by Rocky Marks
Another successful Ladies Garage Party as Home and Gone at Hot Metal Harley-Davidson in West Mifflin and we would like to thank the 30-plus women in attendance. The Garage Party “concept” was created by the Harley-Davidson Motor Company to allow women to feel more welcome in the predominantly male-skewed Harley-Davidson Dealerships.
I had the chance to ask Dani Jurnak, an experienced female motorcyclist about whether having a “ladies only event” was belittling or empowering? She quickly responded without hesitation “Empowering! It’s a great way to bond with new & future female motorcyclists, and ask questions that may be obvious to some but not to those who are new to the passion of riding.”
The event was held at Hot Metal Harley-Davidson on Tuesday, May 21st at 7PM and was designed to go over everything from headlights to tailpipes to teach the the basics, and to find the gear and motorcycles that fits the style of the rider.
There were 5 stations set up throughout the dealership. The first station was the “pick-up the fallen motorcycle station.” Carrie from service had almost everyone in attendance gave it a shot, and you can see videos on our YouTube channel to see how well the ladies did. Needless to say Carrie was very sore the next day from setting the bike down after it was picked up almost 30 times.
Tim and AJ took over in Station 2 with the introduction to the different families and models of bikes. Each participant had a chance to sit on a few Harley-Davidsons and ask plenty of questions that they could have answered there or take over to Station 3 in Parts to find out about customization from Brett and Anthony.
In the parts station, a FatBoy was used to try on different seats and handle bars to demonstrate how easy it is to customize a bike to the rider’s comfort needs and wants. With the customization of the basics, the guys did show off some custom styling that is available for different models.
Speaking of style, David and Raeann in MotorClothes demonstrated a balance between function and fashion in Station 4. With the selection of merchandise, it was difficult to speak about each piece of safety gear available in the allotted time, so some catalogs were sent home with the ladies when it was time to switch stations.
Finally in Station 5, the women got to enjoy a seat on a bike with a movie stage-sized fan blowing their hair into the breeze. Everyone got a chance to take a picture home with them along with a goodie bag from Hot Metal Harley-Davidson.
This is a very important event that we look forward to and host every year. It’s always great to introduce the future riders to the dealership behind closed doors without them having to feel worried or embarrassed about the smallest of questions. Each question is valid and was addressed during the Ladies Garage Party with Hot Metal Harley-Davidson.
