Hi! This is like totally out of the blue so feel free to disregard but i saw your addition to the akira slide post. I'm a really femme queer guy but ive always really wanted to get into motorcycles but the community in my area always seemed really hostile to people like me. I'm moving in a few years and it might be better elsewhere but i wanted to ask how did you get into motorcycles? A lot of the videos i've watched talk about the motorcycle community being really integral to ride safety. How do you find a community thats accepting of queer people but also really knowledgable about bikes?
Good question! It’s a bit tricky cause I don’t really hang around the motorcycle communities in my area. Not out of safety concerns (for the most part, there are sure to be some out there that aren’t great) but more because I’m in grad school and my free time is very limited.
But if I had to give an honest answer on finding a community for you? Look to the lesbians. See if there’s a local Dykes on Bikes chapter, and they would probably be happy to help out and connect you with folks.
As for how I got into riding motorcycles it’s a bit of a story. Basically it was out of desperation that finally got me to buy a bike. My previous work transportation went kaput so I got a bike cause it was much much cheaper than a car. I taught myself to ride in the parking lot of the dealership (don’t do this don’t do this, please take an MSF course, I had previous experience that let me get away with this) and rode on a permit for a few months before getting my class m endorsement.
I did meet up with folks on a few occasions that I connected with via Reddit to give me pointers and things before I took my class M test. Mostly just wanted a sanity check to see if there was anything not obvious to me that I was doing that could get me killed. They were nice and welcoming but I also live in Chicago so your mileage may vary.
TLDR for what I would recommend for you personally and any other queer folks looking to get into motorcycle riding
1. Most states offer a class to get your motorcycle license, this teaches you to ride and a lot of basic safety stuff, state sponsored MSF (motorcycle safety foundation) courses tend to be cheap to free. This should be your first step.
2. When pricing out a bike, I would recommend buying used, you are likely to be rough on your first bike as you are learning and it feels better when it’s not new. Also include the price of gear which is: pants, boots, gloves, jacket, helmet. Gear is not cheap, but it’s worth every penny and tends to be well made so will last a long long time. It is also non optional imo.
3. If you wanna find people to talk to about bike stuff in your area, search up Dikes on Bikes cause they’re the largest, but also, weirdly, check Facebook groups. There are a lot of older queers organizing on there.
Hopefully this helps and if you have more questions let me know!