One For the Ladies…Or Not?
Recently, there has been a debate heating up about a special design motorcycle. I was staying out of this for the most part but I think I will jump in here because I am now curious. I may feel the wrath of all this later but I find myself in the doghouse on occasion so what the heck?
The subject for the debate revolves around the WildKat, a new motorcycle designed specifically for women. This motorcycle, which is the latest creation of Daytona Beach, FL based ROAR Motorcycles, was unveiled on March 7th at Roar’s HQ by CEO Kathy Tolleson. ROAR calls this a production motorcycle made for women. I had not heard anything about this motorcycle until a Twitter friend did a blog post about it. I saw the pic of the bike and found the manufacturer’s name and I checked it out and was pretty impressed with what I saw. It is a good looking motorcycle. Take a look for yourself.
CEO Kathy Tolleson in the background unveiling the WildKat
Not only was I impressed with the looks of the motorcycle but I was amazed by the specs. The top items that caught my eye were the 1200cc V-Twin motor from Harley Davidson exhaling through a Supertrapp 2 into 1 exhaust for the extra shot of adrenaline. A mark of engineering genius in my opinion is the ability to use the modular frame to adjust seat height from 23.5″ to 29.5″ without the worry of tire scraping as fender gap is unaffected by the adjustment. The foot controls also are adjustable to fit the rider as the WildKat has three positions, petite, medium, and tall. Other items that are impressive to me are the Dakota Digital readouts and the assumed killer stopping power put out by the 4 piston front and rear HHI calipers. I also like the look of the curved swingarm.
So, I came away from the ROAR website expecting to read applause for the design genius of this bike. I navigated back to the blog post that I was on and began to read. What? You don’t like the bike? But, it is a bike built especially for women, how could they go wrong with that? I was blown away that a woman would be offended by this motorcycle. The first sentence slammed me to the ground. “My cookies are frosted right now at all the companies that are trying to cash in on the rising number of women motorcyclists.” I continued in to my education and had to laugh at another observation. It is written, “Seriously, do women really need specially designed motorcycles? Why don’t car manufacturers start building women-specific cars then? Oh wait, they do. It’s the mini-van.” I continued to read the post and there were more things that I found humorous. There were also many things that made great sense as well. Like, women are told to “Learn to ride properly” and “practice”. The author also mentions taking a motorcycle safety course like the MSF course or Rider’s Edge. But, still I was having a hard time believing that a woman would look at this motorcycle built for women in such a negative manner. After all, I would love it if someone would build a motorcycle specially designed for fat, tattooed, ugly bikers like me. Oh, they do. It is called a Harley Davidson.
So, I was confused. I just could not wait to ask my wife Angie if she was offended by someone designing a bike for women. I just knew that my beautiful bride would say the right thing. So, I asked the question and was met with, “I agree. If they can’t ride a real motorcycle then maybe they should not ride.” What? At this point I cleaned my ears and asked, “What?” I had heard her right. She agreed with the author. I tried to plead my case to no avail. My wife was hanging with my twitter friend, @rippenkitten. You need to go read her post. She is an awesome writer and puts out some great stuff. Her blog is named Rippin Kitten A girl and her motorcycle. Any way, back to my wife. She totally agreed and became offended that I was trying to convince her that this bike was great. I was totally shut down.
So, Rippin Kitten, you have provided me with an education. Now, if you would please help me out, how do you unfrost cookies? The garage floor is mighty cold this time of year!
Tags: Dakota digital, harley davidson, motorcycles, Rippin Kitten, ROAR, Supertrapp, Tolleson, twitter, WildKat
March 20th, 2009 at 6:27 am
First of all let me just say “WHEW!” at the fact that you’re wife agreed with me!
OK, kidding aside; the WildKaT *IS* a nice bike. I don’t think I ever said that it wasn’t (but I will admit that I hate the paint color in the picture!). It’s powerful, great design, has all sorts of adjustable wing-dingers and a big comfy seat.
But let me ask you two questions: as a guy, would you ride this bike? Marketing aside, if you blindly saw this bike in a showroom and didn’t know it was “designed for women” would you consider it as a motorcycle for you? If you say yes, then it’s NOT a motorcycle for women. It’s just a motorcycle with a lot of fancy stuff.
Question #2: Do you think the $23K price tag is worth it? If the answer is no, then why should the women they’re targeting pay that much? In Harley-Davidson terms, that price tag puts it up in the range of an Ultra Classic Electra Glide. Hmm. I know which one I’d pick. (Erm…my choice would be the HD if I didn’t make that clear enough).
Don’t get me wrong. I love seeing women out there riding and I support and encourage them to get out there. But I don’t want to see them taken advantage of.
Oh, and hopefully my cookies will thaw out soon when the warmer weather comes!
March 29th, 2009 at 3:04 pm
Although the bike is appealing to me in looks it is not my style. In other words, i am too fat for it LOL. I do find the fact that they have made it so versatile very cool. Even if I would consider purchasing it before finding out any of the marketing info the price would cut me off quickly. There are plenty of HD and Victory bikes out there in the V-Twin arena that are very similar and about $7k to $8k cheaper. The engineering items that I love about the WildKat, the adjustable pegs and seat height, do not warrant the extra cost in my opinion.
You can consider me schooled on your view, along with that of my wifes. The bike is a nice bike, but don’t make a bike and call it a woman’s bike. And especially don’t try to charge extra to do it. Love you blog and thanks for your comment.
March 30th, 2009 at 8:34 pm
[...] check out the post on Motorcycle Nation Podcast in response to my post. Very interesting to see another point of view on the [...]
April 5th, 2009 at 9:45 pm
This is right here, in the present, not the future.
April 18th, 2009 at 10:13 pm
I like the idea as I am a “short” female wanteing to ride and having a hard time finding a bike that will work. But I wouldn’t concider the price tag. For the price I’ll be busy working to pay for the thing and never able to ride. I’ll keep looking.
April 20th, 2009 at 11:48 am
First Kris, thank you for reading the blog and hopefully you are listening to the podcasts as well. I definitely agree that the price tag is going to kill this bike. I like the looks, it has plenty of power, and I am impressed with the engineering but what percentage of riders can afford that much money for what is, for most riders, a free time form of transportation. If you are not riding it every day it is hard to justify the cost. Ride safe Kris!
May 5th, 2009 at 1:13 am
ok as a female that has ridden a Sportster, V Star and Gold wing I like the idea of the bikes for women. Yes you need to know how to ride, but if you checked out more then just one article you would see there are many more options and prices. we just saw them at thunder beach panama city and was really impressed. Everyone has favorites, HD being the biggie, but don’t knock it for other people. I give a thumbs up to Roar.
May 5th, 2009 at 11:22 am
Hey Bren, thanks for the comments. Let me say again that I think that the bike is nice and a definite engineering work of art. I do like the bikes and think that the company has something here. I was just baffled that there are female riders out there who are offended that a company made an effort to make a motorcycle to fit them. But hey, to each their own. I do give ROAR kudos for a nice motorcycle though. Thank you for reading and commenting.
May 24th, 2010 at 3:50 pm
As the buyer of the first production ROAR WildKaT, I have to agree that it is a beautiful machine. I agree with Kitten that it is expensive, and I know that “you get what you pay for” in this life. The ROAR people are a joy to work with. There are still some of the first serialized 25 WildKaTs available at a discount. http://www.roarmotorcycles.com