has also. Traveling across the country was absolutely incredible. It’s hard to share that emotion and feeling with someone who hasn’t experienced it. Motorcycling is so amazing because you might have the most severe day ever and once you can get on your bike, and are using in the sunset at an incredible location, you check out just. Things aren’t affecting you as these were before. It’s this type of magic, a connection you have with something greater than yourself.