THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 27, 1995 TAG: 9509260100
SECTION: ISLE OF WIGHT CITIZEN PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY REBECCA A. MYERS AND ALLISON T. WILLIAMS, STAFF WRITERS
LENGTH: Long : 220 lines
`THAT FREEDOM YOU feel riding a Harley becomes an addiction,'' says Melissa Crumpler. She gently hands sleeping 2-month-old Christina to her husband and pulls a black helment over her long, blond hair.
Then, flashing a grin over her shoulder, the 31-year-old Smithfield woman revs up the engine on her 1974 Harley-Davidson Sportster and streaks down Wilson Street, a powerful roar echoing in her wake.
Although she has been a Harley passenger since she was 16, it wasn't until five years ago, when she was given the choice between a Harley or an engagement ring, that she got her own motorcycle.
``She didn't even stop to think about it,'' her husband, Mike, recalled last week as Christina napped in his arms.
Teri Montgomery of Suffolk was a 2-year-old when she rode her first Harley-Davidson with her father. Now 33, the Los Angeles native has owned a Harley for the last 11 years and thinks ever more women - professional and blue-collar alike - are discovering the joy of driving their own motorcycles.
``The days of women having to ride on the back of a bike are over. Today, it's a woman's choice,'' Montgomery says. ``A woman can have her own bike if she wants it.''
More and more women apparently do want them.
In 1984, about 700 of the 35,000 Harley-Davidsons sold in the United States were bought by women, according to Frank Cimermancic, director of business planning for Harley-Davidson Motor Co. in Milwaukee. Ten years later, he says, women bought 4,000 of the 60,000 Harleys sold.
And the Harley seems to hold the same mystique for its women riders and for its men.
Toni Oaks, of Portsmouth, pulled a black motorcycle helmet over her head, letting her long, wavy mane of auburn hair drape down the back of her black leather vest.
A rhinestone-studded brooch, in the shape of a motorcycle, was pinned to the collar of her white, pearl-laced blouse. The cut-out fingers of her black leather gloves allowed Oaks to show off perfectly manicured nails and a lustrous new wedding ring.
``They say you're not true Harley until you have bugs in your teeth,'' Oaks, 42, quipped after demonstrating her new skills.
Earlier, the Cradock Middle School head secretary had revved up her 1993 Harley-Davidson Sportster 883 and disappeared down the street of her Merrifields neighborhood.
She didn't come back with bugs in her teeth, but it's obvious that she, Crumpler and Montgomery have joined thousands of women across the country who are true to Harley-Davidson.
Riding a Harley gives you a special feeling of freedom that you can't find anywhere else,'' Montgomery said. ``It's like the weight of the world is lifted and there is nothing to think about but the here and now. When I'm on my bike, it's just God and me.''
Usually, at least. Sometimes, Montgomery gives her 11-pound Shih Tzu puppy, Bear, a ride on her motorcycle. Just the prospect of a ride had Bear yelping in excitement last week. Jumping atop its perch on the gas tank and settling between Montgomery's knees, the tiny dog and its owner went for a short ride through their Suffolk neighborhood. Long hair blowing beneath the tiny leather vest emblazoned with the Harley logo, Bear seemed to enjoy the ride as much as Montgomery.
Oaks, mother of two, took her first ride on a Harley last November, just two days after meeting the man she would eventually marry.
``When we first started out down the street, he was like, `Now if this scares you or if I'm doing something you don't like, we'll pull over. . . . '
``And every time he'd holler back, `Are you ready to stop?' I'd yell, `No, keep going - this is great!' ''
Oaks remained a passenger until she took a three-day rider training course in April. Then she had the confidence to drive the 500-pound bike herself - which her husband, Chuck, gave her as a wedding present when they married in July.
For a feminine touch to the candy-apple red road machine, Oaks attached long, black tassels to the handle bars and ordered vanity license plates that introduce her as ``MS HYDE.''
``I've always been such a goody-two-shoes, and somehow the Harley just sort of brings out the `Ms. Hyde' in me.
``It's such a feeling of independence and freedom. It's just something that I thought I could never do.''
Of the 8,300 miles on her odometer, Oaks put 3,300 miles on it solo. Her first and longest trip was in May during ``Bikers Week'' to Myrtle Beach, S.C.
Ask a woman why she rides a motorcycle, and she'll rattle on about sights and sounds and temperature changes one can't experience in a car.
Then ask her why she rides a Harley, and her entire demeanor will change.
She'll get dreamy-eyed. Her voice will become euphoric. She'll describe a spiritual ``oneness'' with a machine that eventually evolves into a way of life.
``People who ride Harleys tend to be a little more serious about the sport,'' says Lu Steger, owner of a three-wheeled Harley called a trike. ``They . . . make it more of a lifestyle.''
Along with Smithfield's Crumpler and Suffolk's Montgomery, Steger, of Virginia Beach, and Oaks are members of the Tidewater Harley Owners Group - Tidewater HOG for short. Many of the HOG women also belong to Ladies of Harley, Montgomery says, a HOG affiliate that sponsors women's rides for members and plans fund-raising activities for charitable organizations, such as the March of Dimes Ride for Healthy Babies, scheduled for Oct. 15.
About 560 riders belong to the local HOG chapter, which covers Southside Hampton Roads. The group meets monthly to discuss upcoming rides and its participation in charitable events.
``And the part I like the most is you really don't get into what anybody does for a living,'' Oaks says.
``Sometimes I will say, `What do you think he does?' And Chuck always says, `I don't know. I don't get into what they do. We're just here to ride and have a good time.' ''
About 200 members of the local chapter are women, including Dena Magruder, a financial controller for a real estate company in Virginia Beach and a mother of two teenage sons.
``Harley is a state of mind. . . . You're never quite there if you're not on a Harley,'' says Magruder, who owns a 1991 Sportster.
Like Oaks, Steger and Magruder took their first Harley rides with men who eventually became their husbands.
But unlike Oaks, they remained passengers much longer - about two decades.
Steger has been riding solo for about 18 months now, Magruder since last Christmas.
``Some of it was a matter of confidence, but some of it was a matter of I truly did enjoy riding with him,'' says Steger, 41, who owns a business specializing in professional writing and word processing.
``I guess I hit a middle-age crisis and said, `You know, I think I want my own.' ''
Magruder, also 41, decided she needed her own bike as a way to unwind after a long, stressful day.
``But because I was riding behind my husband, I had to wait until he got home. It was like I didn't have any freedom. I couldn't just hop on a bike and go whenever I wanted, when I felt the need to relax.''
Magruder also thought it was important that she know how to handle a motorcycle in the event something happened to her husband, Steve, while they were riding together.
``His bike is the largest bike you can get, so if he couldn't drive, I would need to know how to control it.''
All three women took the same weekend motorcycle training course at the Chesapeake Campus of Tidewater Community College. The course teaches the novice rider the basics of motorcycle operation, effective braking, turning skills, obstacle avoidance and safe riding strategies.
In recent years, about one-third of the students have been women, says Keith Lindgren, a training instructor since 1987. ``I'm seeing more women taking an interest in operating their own bikes instead of sitting back behind somebody else's.''
Before Steger bought her trike, she and her husband were inseparable on his Harley.
``He says now he really misses having me ride behind him, but he's thrilled for me that I'm enjoying riding my own.''
Steger has been a Harley fanatic since she took her first ride on the back of her husband's bike 20 years ago.
She remembers the ride well. As she was experiencing the beauty of the open road, one thought kept going through her mind:
``I was thinking he was going too darned fast. I told him to slow it down or I wasn't going to ride with him anymore.''
Once the initial fear subsided, Steger, then 21, found the ride exhilarating.
``Let's face it, you're going out with a new guy and he's got a Harley,'' she smiles, ``you're going to be excited.''
Though she's an avid rider today, Steger concedes that in the beginning she was more attracted to the motorcycle rider than she was to motorcycle riding.
``I knew right away that if I was going to have anything to do with him, I had better enjoy riding a motorcycle.
``Over time, I became almost as bad as he is about it.''
Magruder talks about riding a Harley as if there's something magical about the machine.
``For me,'' she says, ``it's almost a spiritual thing.''
It took her 23 years to give up her pillion - the extra saddle behind the driver's seat - for the front of her very own Harley-Davidson.
``It's excitement. It really is a thrill,'' she says.
``And not being a thrill seeker, like somebody who jumps out of a plane, this is something that I can go home to, and I can get this sensation any day I want and this total relaxation any time I want.
``And you can't tap into that with anything else.''
Though Magruder still enjoys riding with her husband, especially in extreme weather conditions, she finds it somewhat confining and limiting to be on the back of his bike.
It just isn't like riding alone.
``It's very liberating. I'm not particularly a feminist. I like being waited on. I like my doors opened. . . .
``But I love the fact that I can go and get on my own motorcycle and go wherever I want and truly feel that state of mind.
``It's blessed to be on one.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Cover]
"IT'S EXCITEMENT"
[Color Photo]
COVER SHOT
Teri Montgomery and her dog, Bear, are on today's cover. The photo
was taken by staff phtographer JOHN H. SHEALLY II
Staff photo by MORT FRYMAN
Lu Steger of Virginia Beach rides her ``trike'' Harley solo.
Photo by ALLISON T. WILLIAMS
Smithfield's Melissa Crumpler says the freedom that comes from
riding a Harley ``becomes an addiction.''
Staff photo by MARK MITCHELL
Toni Oaks of Portsmouth received her Harley-Davidson as a wedding
gift from her husband, Chuck.
Toni Oaks' long mane of red hair hangs down the back of her black
leather riding vest. Oaks drives a candy-apple red bike with the
license plates that introduce her as ``MSHYDE.'' ``I've always been
such a goody-two-shoes, and somehow the Harley just sort of brings
out the `Ms. Hyde' in me,'' she says.
Staff photo by MARK MITCHELL
Teri Montgomery and her dog, Bear, go for a little spin through
their Suffolk neighborhood. Montgomery says when she rides, ``It's
like the weight of the world is lifted and there is nothing to think
about but the here and now.''
Staff photo by JOHN H.
SHEALLY II
Staff photo by L. TODD SPENCER
Chesapeake resident Norma Balster gets riding pointers from Sid
Delepine, a motorcycle training course instructor at the Chesapeake
campus of Tidewater Community College.
by CNB