Becky Elliott, 64, has been riding motorcycles ever since her 17th birthday, the earliest opportunity she could get a scooter in England.
Now, she is encouraging women bikers on the island to connect with each other and the global community of female bikers through 2026’s Women’s Riders World Relay.
It was first launched in 2019 and connected more than 20,000 women worldwide, but was put on hold after the Covid-19 pandemic. It now returns in digital format as organisers seek to expand the community even wider. Participants can use a free app-like feature to ‘pass the baton’ onwards to other women bikers they meet, at home or abroad, throughout the year.
Every time a woman ‘passes the baton,’ they accumulate points for their home country. Guernsey will be the smallest nation taking part. All types of biking are invited to take part, from scooters to sand racers to 50cc to 2,500cc, even those who are currently without a ride.
‘That’s what it’s trying to draw, the people who just love motorcycling and just love being out. It’s getting people out and talking to each other, meeting people and increasing confidence because it will help people to recognise that there are more women out there who are interested in the same things,’ Mrs Elliott said.
‘It’s the freedom that I wouldn’t get in a car and I just drive for the hell of it. I wouldn’t drive to the fairy ring, but put me on a motorcycle and I’d go around the island for two hours. It’s the freedom for me, because you’re concentrating on it, you can’t afford to think of your worries and woes.’
She said that Guernsey’s female biker community was strong, but had gone under-recognised, which the relay is trying to change. Organisers hope to increase women’s accessibility to biking, which is often seen as a male-dominated field, and bring about market changes in the options available to them for equipment.
‘The number of women involved is growing, but they don’t always get treated very well – the seats are too high for us, leggings are too long for our legs and the jackets are straight like the men’s and things like that, rather than being a little bit more sensitive to our figures,’ she said.
‘So it’s really just about trying to even things up. It’s just to say we actually enjoy it, and we want to have things that are our personal choices – like bringing out some bikes with lower seats.’
The first meeting takes place at the Himalayan Kitchen at Guernsey Pearl between 3pm to 5pm on Saturday.
Further details can be found on the WRWR Guernsey Facebook group.
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