This October 2014 photo provided by Alisa Clickenger, shows Clickenger posing with her motorcycle in Namibia. Clickenger operates Women’s Motorcycle Tours, which conducts motorcycle rides that cater exclusively to women, and estimates she’s traveled more than 250,000 miles on motorcycles. (Courtesy of Alisa Clickenger via AP)A year ago Alisa Clickenger helped organize a cross-country motorcycle trip for women to commemorate the 100-year anniversary of a most amazing ride by two sisters from Brooklyn, N.Y.
The Sisters’ Centennial Motorcycle Ride honored the exploits of Augusta and Adeline Van Buren, who in 1916 rode motorcycles more than 5,000 miles across the country to prove that women could be military motorcycle couriers, able to endure long distances and harsh conditions as well as men.
For Clickenger, it was a breakthrough.
“The ride was important to me,” Clickenger says. “It was the realization of a long-held dream of mine to lead a group of women across the United States on motorcycles. Seeing nearly 250 women on motorcycles in my rearview mirror riding over the Golden Gate Bridge was epic – something I’ll never forget. It was very emotional for me.”
The ride also helped Clickenger demonstrate what her fledgling company, Women’s Motorcycle Tours (www.WomensMotorcycleTours.com), could accomplish.