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TIM CURRAN
THE MID-COUNTY MEMO
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| More than ten years ago, Anna Dahl, right, helped start Girls Riding Independently Proud, an all female motorcycle group formed around shared interests of motorcycle education and safety, socializing, group riding and civic responsibility. Posing with Dahl are GRIP members and 2012 Poker Run organizers, from left, Trish Canich, Tammy Hill and Debra Coles. They are posing with Lilac, Hill's 2005 Harley Davidson Sportster. Mid-county Memo photos/Tim Curran |
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| Not every GRIP event is members only. Last month, spouses, friends, and partners were invited to GRIP's 2012 Poker Run, an event where participants pay a nominal fee, then visit at least five checkpoints, usually bars, drawing a playing card at each stop. The object is to have the best hand at the end of the run, within a time limit. Donated prizes for first, second and third best hands, along with drawings and door prizes are awarded at the last stop. The Dog House Saloon in southeast Portland was this year's final stop and party. |
In 2002, Dahl and eleven other female motorcyclists started Girls Riding Independently Proud, a motorcycle group whose raison d'êtres are learning how to ride in groups safely, how to maintain and care for their motorcycles and socializing. “We're a bunch of older women,” said Dahl said. “But, we really have a lot of fun together.”
Membership is limited to 25.
They do group rides monthly, sometimes twice a month Dahl said. In addition, at least three times a year they take members only trips, rent a house somewhere out of Portland and, according to Dahl, “We have a blast. When there's twelve, fifteen of us riding down the street, you get heads turning. It's really, really enjoyable to see them saying, 'look . . . it's all women.”
Trips are exclusive for members, but they do have rides open to husbands, partners, boyfriends and friends. “They're allowed to come once in a while,” quipped Tammy Hill, a new GRIP member. Like to last month's Poker Run. They also hold a Christmas Dinner and family camp-out every summer.
To join, you have to be female, over 40, own your own motorcycle and know how to ride.
They do not discriminate against a member's brand of motorcycles, “I don't care what somebody rides,” Dahl said.
Dahl said she was inspired to start the group more than a decade ago after meeting members of the Devil Dolls, a San Francisco based female motorcycle club. “I was very impressed with how organized they were,” she said.
Dahl said group motorcycle riding had always been a “men's sport,” and she wanted to change that paradigm.
However, Dahl said she did not want to start a motorcycle club. They did not want club colors, patches or the connotations being a motorcycle club brings. She said T-shirts are enough for GRIPsters. “We don't want to be a club; we just wanted to be a girls group,” she said. “Some of us have been riding for years. We decided to teach women how to ride together - safely, in a group - not teach them how to ride,” Dahl said.
A member since October, 46-year-old Hill said she was invited to join four years ago, but it was not a good time for her. Finally, with friends urging her to join, she did and found an interesting, diverse group with a shared hobby. “They're just a really fun group of girls,” Hill said. “I love riding in a group; it's empowering.”
She said the weekend trips are her favorite part, and participates in the group's volunteer activities. “It's a very good support group, having people who care about you.” She added, “Making new friends, doing things together - it's a really good group of girls.”
A civic and educational component has always been a part of GRIP Dahl said. They participate in the Adopt-A-Road program, caring for a stretch of the Historic Columbia River Highway.
They raise money and collect hundreds of pounds of canned food for the Oregon Food Bank. They also volunteer twice a year at the OFB for a day doing whatever needs doing. “We look forward to it every year and have such a great time doing it,” Dahl said. “It is such a worthwhile charity. I'm getting excited just thinking about it.”
GRIP emphasizes taking the Team Oregon Basic Rider Training course, an Oregon State University outreach program through the Oregon Department of Transportation.
Currently, if you are over 41, you can get a motorcycle endorsement with no extra training; just pass the DMV test. The age requirement goes up 10 years every year until 2015, when the BRT is required for anyone seeking an Oregon motorcycle endorsement. “When we started the group it [BRT] wasn't mandatory. Now it is.”
Primarily an east Portland group - Dahl lives in Hazelwood - prospective members are voted on and the group limits itself to 25. Dahl's phone number is 503-252-5645.
Dues are $5 a month and they meet the first Thursday of every month at the Canton Grill, 2610 SE 82nd Ave.
Their website is www.gripsters.com.
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