Photos by Kim Maroon unless noted otherwise

AL and Chris are each rich with life experience and completely vested in their communities. One’s a former high school teacher/assistant principal (that’s AL) and the other is a self-confessed ‘army brat’ (that’s Chris).

United through their love of motorbikes, the pair is now reaching out to snag other women riders in New England to meet up and make new friends. B3 is un-affiliated so everyone is welcome. It’s held in the lot of the gritty local Polish Political Club and is billed as ‘a female focused event where ALL moto friendly folk are welcome.’ Expect DJ's, food trucks, a bike competition, a beard competition, drinks, vendors, raffles, and good times hanging with other motos.

The first two nights were ‘pretty successful’ with about 75 people and 40ish bikes. The third EXPLODED to just over 125 people and 82 bikes!

Hairpin caught up with AL and Chris to find out what drives them.

So AL and Chris, why did you start B3?

AL: Honestly, we really had no clue what we were getting into! We started B3 after several discussions about the divide that is sometimes apparent between groups of riders (most especially for women). We wanted a moto night that both recognised and planned for the large groups of female riders in the Boston area AND was welcoming to everyone. All bikes, all types, and even for those who might want to ride, or simply love to be around bikes, we wanted to open a space for folks to just show up.

Our goal is to build more than just a bike night though. ‘Craft, Community, Culture’ is our tagline. A community means a place to see friends and make new ones. It’s a place to get advice, learn new skills, show off your stuff and maybe buy some art. It’s a feeling that you’ve found a place where you belong. Not because you’re surrounded by people just like you, but because you aren’t and you belong anyway. Because differing views on what’s cool enriches our experiences, exposes us to new ideas, and generates enthusiastic conversations.

B3 is well organised and you obviously have complementary skills that make the whole thing work. Your friendship is a big part of its success, yeah?

AL: Here’s the craziest part about all this - we weren’t really friends until March this year. Sure we were in the same crowds and talked to each other, but polite nothings. It wasn’t until Chris needed a ride to the New Tradition Moto Show and we were stuck in a car for 45 minutes…

Chris: That’s when we figured out instantly that we were kindred, albeit wild spirits. After that, we spent most of our free time together, going out, riding, and hanging together as if we’ve been best friends for decades. In a moment we were ride or die, besties for life, and open enough to talk through the big idea of B3.

AL: Yeah, it’s actually eerie how well we do work together. We definitely have complementary skill sets, we communicate honestly, and we get stupid excited over an idea in an instant.

Chris: AL has a ton of connections and experience running large scale events; she typically handles the location logistics, vendors and food, which is key.

AL: And Chris used to work in social media and is a designer, so handles the social, brand and outreach portion. We both split the networking, match-making friends, convincing people to come, welcoming EVERY person that walks through the gates and generally are the two hyped women who get people excited over all aspects of the night.

Chris: Our third event hosted around 125 and while we both were running around doing our thing, we’d also purposely collide occasionally to spaz out about two, five or 10 more new bikes that had just turned up. It just kept getting bigger and bigger, and bikes were overflowing the street - that was the moment we knew we did it. This thing matters and we did it right.

Chris on her Thruxton

AL and her 2016 Dyna Lowrider S with 117 motor

What are some of the memorable moments?

Chris: It’ll be a while before I forget the one rider who had just bought his bike a week prior and was SO excited about this event because he immediately made new friends; or the 13 people on a whim who organised a pack-ride to go antiquing for a day; or the six people who hung out wrenching on a Sunday – they had all met for the first time just weeks prior at B3. When friends tell us “we did a good thing”, it truly gets me misty. It baffles me a bit how we got here, but it shows this was needed and there are some truly good humans out there who just need a place to connect without a ton of effort.

AL: For me, the best moments are when new faces come through the gate, and you can see their anxiety - we’ve all experienced it - “Am I welcome here? Are these people like me? Where do I go?” and I’m able to go over and greet them. That first meeting, making a first-timer feel right away that this IS their spot, they ARE welcome, and we are pumped to have them, is consistently a highlight for me. It’s even better when I see young women come through the gate, sharing they just got a permit, a license, a bike, and didn’t know where to go next. We had two women recently come by who had been working up the courage to attend for weeks! Making them feel at ease and being able to bring them into our community makes every piece of this worth it.

A few highlights that have emerged are the #B3batsignal, where people know to watch our Insta Stories for an open invite to weekend pack rides, events or just joyrides. We’ve also started a Slack Team, babesbikesbeards.slack.com which has really taken off, and where we talk about anything and everything motorcycles.

Pic from the B3 instagram

Photo:Joe Makarski

Pic from the B3 instagram

What’s your advice to other women around the globe who might want to organise a similar event. Are there some key elements you need to create a successful gathering?

AL: Butts in seats! Motorcycle seats to be exact. We’ve also been strategically (and accidentally) forging ties with influencers in the local community to help spread awareness or even just repost an Instagram story. Getting the word out is the biggest part, and everytime we see a dope bike fly past us and we don’t get to tell them about B3, it’s a little crushing.

Chris: Also, hosting a variety of small and well known vendors has really reflected the authenticity, but also seriousness, of the event. You want the big name backers to draw in the raffles and crowd, but we also want the one dude who’s a pinstripe artist in his free time to prop up his work and get his name out there (@createnotduplicate,) or a seamstress willing to sew on patches live at the event to help promote her business (@mergedesigns). Craft, Community, Culture is our tagline and we’re pretty serious about creating a platform to help others grow their own projects, even if it’s not moto related.

I’m sure there are challenging aspects also. Tell us about the ‘wtf-did-we-get-ourselves-into?’ moments…

AL: It’s during set-up on the day of the event when every single thing has to be run past us – that’s when the pressure comes on. Busting out of work right at the stroke of 5pm and frantically running around town making sure everything’s good to go. And then when one of us needs to go on vacation, we lose that flow. We work so well together and really are two halves of one moto-brain, it’s never been hard to make decisions or know what the other needs or the move they’ll make. So when you don’t have your other half present, it feels odd and more stressful, even when friends step in.

I love your ‘Easter egg hunting’ initiative! Tell us more about that!

Chris: The hardest and scariest thing about hosting an event is getting the people to come. One simple tactic to spread the word was making business cards as mini ‘posters’ with all the info and dates. Way past midnight we’ve been found gallivanting through different neighborhoods with our friends to card every bike we can find. It comes full circle when we ask someone at a B3 night ‘How’d you hear about us?” and they whip out a card!

Why do you think women want and appreciate the support of other female riders? Like, what makes us different to the blokes out there riding with their mates, do you think?

Chris: Just like many sports and hobbies, this is an extremely challenging world to be taken seriously as a woman. Constantly you hear, “Oh, is that your boyfriend’s bike? Aren’t you scared? That’s a lot of bike for you.” It’s unbelievably aggravating. Some folks still think the motorcycle community is a ‘fringe community’ and ‘only for men’. Popular media doesn’t always help (Sons of Anarchy anyone?). Each new female rider is breaking the norm in their own way and it’s empowering to watch. Like anyone doing something against the grain, they need support and people around them to remind them they’re awesome and to keep doing what they want. Women understand that and so we band together to support our collective wildness and passion.

AL: By far the best ‘overheard at B3’ was two dudes saying: “There are so many chicks here and they RIDE! This is so cool and different.” That right there is the reason we did this. The stigma and overall community is changing and our intention was mainly to give women a safe space in a male dominated hobby, knowing the dudes would come as well. More than that, it’s meant to be a place to just come hang and chat about something we’re all passionate about, make new friends and realize that men, women, whomever, all make up this community and should support each other. All of us need to turn the tide and just do something we love on these machines that fascinate us.

That sense of community is obviously important to you both. Can you share a bit about your backgrounds and how you became so driven?

AL: I live in Chelsea, Massachusetts with my husband and two dogs. Chelsea is incredibly diverse and has been affected more than most by the current administration. I’m very involved in my local community and feel strongly about knowing and supporting my neighbors. I was a special education high school teacher and assistant principal for 16 years both in this city and others, but recently went through a major career change - I’m now a software developer. I have much more control over my life and a heck of a lot less stress! I can often be found crafting, rescuing animals, and spending time outdoors. I love learning new things and at any given time have a book or four I’m reading. I constantly get the question “What haven’t you done?!” because I’ve been fortunate enough to have a life rich with experiences. If I want to do or try something, I’ll eventually make it happen.

Chris: I’m the daughter of an army drill sergeant and ICU nurse, who built their lives from scratch to live the true American Dream, and I take so much inspiration from their leadership, empathy and backbones of steel. I fully attribute growing up as an army brat and moving around a lot as the reason I constantly seek the next adventure. At four years, this is the longest I’ve ever spent in one place, in Charlestown, MA with my dog Sherlock as a roommate, who you can see sidecar adventure photos of here! I work at a mobile app and web development company as the Director of Experience Design managing an ever growing team of (currently) 48 designers across four cities. I absolutely find challenge and a sense of purpose in my work which helps balance my constant desire to travel and see the world, not from a TV or book. I’ve stopped surprising people with spontaneous decisions, as I just really want to do this life thing the right way and wake up as an 80-year-old me, damn proud that I lived more than most.

AL, you’ve been riding for 19 years and Chris a little bit less at just four years – so how did each of your moto journeys start? They are obviously quite different, I’m assuming.

AL: I grew up obsessed with motorcycles. I didn’t have anyone around me that rode, but when all the other girls were wishing for a pony, I was dreaming of two wheels. My parents wouldn’t allow me to ride one, so a week after I turned 18 I moved out and bought my first bike, a climate-controlled garage-kept 1972 Honda CB200. I immediately had it painted sparkly purple! It was in mint condition and to this day I lament my decision to sell it. I was young and didn’t realize its value - and I needed something more powerful.

Back then the internet was not what it is now. You couldn’t log on to Instagram and search for a local ladies’ group! I didn’t meet another female rider my age till my mid 20’s. Back then you found community by getting out there. That was sometimes a challenge, being a tiny kid on a tiny bike, rolling up to Laconia Bike Week alone and camping in the rain. I attended rallies and swaps and shows, more often than not on my own, especially once I started college. But I formed friendships and built community that way and many have lasted almost two decades.

Chris: Just a few weeks ago I learned that my dad bought his first motorcycle the year I was born, how wild is that? I remember growing up around them but he had a pretty bad accident around the time I was 8, so after that it was just cool cars. My head has always turned at the sound of a bike. I don’t know the exact moment I decided I should ride, but when I moved to Boston at around 28, I was completely on my own and I took a good look at what I wanted out of life.

So I bought my Joanie, or ‘Joan of Arc’, a Honda 250 Rebel. I debated whether I should do this crazy thing, but then I thought, “Why not? I’ve done dumber things with a thousand dollars.” The first two years I rode alone, but things changed when I went to a co-ed charity ride on my new Harley Street 500 (cuz she could get up past 45mph!), and I met the Boston Litas – the rest is history. I’m now the proud owner of a million memories as well as a gorgeous Triumph Thruxton! I not only feel brave, but I possess a true feeling of freedom. It was easily one of the best decisions I ever made!

AL, what you riding now? I’m sure you’ve ridden many bikes through those 19 years – what have been some of the more memorable ones?

AL: I’m now on a 2016 Dyna Lowrider S with the 117 motor. It’s everything I ever dreamed of as a kid. Like I said before, I miss that little cb. I don’t know the total number of bikes that I’ve had over the years, but my 1985 Suzuki gs450L was a dream. I paid more for the paint job on that than I did the bike itself! It got scrapped when the mechanic I sent it to took off to escape a warrant. I still hold on to my title as a reminder of what I had. I also have my 1988 Harley Sportster registered and on the road. She’s a creative hodgepodge of parts and pieces and we’ve been through a lot together. The other rides I have kicking around are my 1985 Suzuki es750, in great shape and mostly stock, and a 1983 Honda cb650 that will be my first chop, starting this fall.

Who’s your moto inspiration?

AL: When I was 18, I was ‘adopted’ into the local motorcycle community by two groups of older folks. One, members of The United Bikers of Maine and two, the guys who ran the local tattoo shop near my newly acquired apartment.

A few guys from UBM were course instructors, and they all had decades of riding experience. They taught me the ropes on everything from how to ride in a group, and the tips and tricks every biker needs to know. Chuck was one of the most supportive people I met back then. She was the only woman I had met that rode and was so confident. I’m happy to say that she and I remain in touch and grab beers together every now and again.

The guys at the shop never cared that I was a woman, and had a lot to do with my rapid acquisition of confidence on the road! If I was heading out with them, I was expected to keep up. They got me started working on my own bike and to this day we’re still sharing projects. I think being accepted and treated like one of the crew went a long way in helping me learn to not take any crap from other dudes.

Chris: I don’t know if I’ve met my true icon yet, so really it’s the ladies around me who constantly inspire me. I’m surrounded by all types of women - lawyers, developers, entrepreneurs, mothers, free spirits, etc and each of them are not the ‘stereotypical biker chic’. Finding people outside the norm who are just doing something they’re head over heels for and don’t give a fuck what others think is inspiring in a way I’ve never encountered. I have recently discovered a core group of five ladies, each magnificent in their own right, and we do nothing but go on adventures at the drop of a hat and support one another.

I feel fortunate to be riding in the era of the women’s moto community banding together. Groups like the Litas, the Boston Moto Babes, events like Babes Ride Out, have continually bolstered my confidence and confirmed that this is the right thing to be doing!