Women riders where are you

queen of spodes
Edited Date/Time 1/2/2021 5:15am
What happened to all of the girls and ladies who I used to see at races 15 years ago. I'm almost always the only female rider on track today.

Where did ya'll run off to?
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AH387
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AH387 12/30/2020 11:38am
12/30/2020 11:38am
There is a group that occasionally gets women-only nights at a local track in my area (you don't have to be a member of the group, it's just to try and promote women's MX) I've been wanting to try and get my wife up there. She rides on our cabin property track (very mellow) and has been to another very easy track (which is no longer active.) I just want to get her more comfortable on the bigger tracks. She rides my YZ125 and has ridden the 350 also. Hopefully we see some more women riders. That being said, there are some really fast female riders in our area, that I see at the tracks.
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Rickyisms 12/30/2020 11:51am
12/30/2020 11:51am
My local harescramble series has a healthy turnout in the women's class, the Junior Girls (16 and under I believe) is lacking in numbers though, there is usually only 4 or 5 in the Junior's class.
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Shredder 12/30/2020 11:52am
12/30/2020 11:52am
There were 4 or 4 at Club MX on Sunday.
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queen of spodes 12/30/2020 12:17pm
12/30/2020 12:17pm
I feel like since the AMA Women's Nationals stopped a lot of ladies lost interest or younger girls grow up thinking mx is for boys idk.
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-MAVERICK-
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-MAVERICK- 12/30/2020 12:22pm
12/30/2020 12:22pm
Off to school, getting married, and having kids.

The sport was never really marketed for/towards women.

With the national series gone, I'm sure that doesn't help. And, if I had to guess there's more women riding off-road than mx.
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queen of spodes 12/30/2020 12:35pm
12/30/2020 12:35pm
I didn't realize mx was marketed for boys either, I've ridden since the 80s and learned something new today!

Anyway, I used to always look forward to reading Cycle News looking for how Mercedes Gonzalez did back in the 80s. Loved Judy McCormick's character in Winner's Take All, her character trained the boys how to ride. She's why I wanted one of those mid 80s RMs with the blue engines so badly.

I ride with a lady at my work sometimes, but we're it as far as like adult ladies who ride regular.
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Ray_MXS
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Ray_MXS 12/30/2020 12:56pm
12/30/2020 12:56pm
-MAVERICK- wrote:
Off to school, getting married, and having kids. The sport was never really marketed for/towards women. With the national series gone, I'm sure that doesn't help...
Off to school, getting married, and having kids.

The sport was never really marketed for/towards women.

With the national series gone, I'm sure that doesn't help. And, if I had to guess there's more women riding off-road than mx.
You're better than this Mav.
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AH387
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AH387 12/30/2020 1:03pm
12/30/2020 1:03pm
Ray_MXS wrote:
You're better than this Mav.
Apparently not.

And to Mav - They made a damn Disney movie about a girl stepping in for her brother to race. Come on, bro. All-around a bad take.
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Springcreek
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Springcreek 12/30/2020 1:08pm
12/30/2020 1:08pm
At each Spring Creek MX Park (Millville MN) event there are 10-15 entries in the Women's class.

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sumdood
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sumdood 12/30/2020 1:09pm
12/30/2020 1:09pm
Paging Heather Matthews Majcherek.
Bingslayer 12/30/2020 1:17pm
12/30/2020 1:17pm
-MAVERICK- wrote:
Off to school, getting married, and having kids. The sport was never really marketed for/towards women. With the national series gone, I'm sure that doesn't help...
Off to school, getting married, and having kids.

The sport was never really marketed for/towards women.

With the national series gone, I'm sure that doesn't help. And, if I had to guess there's more women riding off-road than mx.
I'm lost, none of those reasons are gender specific 🤷‍♂️
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Leeham
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Leeham 12/30/2020 1:18pm
12/30/2020 1:18pm
At my local track, there is a good amount of women riding. General age range is from 8 to mid 20s it seems. Id say the ratio is 1 girl for 4 boys riding. I see more and more every year, especially on new bikes.
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-MAVERICK-
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-MAVERICK- 12/30/2020 1:21pm
12/30/2020 1:21pm
Ray_MXS wrote:
You're better than this Mav.
From my observation, that's exactly what happened. Every girl I knew that rode dirt bikes no longer do because of those reasons.

Some are slowly getting back into it because their kids are at the age where they're starting to learn to ride.

The only positive marketing towards women that I can think of is the Makeup to Mud segment during SX and people shit on it constantly.

Other than that, I can't think of anything else that's recent that's trying to get more women involved in the sport. That's unless you count a model standing next to a dirt bike as a positive.

FWIW, my comment wasn't meant to be offensive, but I can see how it can look that way.
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Deja New
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Deja New 12/30/2020 1:33pm
12/30/2020 1:33pm
2 months back at the local ride park they had a girls weekend and there were over 200 girls riding was sooooo cool to see so many out riding, young and old alike.
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numbers
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numbers 12/30/2020 1:39pm
12/30/2020 1:39pm
queen of spodes wrote:
I feel like since the AMA Women's Nationals stopped a lot of ladies lost interest or younger girls grow up thinking mx is for boys idk.
This is what I see. Girls grew up knowing one day they could race the national weekend with the fastest girls. Its no longer a bucket list fir them.
Jenny creek, Emily Norton and sherree howel were plenty fast back in the day.
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skeef
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skeef 12/30/2020 1:40pm
12/30/2020 1:40pm
There was a girl I worked with for a year before she quit and she ripped.. She is on the 1W bike racing BITD, she was going to race canadian womens national series but not enough support to get her there I believe. I think the comment above has a good point, I think with the demise of the U.S National series alot of the fast women went to off-road, There is more opportunity for money in off-road racing with the rise of UTV's.
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Deja New
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Deja New 12/30/2020 1:46pm
12/30/2020 1:46pm
Here is Australia I get these ads in my FB market place feed.....

MX store has a local lady Jemma Wilson in their ad

DuroTools
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DuroTools 12/30/2020 1:49pm
12/30/2020 1:49pm
Deja New wrote:
2 months back at the local ride park they had a girls weekend and there were over 200 girls riding was sooooo cool to see so...
2 months back at the local ride park they had a girls weekend and there were over 200 girls riding was sooooo cool to see so many out riding, young and old alike.
maybe I need to move to AUS to meet my future wife!
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Deja New
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Deja New 12/30/2020 1:57pm
12/30/2020 1:57pm
Deja New wrote:
2 months back at the local ride park they had a girls weekend and there were over 200 girls riding was sooooo cool to see so...
2 months back at the local ride park they had a girls weekend and there were over 200 girls riding was sooooo cool to see so many out riding, young and old alike.
DuroTools wrote:
maybe I need to move to AUS to meet my future wife!
My wife rides and a few of my mates wives and GF’s all ride make for awesome weekends away camping and riding.
At the local races their are a few girls of all ages riding and racing Smile is awesome to see....
Manbearpig’s wife is doing a wicked bike build in the bike build section....
I see a trend that’s moving more towards women riding and that rocks.
Ps we are almost covid free and have lots of amazing women that ride mate so if you can get your arse over here so so Woohoo
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visser62
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visser62 12/30/2020 2:01pm
12/30/2020 2:01pm
Motocross has traditionally been a good-ole-boys club, and I think it's getting better, but we still have a ways to go before our sport is as encouraging to women as it should be.
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Deja New
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Deja New 12/30/2020 2:03pm
12/30/2020 2:03pm
Pic from one of the ride days and not everyone is in the pic that was there....




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-MAVERICK-
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-MAVERICK- 12/30/2020 2:15pm
12/30/2020 2:15pm
3 different women answering OP's question:

1)

2)


3)
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LKHill
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LKHill 12/30/2020 2:50pm
12/30/2020 2:50pm Edited Date/Time 12/30/2020 2:51pm
Definitely an increase in female riders in my area the last year or two.
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supermoto154
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supermoto154 12/30/2020 3:03pm
12/30/2020 3:03pm Edited Date/Time 12/30/2020 3:06pm
My wife rides when there is time , NICU nurse and mother of two. But we did commit to the OK. State championship where she won the womens class championship. Awesome mother , wife and racer!
Usually anywhere from 10-20 girls in OK/TX races.




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sumdood
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sumdood 12/30/2020 3:12pm
12/30/2020 3:12pm
I don’t know how to copy and paste on this phone but look up Heather (from my earlier post) on Facebook. That would be a good resource to find more women racers. She runs a women’s race at the So Cal OTMX international race each year, and I believe ? runs other races during the year as well.
I know lots of women who ride, but not a lot that have the competitive drive to want to race. I think those are rare birds. Both my wife and daughter ride, and have raced a few times, but never really got the racing “Bug”. Camping and riding ? They’re all in. Racing ? Not so much. Not for lack of trying on my part. 2018 in Ocotillo
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three9zero
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three9zero 12/30/2020 3:13pm
12/30/2020 3:13pm
-MAVERICK- wrote:
Off to school, getting married, and having kids. The sport was never really marketed for/towards women. With the national series gone, I'm sure that doesn't help...
Off to school, getting married, and having kids.

The sport was never really marketed for/towards women.

With the national series gone, I'm sure that doesn't help. And, if I had to guess there's more women riding off-road than mx.
Unlike other action sports, Motocross has totally miss the boat on 50% of the population not make women specific models. My wife has women's skis, a women's snowboard, and a women's mtn bike. Why does KTM not make a women's specific bike ?
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Tonynz
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Tonynz 12/30/2020 3:19pm
12/30/2020 3:19pm
Women and girls MX is quite large here in NZ. It is getting really popular with the younger girls.
Courtney Duncan has a lot to do with this. The girls can see if they are good enough they can get the rewards.
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queen of spodes 12/30/2020 3:39pm
12/30/2020 3:39pm
queen of spodes wrote:
I feel like since the AMA Women's Nationals stopped a lot of ladies lost interest or younger girls grow up thinking mx is for boys idk.
numbers wrote:
This is what I see. Girls grew up knowing one day they could race the national weekend with the fastest girls. Its no longer a bucket...
This is what I see. Girls grew up knowing one day they could race the national weekend with the fastest girls. Its no longer a bucket list fir them.
Jenny creek, Emily Norton and sherree howel were plenty fast back in the day.
Jessica Patterson always did very well in the regular B class when she raced it. Maybe she was in the A classes too, it's been a minute!
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numbers
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numbers 12/30/2020 4:20pm
12/30/2020 4:20pm
visser62 wrote:
Motocross has traditionally been a good-ole-boys club, and I think it's getting better, but we still have a ways to go before our sport is as...
Motocross has traditionally been a good-ole-boys club, and I think it's getting better, but we still have a ways to go before our sport is as encouraging to women as it should be.
If you were racing in the late 90s early 2000s you'd have seen sherree howel. She was amazing at a young age and if she would not of had her tragic accident I believe she would have beaten any woman alive. Her brother is chris.
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