Cycling, lunch, camaraderie prevail at Female Ride Day
May Day may conjure images of maypole dancing and other rites of spring, but the members of Hot Metal Sisters mark the date another way.
Nearly 100 members of the women's motorcycle group converged on Family Bowlaway, 540 Fairground Hill Road on Saturday to mark International Female Ride Day, which is celebrated annually worldwide on the first Saturday of May.
Group president Hollie Feather of Grove City said the day celebrates women motorcycle riders. The day was created 15 years ago by Vicki Gray of Motoress magazine to promote women riders and make a positive difference for women in motorcycling.
“It's for this reason all these women come together,” said Feather of the gathering, which includes a 50-mile motorcycle jaunt and then lunch and camaraderie at the 11th Frame Bar and Grille.
Feather said the Sisters get together several times a year for bike blessings, charitable rides such as Ride for the Cure, food drives at Thanksgiving and toy drives at Christmas.
“I've been riding for 10 years,” said Feather, the owner of a 2014 Softail Slim Harley-Davidson.
Anita Overbo of Sarver, the group's director of communications, said 95 riders from Erie, Ohio and Pennsylvania turned out for the ride and get-together afterward.
Overbo, who has been riding for seven years, said Hot Metal Sisters always is looking for new members. She advised prospective members to visit the group's Facebook page and answer some questions. One of the requirements, she said, is owning a motorcycle. But there is a side group, Hot Metal Soul Sisters, for those who ride on the back of a motorcycle.
Kathy Daly of West Deer, who plans and leads all rides, said Hot Metal Sisters was started a year ago by Feather and has expanded to 400 members.
Three groups of Sisters — one from Erie/New York state, one from Zelienople and one from Eastern Pennsylvania — rendezvoused at Gatto Cycle Shop in Tarentum before moving on to Butler.
Daly said she has been riding motorcycles since she was 6 years old on dirt bikes and then motocross.
“I started riding on the street in 1998,” she said.
“I like the group for the sisterhood and the camaraderie,” she said, adding she's the owner of a Harley-Davidson Fatboy.
She is already planning trips to the Flight 93 memorial site, Coopers Rock and Kinzua Dam for the Sisters' next rides.
