PHOTO: Iwona K. Hoffman

By Claudia Carlin and Iwona K. Hoffman

On the screen of our minds, the biker is still a bearded white guy showing off on a machine with a shapely 'chick' astride the back seat. Remember Marlon Brando in "The Wild One" and the team of Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper in "Easy Rider"?

Still a minority among the 4.5 million registered riders in the U.S., a new breed of sports aficionados is zooming in from the margin of popular culture to challenge this view. While women motorcyclists still only represent under 10 percent of the U.S biker population, they show up more often both in advertising and on roads and highways.

"We're reaching critical mass," says Helene Darvick, a BMW R1100S owner, (see "Beaming 'Beemers'") "so the industry is paying attention."

Which means manufacturers like Harley-Davidson, and the Japanese Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki and Yamaha, are now configuring bikes to fit the female anatomy. To increase their profit margin, they are also designing "hip" gear that brings young women into their stores.

In April 2002, Honda is bringing out a line of candy-colored mopeds to sell for under $2,000 meant to lure urban riders - especially women - and initiate them to the pleasures of wind on their helmet.

Women increasingly participate in endurance races such as the annual 11-day Iron Butt. Last year, among the 112 riders, seven women entered the grueling event with a perennial Ardys Kellerman, then 69, among the finalists.

And a new generation of young women bikers is coming up in the ranks. Sarah Mandel, 15, a resident of South Dakota (where 14 is old enough to obtain a license) became one of the nation's youngest BMW registered bikers.

Move over, guys. Girls too can grow wings and get rockin'!

GO TO NEXT PAGE - A Road Just Callin'