THUNDER BAY - Colette Tindall Edeling of Brisbane, Australia, has been travelling across the globe on two wheels and when she rolled into Thunder Bay with dozens of fellow riders, she was reminded that not only has it been a fantastic way to see the world, it’s also about taking the sense of freedom that comes with riding and sharing it with all women.
“It’s a fantastic way to meet people and actually live with the people, meeting the biker girls and living in their homes and meet all the different people,” she said.
“For me it’s more about the women empowerment, women are meeting other women. Literally now we can go anywhere in the world and find a woman to give us accommodation. It is just opening so many doors and it has just empowered women to step up and arrange things.”
Tindall Edeling was one of 35 women motorcyclists who stopped at the Terry Fox Lookout Thursday morning on the way east as part of the Canadian leg of the Women Riders World Relay.
The relay began in Scotland in February and has since travelled through Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and the Canadian leg began in Vancouver earlier this summer.
The idea was developed by Hayley Bell in the U.K., who wanted to see if a baton could be passed around the world entirely by women riders. She put out the call on social media and has more than 19,000 women following her Facebook group.
There are more than 250 riders participating in the Canadian portion of the relay and the 35 riders who stopped in Thunder Bay will continue on to Wawa.
Julie Doughty of Thunder Bay and who is helping to organize the Canadian portion of the relay, said more and more women are riding motorcycles and its time the industry takes notice.
“Women are now a huge piece of the market in the motor industry,” she said. “We wanted to highlight that, our determination. We are strong women and we want to show the market that we need clothes that fit and we need bike parts that adjust to our size.”
Ashley Smit of the Netherlands participated in the Dutch relay and she decided to continue on for a portion of the Canadian leg.
“This is part of showing the world that it is uniting women all over the globe, so I thought why not fly out to Canada and join the Canadian girls because it’s a wonderful country,” she said.
“It’s nice to make a statement, especially out to the companies that make clothing for us. It’s really hard to find anything that fits well and is not pink,” Smit continued. “We are a big group. It’s hard to believe that still people think it’s just men riding. But there are women all over the globe as you can see like this, women do ride and do care and want to wear protection.”
But aside from getting the motorcycle industry to take note of the growing number of women motorcyclists, the Women Riders World Relay is about bringing women together who share a passion that involves freedom, camaraderie, and being out on the open road to see the world.
“It’s inspiring because these women are strong, they are determined, they are courageous,” Doughty said. “Women ride for weeks and months on their own. Women ride in countries where it’s not actually legal to ride there yet. So we are breaking a few rules, but we are making a stand on how powerful women are in the motor industry.”
“I don’t think Hailey Bell realizes the magnitude of change she’s made for women in the world,” Tindall Edeling added. “It’s fantastic.”
Tindall Edeling plans to complete the entire ride, which will head into the United States next, then Central America, South America, and Africa. The relay is expected to wrap up in February 2020.
