This motorcyclist has raced a sport bike on a speedway and wound it out on a drag strip, even cracked a few ribs while jumping a dirt bike on an off-road track.
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"When you love the sport, nothing like that stops you," she said. That's right, she. Kay Pratt, an Oklahoma City real estate agent, is part of the fastest growing segment of motorcyclists women riders. For Pratt and other women bikers, there's nothing like the wind in your hair, or at least in your full-face helmet, leathers and riding boots. At last count and that was four years ago 635,000 American women owned motorcycles, an increase of 36 percent from five years earlier, according to the Motorcycle Industry Council. More women especially in the 40-and-older age category are finding themselves with more freedom now that children are grown and careers are peaking, Alice Sexton said. And they're rolling with that freedom. Also, said the Torrance, Calif., woman, 49, who is president of the USA division of the Women's International Motorcycle Association, more women have grown up in the era of Title IX. That collegiate mandate made sports more available for females, and that made women more confident and athletic, said Sexton, a former collegiate tennis player. "I think that has something to do with more women in motorcycling," she said. Pratt, who has competed in a mountain bike race and enjoys "black diamond" ski slopes, started riding motorcycles for various reasons. First, it was curiosity, then just to be able to do something with her husband, James, a longtime motorcyclist, and the couple's two children. Now, however, it's for the same reason most women ride: girls just want to have fun. "I ride just for pure enjoyment, feeling the sun on my back and exploring the countryside," she said. Love at first gear Susan Dragoo also finds plenty of pleasure outdoors, whether it's running a marathon, riding one of her two mountain bikes or her road bicycle or jacking the throttle on her assortment of motorcycles. For the Norman woman, 49, and her husband, Bill Pratt, 51, a former mountain bike state champ and a longtime motorcyclist, it was love at first gear when they met four years ago at church. "Our first date was on his Harley," she said. They had a roaring good time at a biker drag meet at Thunder Valley Raceway. Susan Dragoo, who grew up around motorcycles at her father's motorcycle shop in Okmulgee, rode with Bill Dragoo a year or so before deciding "I wanted to try my hand at it again." She bought her first bike, a 2003 Triumph Bonneville Centennial Edition. Since then, she's gone through a series of rides, from a Harley Sportster to a 650 sport bike to a 225 dual sport with both on- and off-road suspension. The dual sports are perfect for "urban assault" rides, picking your way through back alleys, trails, along railroad tracks and across places never meant for vehicles of any kind, much less motorized ones, Dragoo said. Like all bikers, Dragoo has an adventurous streak. The Dragoos travel extensively and do a lot of backpacking, recently spending three days crossing wilderness near Ouray, Colo. Susan Dragoo's a certified diver and, what the heck, someday plans to sail. And, oh yeah, she also has reared two children. "People tell me I'm high energy," she said. "I don't need a lot of sleep." Susan Dragoo rides mostly with the guys. Heck, most women ride mostly with the guys because that's mostly who's out there. But many guys, at least at Dragoo's level of riding, are "a little more aggressive," she said, taking corners a bit faster, hitting more rugged terrain. So, she said, it's nice to get out with some other women bikers on occasion. "Camaraderie is a big deal," she said. "If it was just me riding with a group of guys, it's not as much fun as if you've got another gal there to hang out with." When the women get together for a rumble through the country, they'll often pick out a destination a few hours' ride away, then wind through the back roads, Pratt said. "Some days we'll just take Route 66 up to Tulsa, have lunch there and head back. Or maybe we'll go to Lawton, have a Meers burger, or we'll go to Stillwater." Some women riders are as comfortable on the pegs as any man. Pratt began riding shortly after she got married, near age 20, when her husband, James, convinced her to get a dirt bike and hit the trails with him. Then one day, he brought home a 650 "dual sport" bike, and she fell in love with it. Since then, it's been whatever two-wheeled rockets caught the Pratts' fancy. "We've got nine in our garage," she said. For Pratt, speed and power go hand in grip, especially on those long, scenic rides. "I love riding to Eureka Springs, taking the twisty roads and accelerating out of the curves," she said.
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