Picture Sandy Norse, nearly half a century of riding motorcycles in her rear-view mirror, standing in a repair shop in Penrith being treated like a bimbo.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
It didn't matter that she'd scored her first bike when she was 12 or that she knew her way around an engine and electrical system; the owner only saw a silly blonde woman.
"He said things like, 'oh, there's this magical stuff that they put on the wiring that makes all the wires work'," the Shell Cove woman recalls.
"And I said, 'What? Are you talking about heat shrink?'
"Then he said, 'I hope you realise this bike's gonna go a lot faster now,' and I said, 'well, yeah, that's why I just paid you $3000 to do it."
"I just thought, 'I won't be coming back'."
And she wouldn't have except that her bike broke down on the way home because they'd messed up the electrical system.
The 50-something Harley Davidson aficionado has experienced enough sexism over the years to appreciate how small women can feel when they enter a motorcycle shop.
It's why she's introduced a number of changes to City Coast Motor Cycles, the Wollongong bike shop she's worked at for the past eight months, to ensure it's a welcoming space for all two-wheel enthusiasts - not just the men.
"Women can feel very intimidated walking into a motorbike shop," Sandy said.
"And they're reluctant to ask questions because they think they should know them.
"But unless someone tells you or you've been brought up with it, you're not going to know.
"So I just thought there's huge potential for women's education in the motorcycling community."
Her boss, Derek Sheppard - who's as passionate about motorcycling as Sandy - has backed her every step of the way.
They're in the middle of building an area within the store for rider workshops, which will cover basic motorcycle maintenance and safety checks, rider safety and apparel to consider, how to pick up a motorcycle if it falls by itself, slow manoeuvring, finding the friction point, counter-steering, mounting taller bikes, navigating wet roads, repairing a tire - the list goes on.
Sandy, who wants women to know there are no dumb questions, has fitted out a new display wall in the shop to showcase the different tools and accessories they should carry on their motorcycles.
There's a new coffee station and lounge area, as well as plans to introduce a discount for women who join Twin Peak Riders, the rider-education and riding group Sandy founded three months ago.
Just under 100 people have joined, 65 of them women who vary in age from 20-something to over 60.
But after the inaugural ride to Berrima only attracted 13 riders, Sandy's making some tweaks.
"In hindsight, it was too far for some of the ladies who weren't too keen on going up Macquarie Pass," Sandy said.
"I don't know whether it's because we haven't ridden skateboards or surfed traditionally, but women are scared of doing slow maneuvering.
"Even though I've ridden for so many years, I'm still reluctant to go up the pass on those 15 km/h bends."
The next ride will be a shorter 20-minute coffee run in order to ease members into the more difficult routes.
She'll also appoint "guardian angels" to buddy up with nervous Learners or P-platers to ensure they don't get lost or drop their bike.
At this stage, only experienced women riders will take on the role of angels.
Sandy has noticed that some men, who don't seem to suffer the same level of anxiety when riding, aren't always able to display the necessary empathy and patience around novice riders.
"I've got women friends who suffer from anxiety and they'll pull up and go, 'I can't do it. I just can't. Can we turn around?'
"And you just sit with them and talk to them and let them have a breather. Then after that, no pressure.
"They'll just go, 'okay, I'm ready now'. I think women understand that about other women."
Eventually, Sandy wants all members of Twin Peak Riders Group to know the pure exhilaration of a long motorcycle ride, which she describes as a form of meditation.
"Once you get on those twisty country roads, there's nothing like it," Sandy said.
"You can smell the grass and the cows and it's the best.
"It's unreal and if I'm feeling a bit down and I go for a ride, I come back and I'm a different person and it lasts the whole week."
Good men welcome too
While the foundation of Twin Peak Riders Group is built on women encouraging other women, Sandy has welcomed 32 male members to the group.
"If I'd worked in a motorcycle shop 20 years ago, no one would have made eye contact with me," Sandy said.
"If there was a guy there and a girl there, male customers would have gone straight to the guy and you still get that sometimes.
"But when they see that you know what you're talking about, you build that rapport up with them and they're very accepting, which is great."
This shift in attitudes is behind her decision to make the group inclusive.
"I've got a lot of male friends who are happily married, but they want to support the women's movement and they're really nice guys," Sandy said.
"We recently went to a veterans event and it was a seven-hour day - a big ride - and they were very welcoming of female riders and it was certainly not intimidating. They were lovely."
And while Twin Peak Riders Group isn't a singles club, Sandy said it could end up becoming a good place for women and men alike to meet potential partners with similar interests.
"There's not many places where you can meet people who ride motorcycles and where you have that common interest," she said.
"You might just have a spark with someone and who knows?"
But that runs a distant second to the primary goal of giving women a boost up in the male-dominated world of motorcycles.
Sandy - who saw a man getting on a bike when she was seven and immediately knew it was the life she wanted - has travelled a hard road to get there.
"I started riding at the age of 12 and my parents were totally against it," she said.
"Back in my day, they certainly weren't encouraging girls to take up motorcycling and it was very, very difficult to break into.
"There were a lot of hurdles like, you can't be a tomboy and people would call you all sorts of names and, while it's not as hard now, I still think it takes a lot of courage.
"Men seem very sure of themselves and confident and motivated to ride and they have lots of mates that show them the ropes, whereas women don't really have that."
Or at least they didn't.
