FOR Sue Passfield, 55, there is nothing like the feeling of “freedom” she experiences when she hits the open road on her Harley Davidson Heritage Softail motorcycle.
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The Barnsley-based mother of three rides her 1690cc motorcycle most weekends, after getting her licence four years ago.
“It is something that I have always wanted to do,” she said.
“You get to that age, the kids are all grown up and you gotta do something for yourself.
“You get out there, all your worries go, all the emotions go and it gives you thinking time.
“It is just that feeling of freedom.”
In NSW there are 74,805 women who hold a class R drivers licence. They make up 12 per cent of all motorcycle licences issued by the RMS.
However, women riders only account for 4 per cent of all motorcycle fatalities.
Ms Passfield acknowledges riding a motorcycle carries greater risk than driving a car. She uses defensive driving techniques to stay safe on the road.
“I’m probably not a risk taker, I take it easy,” she said.
Ms Passfield said she had noticed a change in the demographic of motorcyclists.
“When I first started there was a lot more men,” she said.
“Now there is a lot more women. The stigma is gone that it is only for men.
“It’s out there for everybody, and women want the empowerment.”
Ms Passfield is a member of a Lake Macquarie based group Saturday Riders.
The group meets on Saturday mornings, they do a lap of the lake and then go out for lunch.
“The friends I have met from there, we go out on rides together,” she said.
She said women will often come to the group on the back of their male partner’s bike.
“We say to them, ‘what are you doing on the back? Get your own licence,’” she said.
In 2016 Ms Passfield was part of a group of women who travelled to Dubbo to break the world record for the largest number of female motorcyclists riding on the road together.
She will again travel to Dubbo in November 2018 to try to help steal the record back after a new record was set in the UK this year.