Hey ya'll. Katie here. You might have seen me hanging around the shop the past few months. Chris and Jodi brought me on as a Marketing and Event Coordinator to help with all the cool shit they're planning for our community. I went to my first Babes Ride Out (actually my first motorcycle campout period) and wrote up a quick recap of what it was like!

Planning for my first Babes Ride Out, I had no idea what to expect. I knew it was going to be all girls, I knew I’d have fun and I knew it’d be a long ride. I didn’t expect to feel so empowered and meet so many women that I would instantly look up to. I’ve also never been to a “women only” ANYTHING and damn do we have fun. 

My friend and I showed up on Friday afternoon and found Jodi and the other Buffalo girls set up front and center so we set up shop and headed for food. We walked into the main part to find workshops happening, chain stitching, tintype photography, live music, a food truck, our friends at the merch tent and some sick raffles. I pretty much spent all my money on the M.O.T.O Fam raffles and then ate as many truffle fries as my body would let me from the food truck. Friday night was chill, everyone did karaoke. It’s amazing what women will do without men around, I’ve never seen so much blind confidence and just honest fun. Free beer helped too - 805 Beer sponsors a certain amount of free beer each night so that is a pretty sweet perk. Jodi, Cara and I sang a classic, Sum 41 “Fat Lip” just to get amped up for the night in all of our pop punk glory. 

Saturday I woke up to all the engines revving up, girls pulling out for breakfast or for an all day trip. I didn’t end up taking a ride Saturday except just through town quick but it was nice to get a sense of the camp and hear everyone’s adventures when they came back. Harley Davidson was set up in the middle, offering test rides on their new bikes to anyone daring enough to get on them. Wandering through the woods, I decided I should probably get tattooed so I signed up for a little cafe racer handlebar tattoo and ended up getting a second to match. Say what you will about getting tattooed in the woods but it was clean and they were the best healed tattoos I’ve ever had. Plus, they look sick haha. Then, we hit up the workshops - welding, pinstriping and leather work (all run by women too) so that was pretty inspiring to watch. 

Saturday night were the bike awards including the “farthest traveled,” which went to a girl that rode out from Cali just for Babes and the experience of a cross-country solo ride. Did I mention she did that ride on a Honda Rebel?! Takes guts. We got into party mode with a kickass 90’s cover band properly named “Uncle Jesse” and took the party into town when the band shut down. The Inn at the top of the hill throws Babes Ride Out a killer after party full of jello shots and a DJ.

All in all, I can’t believe how many women I met that were so encouraging, shared the same shitty experiences I’ve had on a bike and felt the same awesome energy to keep riding more and doing more in this community. I wish I would have come here before I started riding and I encourage ANY woman that is even intrigued in motorcycles or just likes hanging around awesome badass women to check out the event next year. I’ll be there, come hang!