History
Although the term specifically was coined by actual dykes on bikes at the first gathering at the 1976 San Francisco Pride parade, it could have been used prior to then, but came into formal use at that time. Dykes and motorcycles have been regularly intertwined in lesbian fiction and the term is sometimes used derogatorily against any woman rider who isn't with a man.
In many countries motorcycles are simply an economical and effective mode of transportation. Cheaper to purchase, maintain and use than a four-wheeled vehicle and more capable of handling narrow or poorly maintained roads, motorcycles are a simply a better option. The United States with its car friendly culture and its wide well-marked and extensive road system is an exception rather than the rule but even in America the motorcycle is used not only as transportation but as means of escapism.
According to Harley-Davidson historians female riders did everything men did from long distance riding to enjoying lazy Sunday afternoon rides with friends.
Read more about this topic: Dykes On Bikes
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The history of this country was made largely by people who wanted to be left alone. Those who could not thrive when left to themselves never felt at ease in America.”
—Eric Hoffer (1902–1983)
“To care for the quarrels of the past, to identify oneself passionately with a cause that became, politically speaking, a losing cause with the birth of the modern world, is to experience a kind of straining against reality, a rebellious nonconformity that, again, is rare in America, where children are instructed in the virtues of the system they live under, as though history had achieved a happy ending in American civics.”
—Mary McCarthy (1912–1989)
“The only thing worse than a liar is a liar that’s also a hypocrite!
There are only two great currents in the history of mankind: the baseness which makes conservatives and the envy which makes revolutionaries.”
—Edmond De Goncourt (1822–1896)